Miller UK is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of excavator buckets, quick couplers and other attachments for the international construction equipment supply chain. As one of the world’s leading attachment companies, we understand and acknowledge that it is our people who make us who we are today. We strongly believe that the future success and global growth of our company is all down too empowering and investing in our people and this enables us to pioneer the change that matters.
Recently our award-winning in-house marketing team has taken on an enthusiastic, creative second year marketing student from Newcastle University on a 12 month internship in marketing communications. This new marketing internship has been designed specifically to deliver a broad work experience in pushing the marketing boundaries to ensure that our internationally recognised brand and innovative earthmoving attachments remain at the forefront of our customers journey with Miller.
We thought that we would catch up with Lucy Ross-Knight at the start of her placement to find out what appealed to her about the new Miller Marketing Internship and how she is looking forward to contributing to the success of a number of diverse marketing and communication projects for Miller over the next 12 month.
Q1. What are you studying at university and what does the course entail?
A1. I am currently studying Marketing and Management at Newcastle University. The course covers a wide range of topics including global marketing, digital marketing, strategic marketing, operations strategy management and human resource management all of which include aspects of research methods. The standout part of my course for me is the marketing consultancy projects including SOSTAC analysis for local businesses. My favourite one to work is definitely the roller derby team ‘Tyne and Fear’. This project was one of my favourites to work on as it was such a niche target market and they had very focused objectives that they wanted us to provide tactics for, it was challenging but it pushed me to step outside of my comfort zone and engage with tactics I hadn’t considered before.
Q2. How has your background shaped your love for marketing?
A2. My past experience is quite varied which I believe is why I am able to adapt to new environments so quickly. I started off in hospitality working anywhere from St James Park to Headingly Cricket Stadium, from this I learnt how different every customer is and how to adapt my approach in order to suit their preferences. This is extremely transferable to marketing as every customer has different objectives, brands, values and products therefore the way we work with them to create marketing campaigns must vary as a ‘one shoe fits all’ approach would not be successful.
Then, I moved over to retail. I loved working at Kurt Geiger because we were able to become the brand, we were ambassadors embodying the brand inside and outside of work. A large part of current social media marketing is through influencers and here I learnt everything I know about the way influencers work from the negotiation terms to maintaining the relationship. After this, I decided to take what felt like natural progression to becoming a team leader at The Body Shop. This was my most challenging but also most rewarding role; I was now responsible for other people not only myself which allowed me to develop my leadership skills, crucial for leading projects in marketing. Finally, owning my own small business means that I currently take on every role e.g., marketing, finance, production, and distribution. However, although I embody every role there is no doubt in my mind that the marketing part is what I enjoy the most. For me it is important to love what you do, and this is definitely the case for me and marketing.
Q3. What do you bring to Miller through the marketing placement?
A3. Having grown up in what is known as the ‘digital generation’ my knowledge of digital marketing is extensive, I understand the importance of having an online presence as a way of gaining competitive advantage and gaining brand awareness. I have watched so many businesses, big and small, grow purely through digital marketing, it has always fascinated me and this is what inspired me to join the industry. In my eyes, this is only the beginning for digital marketing and the opportunity for growth is huge. I want to make sure that Miller is part of the digital revolution and the shift to digital marketing so that we can remain having high levels of innovation, especially with it being one of our core values.
To take action on this I plan on bringing in new and upcoming methods of digital marketing, specifically focusing on social media platforms, such as TikTok, which has fast become one of the largest global social media platforms. With Miller being globally successful for over 40 years I feel that it is important to continue changing with the times, I would love to implement current methods of marketing that Miller hasn’t seen before in order to bring fresh ideas to rejuvenate their marketing strategy.
Q4. What do you hope to get out of this placement?
A4. Although my knowledge of marketing is strong, I am aware that I still have a lot to learn. To have been given the chance to develop and present my skillset with such a successful company is a great opportunity for me and I am proud to now represent the brand. The shows and exhibitions also excite me, I would love to get involved and work with the sales team from a marketing perspective to find out more about our customers to understand what they want out of our products. This is my first time working in the construction industry and I am massively keen to learn and push myself out of my comfort zone in order to grow my skillset and fulfil my job role to the best standard.
Q5. What does your future look like?
A5. My future is definitely in marketing, as the digital world continues to grow, I want to grow with it being at the forefront of the newest marketing techniques. It excites me that there are platforms and techniques that don’t even exist yet that will change marketing as we know it, looking back to my first year of university platforms such as TikTok were unheard of and now it has grown into one of the biggest social media sites globally. It just shows that the possibilities are endless, it’s so dynamic and innovative and that’s why I know I will never leave the marketing industry.
For more information, please call 0800 912 0006, visit https://millergroundbreaking.com, or follow Miller on Twitteror LinkedIn.
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