Practicum at Pastourelle: Day 7 - Marketing, Sales, and Merchandising

So after a tumultuous past week, the Hurricane disrupting and upturning everyone, it was finally time to start getting back on track after a lot of confusion and extreme difficulty.

We arrived at the office, that post-election day, a little unsure what to expect. We got there to a mostly quiet office, Susan still in China, and Fran wasn't around yet either. We ran into some confusion because since Susan was away, the relay message that we would be coming in that week got a bit lost in translation. But no matter, it turned out to be a new learning experience instead.

VP of Sales, Glen, spoke with Fran on the phone, and since she was going to be a little late (post election win excitement), he decided he would get a chance to speak with us, as he hadn't had a chance to really give his input on what he does since we've been at the company.

So Glen gave us an overview of what he does at Pastourelle. He used to work for Kahn Lucas, but decided to come to Pastourelle because he was taken by Fran's integrity, design vision, and her skill at running a company. He seems very happy and confident with his career direction and the prosperity the company has had even in these tough economic times.

He stressed to us the importance to staying true to your values ad a company, never skimping on quality for quantity, always trying to find a way to make a garment that is what you want as a designer as well as living up to the expectations of the customer at the same time. It's about the balance between cost effectiveness and putting out a product that you can stick by and are proud of selling. 

Sometimes, he said, you need to make financial sacrifices along the way, losing out a bit here and there, having to settle with a smaller salary at times, but if you are dedicated to the products you put out there, then it's worth it. 

His advice was great, I highly value it and agreed wholeheartedly. It was a nice change to hear a bit of the sales and marketing aspect of the company.

Then Glen gave us a challenge, and it was to take the items from the new Spring 2013 samples and then decide which items would be for Pippa and Julie and which ones would be for Marmellata. Piece by piece we carefully contemplated the qualities that go into placing certain garments into the line for each price point and customer.

We did rather well actually!

We had placed the items we believed were for Pippa and Julie on the hanging wall. Glen came in as we were going through them and he seemed impressed with our choices. Then Fran came in to see what we came up with and in the end we'd only missed 2 items (out of like say 40 pieces on the rack!) I call that smarts! 

We explained why we chose what we chose; Pippa items being more sophisticated, more unique and creative in design, more details, higher quality fabrications and finishing details, as well as a less mainstream color palette consisting of navy, pale peaches, ivories, greens, and intricate printed patterns - not just your basic stripes, dots, and florals, but batiks, geometrics, and watercolors. 

I was happy that we both have soaked in a lot in terms of the company aesthetics and branding the separate lines. I'm glad because I feel like I'm really listening, and that in the real working world I can apply these skills.

So the project continues, theres still quite a bit of work to be done. I'll share everything in class next week. Until then~