Brand Development Is Always Good

So two weeks ago Kate, our executive assistant and our CEO Ada went on an off-site with our PR girl who came down from New York. The Purpose of the off-site was to brainstorm idea for brand growth and transformation. They talked about ideas for new products, expanding the team, price regulation, showroom redesigning, board of director changes, etc. I was briefed on all of this yesterday(Tuesday) at a follow-up brand development meeting that included my opinions on all the subjects that they touched at their off-site. As an outsider opinion, by outsider I mean someone not directly involved in the beauty industry, my opinion was valued, even more so because I'm a business student and a younger fresher perspective.

When I first found out that I had to give input and suggestions at the meeting, I was a little nervous because I was thinking, what do I, little administrative intern, only one year of Wharton under my belt know about brand growth? Thankfully the day before the meeting I went to a Penn in Washington event a PR company in DC, Glover Park Group. I got to spend some time speaking with a woman from another company, The Harbour Group, who I always able to bounce ideas off of, and ask her questions about advertising and the different ways to increase awareness for a company. I noted everything she said and shared that with my coworkers at the development meeting. Those ideas in combination to the more creative ones I had about ways to maximize showroom space and revamping its appearance were noted by our CEO and are being considered. It makes me so happy, I felt like I had some power in determining the future of the company. It was great, I really hope that even after I'm gone, they implement the wide variety of ideas that were brought up at the off-site and the in-house meeting. There were some really great ideas that I think can set the company up for great successes and another profitable 10 years.

Whoa, one month left at my internship? One month till I'm back in Philly? Where has the summer gone?

In other news, I think I've decided that I'm going to declare concentrations in Marketing and Retail, I was debating retail over communications, but I think retail is more in my wavelength, I'd like to do more work in merchandising and brand management in the future. So, retail it is!

Weeks 7 & 8: Final Weeks

I can't believe the internship is winding down. Last week the interns presented their final projects that we'd been working on all summer. There were a wide variety of presentations, ranging from Holiday 2012 ornaments, to most purchased styles and brands by international customers. I presented the work that I had done on our partnership with NBC.

We're really excited about the partnership because it touches on so many of the important aspects of Bloomingdale's brand strategy: (1) an omni-channel experience (there are many different platforms involved in the campaign - in-store, social media, mobile applications, television, catalogues, etc.), (2) full-line departments (the shows we're promoting with NBC relate to a wide range of customers and areas, not just one demographic), and lastly, (3) a playful and contemporary interaction with Bloomingdale's (this is the core idea within the partnership which you'll soon discover in the fall!)

This week I've worked on finishing up our sweepstakes at the one-year anniversary celebration for our Santa Monica door. Customers will be given tags with bar codes on them that they can bring into the store and swipe at a machine in the cosmetics department. Every person who swipes will win one of many prizes: several different denominations of Bloomingdale's bMoney (including $100 and $500), certificates to save money on a Dahon bicycle/accessory, or a FREE Dahon folding bicycle. It doesn't sound like a huge project, but I've handled it all by myself and it's exciting to be productive and self-sufficient, having sole discretion.

The last couple of things left for us are a Meet & Greet with Mike Gould, CEO of Bloomingdale's, and an End of Program Reception at Le Train Bleu in the 59th St. store. I've grown close with my supervisors and will definitely be sad to finish up. I was lucky to be a part of this program, have such a wide variety of experiences, and get to know so many different people.

Thanks for keeping up with the blog! It was my first blog ever :)

Happy summer,

Keri

Target Week 5 & 6

My summer internship at Target is in full swing! Here's some highlights from the past two weeks:

Last Wednesday, all ~400 Target interns went to a Twins Game at the brand-new Target Field in Minneapolis. Here I am below with two of my teammates, Kelsey & Beverly, in our Twins gear:

Earlier that morning, we met with a VP of Food Strategy and presented our project findings to date. Today, we presented a first draft of a couple of our deliverables to the Merchandise Planning Director for Produce. It is really cool to get exposure to such a high-level executives at the company, and they let our team of four interns run both meetings! We are presenting our final product to the entire perishables division in 2.5 weeks, and we are definitely excited to see how it all comes together!

Last Thursday, we attended a "forecast prep" meeting for our department - all of the buyers and business analysts in produce discussed the department's performance for the past two months, and their plans for promotions and other strategy for the next two months. This Tuesday, we attended the forecast meeting with our merchandise planning director and division head, and got to hear the discussion of important strategic and financial objectives for Produce for August and September.

This week was Restaurant Week in Minneapolis, and I completely fell for the marketing ploy, going to 3 fantastic restaurants for their prix fixe menus in the last week. I had some incredible Italian food at D'Amico Kitchen on Tuesday, seafood at Seven Steakhouse + Sushi on Wednesday, and today our Produce team went to lunch at Firelake Grill.

I am always on a mission to find interesting volunteer work, and on Tuesday nights I am teaching an ESL class at the English Learning Center in South Minneapolis. This morning, the all of the Target interns spent a few hours assembling donated Target furniture for Bridging, a local non-profit. On Sunday, I'm volunteering with a few friends at the Minneapolis Aquatennial on Lake Calhoun - more details to come!

Week 5: The October Pink Book

Hello again!

Things have been pretty hectic for me the last week. Unfortunately, the account executive in charge of our October Pink Catalogue (for Breast Cancer Awareness month) is out on a family emergency and I've kind of taken over her role. This involves compiling all of the images that will go in the catalogue that are not being photographed by our creative team, ironing out any issues with partners, and answering any questions that the publishers and their layout designers may have. Because this responsibility came very quickly (and wasn't really meant for me to do alone) I've been learning a lot at a rapid pace.

There are several projects within the Pink Book that I've taken on. One is getting national advertisements from our vendors who purchased space and are making a contribution to the BCRF. I have to go through our buyers that handle these vendors in the cosmetics, shoes, RTW, and intimates departments. It's tough because I'm waiting on the buyers who are waiting on the vendors, who are waiting on the graphic designers, who are waiting on the photographers, etc. etc. I also have to be sure that all of these photos meet the size, resolution, and logo specifications. You'd be surprised how little people know about "high res" and "dpi." I barely do! I just say it and hope they know what I mean.

Another area is dealing with restaurants and special promotions they're offering during the month of October to be mentioned in the book. I've worked with the restaurants to come up with pink-related offers (e.g. cupcake, cocktail, yogurt) that will donate a certain amount to the BCRF for every one ordered. It's difficult because the VP of Marketing doesn't want overlapping offers, i.e. three cupcakes from different restaurants. So I've had to negotiate with the different chefs and executive assistants about what they're offering. Everyone wants to make cupcakes! Next the food and drinks have to be photographed and even though the restaurants have all done it for us, the page designers are frequently not happy with the image. The director of photography has set up a food photo shoot date, which will work for the cupcakes, but the next issue is how do I transport sushi across the country to be photographed? Still trying to solve that one..

All in all it's been a delightfully hectic week because I'm getting a lot of experience and exposure to other employees, departments, and companies while scrambling to get it all done.

Thanks for reading!

Keri

Why Waste Time Not Being Happy?

Hi everyone,

Not sure what week this is, time just seems to be flying by lately and honestly I treat summer as a countdown to NSO more than anything else. I don't think I posted last week but I wanted to make sure to tell you all about the wonderful team lunch we had with Barbara Polla, the mother to my boss Ada. I had heard that Swiss people were generally happy,- or was that Finnish people? Either way, Barbara might be the happiest woman I have ever met. The woman is in her sixties but approaches life with more energy and positivity than I do at my young 19 years of age. She was just so very exuberant and genuinely interested in every single thing that anyone had to say. She had an striking presence, you couldn't miss her if you tried- well this may have been due to the fire engine red dress she wore-but still, she was quite a woman.

The team lunch was in NYC last Tuesday so me and Kate, my coworker and Ada's assistant, took the (freezing cold) Amtrak into the city and met Ada, Barbara, Catherine(our PR girl) and her new intern Cristi(on a special program from Costa Rica). We dined on Park Ave. at a lovely restaurant with yellow walls, clearly the name escapes me, but they served yummy bread. We talked mostly about Alchimie, Barbara explained its history and how she and her husband Luigi started the first laser clinic in Geneva and how this developed into a skin care line led by her daughter. We mused about the importance of looking at employees as comrades rather than subjects. Me and Cristi jabbered endlessly about Penn, apparently its her dream school! Win. She is also thinking about Georgetown, I was quick to push that thought out of her head.

But as I said, no matter what it was that we talked about , Barbara was so thoroughly invested in everyone's opinions, enthusiastically leaning over the table to both hear better and show her interest in your answer to her numerous questions.

Kate commented on how happy she was and her answer is what made me love her even more. “What else should I be? Why waste time not being happy?” Amazing. The woman is amazing, and honestly she is so right. Why spend time being sad,stressed,nervous? Life is short. I'm definitely going to carry that along with me throughout life and especially during the school year when I get down about classes, extracurriculars, family, etc. I've just got to remember, time is never wasted when you're in a good mood.

Until next time,
Nanette

ps. here's an interview my boss Ada did awhile ago, watch it if you want to learn more about the company:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aJt0pdh0Kw

LF USA: Weeks 3-5

Hello,

So while quite clearly my goal of posting weekly completely fell apart, I fully intend on making up for it by blogging more often this week. What has happened is that basically both my regular work/group project and regular schedule has filled up completely with the holidays, family visits and events, friends' birthday etc. Sorry! To come back on a fun note, I totally did not get to post any pictures from the annual Lif & Fung Picnic. This year was extra special, since the company is celebrating its 105th anniversary with picnics across all international hubs starting in Guangzhou (where the company was founded) and ending in Hong Kong (current HQ). Because LF USA is made up of about 16 different acquired companies, it was crazy to see all 2,000+ employees come together with their families and enjoy the fun atmosphere as one, big entity.

More updates on my e-commerce project and work in production to come shortly!

xx,

Marlena

Bookings, bookings, and more bookings...

Hi everyone!

Things have begun to calm down here on the third floor of MJ Headquarters.  Market has been over for a while, and the orders are starting to finalize.  We still check the "bookings", or orders, everyday; usually three or four times a day, believe it or not, just to make sure things are up to date.  This has become one of my primary jobs: comparing old bookings to new ones, as in this morning's print-out compared to this afternoon's print-out which is later compared to this evening's print-out.  Sounds a little redundant?  I thought so too, but now I'm starting to realize there is indeed a point to this madness.  Detailed reports are requested at any minute of the day from the executives, merchandising team, finance department, sales room down the hall...you name it, someone's asking for it.  Everyone wants (and needs) to know what's going on at all times, because important decisions are often made on the spot.  This includes closing a door (somewhat technical name for a store open in a certain region or country), dropping a product (whether a whole style is cancelled or just a color), or fixing an error that could prevent orders from going through.  So careful (and often) checking is indeed necessary.

Besides checking these infamous orders (finally, they're starting to balance out and stay the same!) I have been putting together reports that contrast this year's sales with last year's sales, all in hopes of coming up with reasonable forcasts and predictions for the upcoming season we're about to start working on (Spring 2012). 

One thing I've been noticing lately is how important it is to double check your work.  Reading emails, reports, or orders with even the smallest typos completely negates any authority the writer has over the subject matter at hand.  Maybe I'm being too tough, but when I hand in something I've spent hours on only to have it handed back to me thirty seconds later because a small color coding is incorrect, I can see how important this is.  If this is one thing I take away learning from this internship, I know it'll be useful in my college career and even more important in my professional life.  With that being said, you can probably guess I spent a great deal of time today checking over numerous excel files to make sure they were perfect--and when I can hand it in to my boss with confidence and see her smile of approval, it's all worth it!

Hoping to dodge this sporatic New York rain on my way home...talk to you soon!

Alex

Week 4: Photo Shoot in the West Village

Hi again!

A lot has happened since I last wrote, but I think the most interesting thing to describe is the photo shoot I went to last Tuesday. I went downtown to the West Village with the creative intern, Hannah, to Industria Studios. Inside Studio 6 was a wide open space with big windows and panels set up in various corners. A long table had a great breakfast spread and later, gourmet lunch. There was an area sectioned off with bright lights for makeup, manicures/pedicures, hair, dressing, etc.

The shoot we got to spend a lot of time watching was men's sweaters and coats. It was only two models standing together in front of a gray screen. Stylists and creative directors surrounded them without shoes on (as to not dirty the backdrop that continued below their feet). I thought it was so interesting how models have

to be okay with other people doing everything for them - meaning that they can't fix their hat themselves (for example); someone has to take his or her shoes off, run over, and fix the hat without asking the model "May I?" There were constantly people re-tousling the models' hair, re-pinning their jackets (with paper clips and binder clips in the back!), and re-tying their shoes.

Music was playing in the background to make the posing more fluid for the models. I heard that this particular photographer, Peggy, is known for making the models feel very comfortable. She had a small rolling chair behind the camera and was dancing from her seat in between every shot. At the same time, she continued to glance over at another screen that showed her previous shots to see what they'd look like in print. (She's the one standing in light green).

One interesting thing to see was all of the different posses that were there. I'd guess that half the people at the shoot really didn't have a function at all. Maybe except for getting the photographer Li-Lac chocolates when she wanted them.

All in all it was a really cool experience. It did involve lots of sitting around and waiting for hair and makeup, but while waiting we got great food and I was able to talk to some of the models. The guys were both really down-to-earth regular people - not what I would have expected. It seems like we put models up on a pedestal, like a separate type of human... no more for me! One of them was telling me about how he sweats profusely when he has to do sweater shots outside during the summer.

Anyway, this is an outing I'll never forget. I feel so lucky to have been included. I have my supervisor, Lauren, to thank for that.

Thanks for reading!

Keri

Dancing with ‘the Cat’

As a merchandising intern, I quickly realized that the relationship between a vendor and a buyer forms the foundation of the retail business. My buyers have allowed me to meet with many of their vendors, each with a different personality—most times in line with the company image. I have to say the most interesting vendor visit so far was with Puma.

I intern with the active wear department, where a heavy emphasis is placed on the sneaker brands. Many of these sneaker brands are located within the New England area: Saucony, Reebok, New Balance, and Puma.

Puma has this brand image of being urban and modern. I fully expected the U.S. headquarters to be outside of an urban metropolis, but it was quite difference from my expectations. My buyer picked me up at 8AM for forty-minute drive to Puma. While I was expecting a trip through urban-suburban commercial developments, we actually traveled on some of the most scenic routes I have ever been on. We passed farmlands tucked between forests, misting lakes, and even the historic Lexington and Concord. Puma was tucked away in a nondescript business park full of wooden paneling. The building, looking very similar to a white version of the Puma shoebox, stuck out like a sore thumb.

We signed in at the front with coffee and treats in tow—ice breakers. The vendor met us and took us into the Puma auditorium, and into a showroom cleverly hidden behind billboard walls. The games began.

The first half an hour of the meeting was dedicated to a conversation that fell in between the warm enthusiasm of reunited friends and the cool professionalism of business partners. I was astounded by the details both the buyer and the vendor were able to recall about each other. It became evident that, to a certain extend, my buyer and her vendor cared about each other—a care that stemmed from a business partnership, but out of necessity extended into their personal lives as well. After the quick catch up, the conversation smoothly transitioned into business. The Cat, as Puma is frequently referred to, no longer sat tame.

The vendor started off the discussion with: cotton prices are up, poly prices are up, tariffs are up (at this point, I was expecting prices to be up 50%)—BUT we were able to hold most of your prices steady with the exception of a few items. The vendor was very good at what she does, but my buyer knew the game well. My buyer glossed over prices all together as she intended to leave negotiations till later. We focused in on the styles.

There is a general misconception that off-price retailers like TJX (T.J.Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, etc.) only buy dated items through closeouts. I found that was not the case at all. A lot of product, especially in the active wear department are in season and purchased directly from the vendors. Of course, sometimes, the buyers have to turn a blind eye to the margins made on these products because the stores must carry the brands at great value to the customer. Puma is a company whose product we really want for our customers, and are willing to purchase at very questionable margins to our company.

While we were choosing the styles from Puma, I realized that buyers at TJX not only purchased goods for the company, but they were also designers and innovators. Puma provided us with the styles they were going to produce for us, but the buyer decided on the color story and silhouettes. The buyers were extremely well versed in current trends and consistently applied their knowledge. Of course, their view of the trends is not only based on magazines and blogs like so many of us fashion fanatics, but their decisions are also based on sales numbers. TJX has an amazing, in-depth system that tracks the selling of styles and colors to a t. At Puma, the buyers applied all of this knowledge and created a beautiful Spring 2012 Puma collection for our stores.

Deciding on the styles took the majority of our day. I was anxious to see how we would tie back to pricing at the end. What surprised me was, we skipped the pricing all together! I later learned that buyers and vendors generally discussed and finalized prices and quantities over the phone rather than in-person.

The trip to Puma gave me a taste of the dynamic lifestyle of a buyer and the 1001 different hats the buyers of an off-price retailer has to wear.

Next time, I promise to take pictures!