FULLBEAUTY Brands Site Visit

By Aakanksha

(MS Digital Marketing ‘17)

It all started on the breezy morning of April 8, 2016, when a few MBA and MS students had the opportunity to get an inside peek into FULLBEAUTY Brands. We were not only warmly received by the company’s team, from the directors to VP of HR, Baruch alums, Rabail Chowdry (HR Generalist), Alice Yang (HR Coordinator) and Ana Coronell (Marketing Manager), but we had the opportunity to learn from the insights they shared with us.

Being a first year Digital Marketing student, my takeaways from the company visit were many, but a few that I related to most were:

• Samantha Ayala, Director, E-Commerce of Women Within, talked about how the company competes for its customers digitally. She took the conversation to another level by discussing how people coming from varied backgrounds have done well in the company. The company functions with many sub-brands under its umbrella, but still maintains cohesiveness in communicating its message and reaching customers. The unified effort of staff across the distinct brands is one of the strongest reasons that keeps them positioned as number one among the other players in the market. Specifically, she underlined the indispensable role of the marketing team in their work to identify trends, needs and different segments of its customer base.

• Besides being a Baruch alumna, Ana was an inspiration in terms of her story of joining the company as an Analyst and then making her way up to Marketing Manager. She spoke about how important it was for the company to rely on data and number crunching. They need to really know their customers and what they do, and that can’t happen without using analytical tools. Anyone with a proclivity towards collecting, analyzing and making sense of data would be very welcome at the company. Coming from a market research and non-fashion background, I was happy to hear that.

• Bob Biel, VP - Talent and Employee Engagement, Rabail and Alice shed light on how important networking is to be successful at any company. They emphasized to us that staying in touch with people we meet was important to be top of mind when a company has an internship or full-time opportunity open. It’s easier to select someone you have met and are in touch with than having to go through a long procedure of looking for a candidate from scratch. This way, a company can be relatively sure about the experience and background of a candidate, which saves time.

After the knowledge sharing and Q&A sessions, we had the opportunity to tour the office and see where the actual work takes place. Rabail and Alice showed us where the various teams worked, as well as the layout of the company’s new office space. Apart from the brilliant workflow, the river view from the office was amazing. The floors had all of the teams working under one roof and it was very organized. The colors, designs, apparels, shoes and accessories were in sight, and it made the company look even more exquisite as a fashion apparel firm.

Considering this was my first site visit to a US firm, it was a learning experience and FULLBEAUTY Brands made it even more special. Thanks to the entire team of FULLBEAUTY Brands and the Zicklin Graduate Career Management Center who made this event possible and so enriching for me!