During the first week of August, recent college-leaver Scarlett Bowman took part in a week of work experience primarily focused on Marketing at Hunters.

Here’s what Scarlett got up to and what she thought of her time with us:

During my week of work experience with Hunters I have been expanding my knowledge of Marketing and learning about Hunters and the furniture industry as a whole.

The week has consisted of going to showrooms for furniture suppliers such as Senator and Boss, networking with different people within and outside of the business and finally I have been completing marketing projects which include a market research project and technical website improvements.

Showrooms

Within my week at Hunters I visited two different furniture showrooms – Senator and Boss. The first time I went to Senator I was taken round by Lewis, Hunters’ Business Development Director, who explained to me why companies have showrooms, how they stage them in different ways so they can show how their products can be used in many different ways and in different environments. Learning how companies use their showrooms to demonstrate how the same product can be used in different ways was very interesting.

I also went to Senator a second time with Mel, Cassie, and Leah from the Hunters’ design team. We attended an event about a new chair that they have released called Contour. We were shown the concept and the stages of the making of the chair, followed by the unique selling points.

I also attended the Boss Design showroom which has a huge variety of different furniture and a distinctive look and feel. I learnt about the stories behind some of their furniture for example bespoke pieces that were made in collaboration with British Airways. I also saw some very modern meeting pods, which fit the theme of today’s offices.

Networking

This week I have been networking with many different people within and outside of Hunters. One of the people that I met with was Holly, the Marketing Manager for design and build specialists HOP to get another perspective on the role of Marketing Manager in another business within our industry.

Internally I spent time with Mel Edmondson who leads Hunters’ Design Team. She showed me what her role is within the client experience at Hunters including examples of renders, look & feels and space plans. I also sat down with John our Project Installation Director who talked me through a project that his team are completing and showed me what the projects team does from start to finish within a project and what his team’s roles are.

Finally we had a meeting with another Marketing Manager, this time from one of our suppliers Frovi. Jon gave me an overview of what he’s currently working on marketing-wise and gave me another insight into what is involved in a Marketing role.

Marketing Projects

When not in meetings or going to showrooms I have been completing two Marketing projects.

The first was a market research project consisting of me looking at 6 different competitors websites and social media content to see where their strengths and weaknesses are. I also did the same for Hunters, as well as seeing what they could change to get more engagement. My second project was to improve the Hunters website from a technical perspective by updating and writing meta descriptions.

My Hunters Experience

Overall my week at Hunters was very exciting as it is an industry I did not even know existed and so there was lots to learn from the different suppliers and products to the Marketing side.

It’s been an amazing experience meeting with new people and seeing the process from start to finish and what steps happen along the way.

I have learnt so much this week including types of different furniture and how Hunters help their clients to achieve their vision. I have also learnt a lot about Marketing, particularly websites and social media.