What does a lingerie retailer have to do with data? A better way to phrase this question would be: how can a lingerie retailer use data as an advantage? This is what I learned during my internship.
It may first seem quite obvious that data about sales and items can be of use to create statistics for business and marketing strategies. But there is so much more data that can be gathered and used for in-depth insights. The lingerie brand Hunkemöller offers a loyalty program which customers can enter by being a member. Their individual private information is obviously safeguarded, however, the accumulated member base can give detailed insights for many departments like the CRM team.
If one customer was likely to buy one product, are they likely to buy another product that many others with similar purchase history have bought as well? Do certain interests as stated in the member profile help in providing better product suggestions? Have members that shopped during a factory sale (outlet event) come back to stores or are there members who only come under certain conditions? These questions and many more were answered by my team, the marketing intelligence department.
Next to insights for the loyalty program, we also conducted market research. There is research on marketing campaign perceptions but also on products and details, whether certain styles of lingerie are liked more than others. Besides product adjustments, market research insights could help in deciding the times and channels through which products were advertised.
All in all, I can say that I have truly understood how retailers can make use of their data. Not only tech companies but any kind of company offering any service or product should make use of the data they can access. For my own work I’ve learned that I should really take my time and work very cautiously with the data and that it is okay to ask and check with colleagues how they would approach certain cases.
Would I recommend my internship? My experience has surely helped me figure out what I look for in my professional career and partly formed my masters decision. I’ve gained pure marketing experience before, and it was the right way to try a more data related job in the marketing and market research field. I can recommend this internship position to anyone who is also looking for an experience that entails marketing, market research and numbers overall. Besides the work itself, Hunkemöller also offered an internship program. We had LinkedIn trainings and a pitch event during which we could propose any idea that we think should be implemented. We could also experience the brand event including the fashion show for which we worked three days outside the office and helped organising the show at Westergas Fabriek. While the internship had an extensive program, different interns also had very individual experiences. I often would have liked to get a little more work, whereas others were super stressed with a high workload in other departments. In the end, every internship depends on the team that the intern works with and whether the intern can work proactively.