Informational Interview: Professor T.J. Langston Professional Goals

Informational Interview
Student Name:
Professor:
Course Title:
Date:
To: Professor T.J. Langston
From: Mary Terry
Date: 5/03/2018
Subject: Informational Interview
My Professional Goals
Since high school, I have always been interested in marketing. Marketing is a fascinating career option for me given that it is all about people. Marketing is concerned with identifying various needs of the customers and then finding ways of satisfying those particular needs. My career interests include working in any marketing-related field such as digital marketing, business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, business-to-business (B2B) sales, public relations, promotions, advertising, and even market research. Given that marketing is required in all business organizations, the job opportunities within this category are unlimited. I would also love to work in the field of marketing since it could be an interesting job in which I would have the opportunity to be creative. It is also highly interactive as I might be able to work with fascinating colleagues on exciting marketing campaigns. My professional goals revolve around moving up the career ladder in marketing. I would like to achieve career progression relatively swiftly and move through the ranks into senior positions within a period of 5 or 6 years. In order to get such promotion opportunities and move from a Marketing Executive position to the position of Senior Marketing Executive, I will need to have a proven track record of success in my current role and show my dedication to continued professional development by pursuing a master’s or doctoral degree in the field of marketing. The purpose of the interview is to gain a deeper understanding of the marketing profession and the fashion retail industry. I would like to learn about the marketing career prospects in this industry. The interviewee is relevant to my professional goals since she is a person who works in the field of marketing in the fashion retail industry and is gradually moving up the career ladder into top positions.
Biography of the Interviewee
With regard to the professional biography of the interviewee, this individual has a 12-year experience in the industry. Her name is Joy Adamson. This is not her real name; it is an alias name that is used in order to protect her anonymity. Immediately after graduating from college, she worked with Wal-Mart Stores as an Assistant Brand Manager for a period of 3 years, before leaving the firm after finding a better employer, namely Michael Kors. Joy Adamson worked with Michael Kors fashion retailer in New York City for 5 years as a Marketing Coordinator where she developed and implemented the company’s advertising and marketing campaigns; maintained promotional materials inventory; tracked sales data; planned trade shows and meetings; maintained databases; and prepared relevant reports. As the Marketing Coordinator, she reported to the company’s Marketing Manager.
She then left Michael Kors retailer 4 years ago to work for the firm which she is still working for at the moment, which is also a leading fashion retailer. She is the Marketing Manager and her responsibilities are to develop, implement and execute strategic plans for the whole company so as to retain the existing customers and attract new ones. Her daily tasks are to manage and coordinate marketing and creative personnel, liaise with advertising agencies and media organizations, and lead market research efforts for the purpose of uncovering the viability of the company’s products. In addition, Joy Adamson is responsible for working with the firm’s top leaders in order to determine targets and budgets. Also, she is charged with coming up with the pricing strategies for the company’s products.
Industry Overview
The fashion retail industry is a multi-trillion industry, and comprises the selling of fashion retail apparel, which includes footwear, clothes, and accessories. The industry is worth about $2.4 trillion considering that fashion is something that touches everybody in the world since everyone wears clothes and shoes (Amed et al., 2018). Actually, if this industry were ranked together with the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of individual countries, it would be the 7th biggest economy in the world (Amed et al., 2018). The fashion retail industry is, in fact, one of the largest industries globally. It is divided into menswear, sportswear and women swear subcategories. There’s a wide range of careers in this industry including Marketing Manager, Digital Marketing Manager, Cashier, Customer Service Representative, Social Media Marketing Manager, Brand Manager, Logistics Coordinator, Marketing Coordinator, Public Relations Manager, Sales Manager, Advertising and Promotions Manager, and Senior Marketing Manager. Others include Sales Associate, Store Manager, Mobile Marketing Sales Advisor, Strategic Marketing and Recruitment Consultant, Leadership Development Associate, Online Merchandiser, Fashion Stylist, and Assistant Manager.
The fashion retail industry employs over 5 million people in various sorts of job positions (Sutherlin, 2016). Most of the roles necessitate formal education such as a bachelor’s degree. There are also opportunities for one to grow with an organization and move up the ranks in the career ladder. The nature of the work mainly entails coming with innovative products now and then, promoting the products on various media, and suggesting clothes or shoes to clients. Besides excellent verbal and written communication skills, a professional in the fashion retail industry also needs to possess the following skills: problem solving skills, reasoning skills, outgoing personality, willingness to take risks, persuasiveness so as to sell the products of the company, creativity, logical approach, as well as capacity to make decisions and execute them from time to time (Griffith & Hoppner, 2013). Budgeting, multi-tasking, detail-...