Guest lecture: Improving the social and environmental impact of brands

Nicky Wells, former Unilever Marketing Manager now a marketing consultant, recently co-delivered the marketing and responsibility lecture focusing on working with internal and external stakeholders to improve the social and environmental impact of brands.

Nicky Wells, ex-Unilever Marketing Manager, presenting to students on branding

Nicky shared her experience as Marketing Manager and Brand Manager for leading Unilever brands including the real beauty campaign for Dove, developing rainforest alliance accreditation for PGTips and the challenges of developing a ‘health campaign’ for Marmite to counter the growth of competitor, Nutella. As well as benefiting from this real-world experience in the lecture theatre, students enjoyed a question and answer session to find out what it’s like working in marketing and to hear Nicky’s top tips for employability.

Q: What’s the most important thing, beyond ‘technical knowledge’ that potential marketers need to succeed in marketing?

• Creativity. Not just thinking of ideas but thinking around situations, thinking about solutions to challenges.
• Analysis – being able to understand and use data and look for trends and opportunities.
• Relationship building – being able to work with lots of different stakeholders in the organisation.

Q: What do you wish you’d done at university to prepare you for work in marketing?

Been more aware of what’s going on… read the news, business press, find out what companies are doing. Have a broad awareness of what’s going on to be able to spot opportunities.

Q: What’s the best thing about working in marketing?

Working with lots of different people / creative people/agencies and as a brand manager having ownership of the brand.