Emily Gottfried: BA Hons Marketing

Emily Gottfried (née Plumb)

BA Hons Marketing, 2003

“I am an International Sales Executive for John Mills Ltd.”

Emily chose to come and study BA Hons Marketing at the University of Luton after attending an Open Day. She said: “I immediately felt like Luton was a place I could feel at home. It was a similar size to my home town of Ipswich and its lively appearance appealed to me.”

Emily enjoyed the course and was particularly impressed with the module choice which enabled her to pick those that were of the most interest and focussed on her career path. She said: “I had always been more interested in the international side of business and marketing and modules like ‘Economics of the Asia-Pacific Rim’ really helped me to build a solid foundation on which to start my career.

“The practice and experience built up throughout my degree on practical aspects, such as research, team-working, multi-tasking and working to deadlines are all valuable facets in the business environment and have been put to invaluable use within my career so far.”

One of the highlights of Emily’s time at the University was meeting her husband. They still live in Luton and commute into London. She also made some great friends and is still in regular contact with them now.

After graduating Emily worked in the External Affairs Department at the University Luton as a Marketing Assistant for 5 months. She said: “The University gave me a great start to my career and helped me to develop invaluable office experience.”

In October 2003 Emily got a job as an International Assistant for John Mills Ltd (JML). The company sell products on their TV station eeZee TV, the internet www.JMLdirect.com and in all major retail chains in the UK. In June 2004 Emily made her first business trip to Monte Carlo where she took part in an exhibition to international clients. She said: “Meeting customers face-to-face and putting a person to an email really helps to build confidence, as well as an understanding of each individual client’s needs, which meant I could market products to them far more effectively.”

Emily was promoted to International Sales Executive in December 2004 working as part of a team of four. She manages two of these people on a day-to-day basis. “My role now involves a lot of marketing of products to our clients, as well as reaching competitors and new clients and also some product development. I have been on a number of other business trips for exhibitions and to visit clients and have visited places including Slovenia, Moscow, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Manila in the Philippines, Chicago and Barbados!”

Emily plans to continue her career at JML and help to expand her department and the company by making JML an internationally recognised brand.

Interview took place in 2006.