jobs & money

Marketing the Mart

Jennifer Woolford is senior vice president of marketing communications at The Merchandise Mart. Who'd have thought it all started with snapping photos at Bloomingdale's?

By Erica Bethe Levin • La Chambre Noire Photography

There are many words to describe Jennifer Woolford, senior vice president of marketing communications at The Merchandise Mart: successful, driven, intelligent, highly respected, helpful, creative, interesting and, above all else, a really nice woman. From the second we walked into her beautiful, spacious office, she was just as engaged as she was engaging. This woman of stature didn't pause once during the conversation to perform such 21st century trivialities as checking her email, BlackBerry, iPhone, text messages or missed calls. Jennifer was invested in what she had committed to, which is precisely why she holds an enviable position within The Merchandise Mart, leading a team of approximately 30 of Chicago's most creative thinkers.

It takes nothing less than hard work, motivation, dedication, persistence and a good attitude to move up in this world. As a young high school graduate, Jennifer interned at Bloomingdale's (affectionately referred to as "Bloomie's"). While snapping angst-ridden photographs of crying children on Santa's gleeful lap, Jennifer displayed all of the aforementioned traits.

That is precisely why her career path goes a little something like this: "I've been (in Chicago) for 15 years and loved every minute of it," she explains. "Before The Merchandise Mart, I was at Bloomingdale's for eight or nine years running their Public Relations and Special Events Department. Interesting story: I began as an intern, then became the PR assistant and then became the PR director when someone went on maternity leave. Then I came to Chicago to run the North Michigan Avenue store's PR and special events when it opened. I've had two of the best careers…15 years here at the Mart and nine at Bloomingdale's. That's kind of my whole career: retail, then retail special events and PR and then the Mart."

A Passion for Design

The fashion bug bit Jennifer when she was just a young girl. Her father manufactured swimwear. As cool as it must have been to constantly be surrounded by beach fashions, her father's experience in the industry and attitude towards his job provided more important life lessons than a one-piece versus bikini debate.

"I grew up in a family where I had a dad who manufactured swimwear and he just loved his job," Jennifer recalls. "I went to work with him any chance I got – I loved being around the creativity of design. I used to go out to dinner [in Manhattan] with the buyers from Lord & Taylor when I was 14 or 15 years old. I loved the energy. So that has carried over. His work didn't look like work. I feel like, in my mind, my kids know I love it here. They come to work with me a lot…I want them to realize that work can be something you really enjoy doing, because you're going to spend a lot of time doing it in your life. You might as well be doing what you love."

What Jennifer loves to do, and what her current post at The Merchandise Mart entails, is overseeing the advertising, graphic design, web design, public relations and community affairs departments. She does this not only for The Merchandise Mart, but also for all of Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc. Staying on top of this litany of tasks is no easy feat.

She and her steadfast team of creative minds do event and community outreach and develop ad campaigns, direct mail campaigns and Web site content. Most importantly, their job is to pervade the community with information in an attempt to bring the largest possible audience to that Wacker Drive icon. As The Merchandise Mart is a varied industry that includes apparel, gift, home furnishing, commercial furnishing and art industries, there are multiple avenues to pursue when it comes to publicizing their retailers. Through PR outreach, special events, the securing of stories, advertising and online information and e-blasts, Jennifer has been inviting people to the Mart and building communities for 15 years.

A Changing Industry

Of course, the advent of the Internet has completely and interminably changed the face of the communications industry. As an intern at Bloomingdale's 15 years ago, Jennifer wasn't using Web sites to spread the fashionable gospel; she certainly wasn't Googling the Tribune or the Sun-Times to determine what placement she had secured.

"It's gotten busier and faster – the Internet has changed everybody's world," says Jennifer. "When I began in the industry, we were broadcast faxing. Now you can communicate online so immediately. Any agency person you talk to will say that the Internet has changed everything – first of all, it has sped everything up. There are so many more opportunities to target market; possibilities with the Internet are endless. It's been a challenge, but it's added a tremendous amount of diversity to my day-to-day role. On the PR side, it means you're publicizing yourself not only through print media, but also through online media and blogs. If we used to create one print ad, we're now creating five different versions of the same ad to communicate it through different spaces. It's a lot more activity, but it's also more exciting because your mind is constantly growing and changing. Everybody's life has changed."

No "Typical Day"

Ask Jennifer what a typical day of work for her is like, and you're more likely to elicit a chuckle than a concrete answer. Apparently, there is no such thing as a "typical" day at the Mart, which is the very thing that excites the indefatigable Jennifer and keeps Monday morning as fresh as Friday afternoon.

"There is not a typical day, which is probably why I've stayed for 15 years," she explains. "The Mart is a great place for people who really like a challenge, excitement, growth. A typical day is atypical…that's part of the reason why I've stayed so long. When I started here, the Mart was really different. Now it really is all about creative thinkers at the top level who are helping determine the best way to push our business forward. That means that we build communities…for our tenant base and for our exhibitors. The showrooms in our building, the art galleries, the temporary manufacturers and reps who exhibit in our space – it is our job to bring the audience to them. You have to be really creative about figuring out the best way to determine exactly who their audience is and how to get them here. There are a million and one ways to do that. Thinking of ways to get better and better at it – well, that's a typical day."

Jennifer's atypical-typical day is complemented by her position with the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association (GNMAA), where she is a co-chair for the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival. Being the expert marketer that she is, Jennifer recognizes that her role within GNMAA is mutually beneficial. "It's good for our company, it's good for me to have visibility for the Mart, and I've been able to create a great partnership," she says. Additionally, this wife and mother of two (daughter Aubrey is 11, and son Cooper is eight) actively supports the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. After Aubrey was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes a year ago, Jennifer and her husband, Scott Woolford, decided that something had to be done. They walked with 71 of their friends, family members, schoolmates and members of The Merchandise Mart family in the Walk-to-Cure-Diabetes. "We wanted to teach our children that you can get involved and try to make a difference about things that you wish you could change," said Jennifer.

To those envying her position, Jennifer offers this advice: "You have to get experience. You don't have to wait to get a job in order to gain experience in marketing – you can do a great internship or work on a charity community board. Surround yourself with as many creative thinkers as possible and conduct informational interviews in order to learn what it's really like. (At Bloomingdale's) I did not step into a high level job. I paid my dues, I wasn't afraid to work hard and, if I was going to do something, I was going to do it better than anyone else."