Buying & marketing internship pt 3

Hi everyone!

This internship is sadly coming to an end, and I cannot find words on how fast these two months has passed by. Since the last time blogging I’ve been finishing up my project, and it is now published on 8848’s website (!!!!).

A few weeks ago, we invited our international retailers and distributors to a kick off; kind of like a two-day sales meeting with fun activities tied into it. We showed the S/S20 collection, where I got the role of wearing each piece to better see the fit, while our designers explained their designs and functionality. After “the show” everyone mingled in the showroom, discussing the collection and I got to learn some very nice people. During the show, all guests wore the most motionless stone faces ever while scanning every look I wore, so it was really hard to interpret if they liked the collection or not (actually it looked like they hated everything haha). But afterwards when chatting, everyone was like “oh loved loved loved it, such a nice collection, love the colors, blablabla” and I thought like “wow didn’t expect that, judging by your faces” haha.

The day after the kick off, my marketing colleague and I went to the e-commerce fair SEBC in Gothenburg. It was a day filled with inspirational speeches, from impressive persons such as Fredrik Reinfeldt, Charlotte Nordén (CEO Cellbes), Alexander Bard, Sara Wimmercranz and Susanne Najafi (BreakIt), Ishtar Touailat (Techbuddy, IT-woman of the year), Daniel Wellington, and many more. The main lessons I will carry with me are the importance of knowing one’s target group, making market analyzes of the far future, and to spot talents and how to keep them and letting them grow to their greatest potential.  

Last week, I held a presentation for the entire company about my internship project, and the findings and analyzes I’ve made. I was quite nervous, to say the least, although my colleagues are the kindest and most supportive persons in the world. The response was incredible and I was kind of surprised, probably since it can be hard to realize the contribution of your own work. Our CEO asked me if I could redo the presentation the day after on our strategy day, in front of board members, including the chairman, and some international retailers. So I did. And also with more confidence this time, thanks to the great appreciation from my colleagues. I received great response again, and I literally floated on clouds for the rest of the day. I also dared to participate a lot for the rest of the strategy day, and was not afraid to propose strategic ideas for their future.

Sorry for the longest blog post ever, but I guess I do this mainly for my own sake, because it’s so easy to forget about these moments. I feel so proud of my work here - that I’ve actually contributed with something meaningful for the company. Above all, I’ll never be able to thank 8848 Altitude enough for these weeks; for doing everything to make me learn as much as I possibly could, for believing in me with this project, and for getting to know the most lovely persons. I am so grateful.

I hope everyone will have a great summer!

See you in September.

Pauline