From left, Brand Ambassador Emily Wilson, Molly Odre (Cone Communications), Ambassador Gabriella Candelieri, Elissa Millican.
On November 2nd, 2015, a room full of Boston College students attended a marketing “talk” presented by Elissa Millican, the U.S. Head of Marketing at Barbour. All 90+ seats in Gasson 305 were filled, and many students showed up sporting their Barbour jackets for this special occasion. For Elissa’s “talk”, presented by Boston College Women in Business and The Marketing Academy, she spoke about her early life in Texas, education at Texas State University, past jobs in retail, marketing career at Puma and as well as her position now at Barbour. She spoke with honesty, enthusiasm and charisma not holding anything back.
The marketing talk even included custom Barbour Georgetown Cupcakes and two Barbour gift cards.
Beginning in 2008, Elissa was a store manager at the Puma retail location in Texas. She climbed the latter and eventually became the Team Head of Global Retail and Trade Marketing for the brand. She spoke about her successes and failures, providing students with valuable advice for entering the workplace and perusing a career in P.R. or marketing.
In her current role as the head of U.S. Marketing at Barbour, Elissa is in charge of several different marketing functions such as seasonal marketing campaigns, public relations, managing the creative marketing materials and display guidelines, and much more. She collaborates with the Barbour team to meet business objectives and executes wholesale marketing plans with buyers so that Barbour merchandise is presented in accordance with the brand’s goals and image. I asked Elissa what a typical day as Barbour’s Head of U.S. Marketing entails. “The typical day as Barbour’s Head of U.S. Marketing is BUSY!” she says, “On any given day, I am overseeing all U.S. Marketing channels for Barbour: Media, PR, Social, Retail, Wholesale, as well as Brand Building. My day could consist of answering calls, emails, and requests from partners – to supporting wholesale and retail needs – to traveling for a client meeting – to working with an agency for creative design. I am continually working in three seasons: Currently, I am strategizing for AW16, planning for SS16, and creating and managing the current campaigns in AW15. Next week I am traveling to the UK for the AW16 Launch where we will preview new marketing and product collections. Very excited to see where Barbour is headed!”
The U.S. Barbour team chose Boston College to be the first school to launch their college ambassador program. This program’s objective is to increase brand awareness among college students in the Boston area. While generating excitement about the brand, ambassadors increase brand engagement through social media, product giveaways, shopping events, and speaking events such as this one. The Boston College ambassadors drive traffic to the store, which is newly located at 79 Newbury Street. The in-store holiday shopping event will be held on Thursday, December 3rd from 5:00-8:00PM. Take a selfie with ambassador Gabriella Candelieri or me to receive 15% off your next visit to the Newbury Street store! The holidays are just around the corner! Happy Shopping!
Photo Credits: Barbour.com