Since my first Saturday job in a William Low supermarket while at school and summer jobs at Glasgow Airport’s Duty Free Shop, I have been involved in, and fascinated by, the diverse, every-changing retailing sector for my whole career. These hands-on, customer-facing roles were an excellent foundation for subsequent retail marketing projects as well as many other aspects of working life.
My first post-university job was with a specialist retail consultancy, where I researched Western European markets, wrote a monthly newsletter for the firm’s clients and dealt with information requests from a range of retailers in the UK and abroad, including Mothercare, Supermercati PAM, ICA and de Bijenkorf.
Then at Sony I worked on several retailing projects, including the notification of a uniform dealer contract to the European Commission and its introduction throughout Europe.
Since then I have consulted to several retail companies, including writing marketing award entries for a supermarket chain, developing a strategic marketing plan for an upmarket jewellery retailer, and running marketing training courses for a bakery chain.
I was therefore delighted to be appointed as an Adjunct Lecturer to teach the Retail Marketing class to undergraduates in their final year at Heriot Watt University.
If you run a retail business and would like help with marketing, please get in touch.
Photo by Clark Street Mercantile on Unsplash