Name: Francesca Harrison
Job title: Marketing manager
Age: 24
Company & location: Oato, Preston
Education: BA Management with Marketing (IND) at University of Leeds
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? I had a short stint of aspiring to be a professional swimmer. However, I quickly knew I wanted to do something creative and landed on marketing pretty early on.
Why did you decide to go for a career in food & drink? My love for fun and quirky brands whilst also being obsessed with food, cooking and baking. I’ve always been interested in upcoming plant-based launches and innovation in this space. Oato hits the nail on the head being a fresh product and category first in the dairy-alt fixture, whilst also having huge sustainability credentials with support from the traditional milk rounds throughout the UK and Scotland.
“Having a proactive and go-getting attitude is key, especially if you’re keen to go for challenger brands”
Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): As a marketing manager at Oato, I work on our activities across organic and paid social, events strategy, partnerships, influencers, retail launches, milk round activations, campaign development and our NPD pipeline.
What does a typical day look like for you? Every day is super different and varied, which is what I love about working in fmcg. It can involve working on our social media strategy and content planning, to developing our brand and TOV. The next could be planning for or executing events to get as many people as possible sampling fresh Oato. As a scaling brand we need to be super adaptable to on-going goals and objectives and be able to jump on different tasks whilst remaining commercially aware of the current trends within fmcg both in retail and online.
Tell us how you went about applying for your job: I saw my job advertised via YF on LinkedIn, and applied online. I then had a two-stage interview process, the second being in-person on-site in Preston. It was great to see the actual factory and appreciate that at Oato everything is done on-site.
What is the best part about working for a food & drink company? Building a community and bringing them along on the journey to grow the brand. When you have such a great product and seeing the positive feedback from sampling and influencer sends is really rewarding. Having such a wide distribution via the milk-rounds it’s great to see so many people use the much-loved tradition, also helping to support local businesses whilst reducing our impact on the environment.
Plus the free oat milk when you’re a coffee snob isn’t bad.
And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? There is an overall awareness needed of top-line commercials and a good understanding of logistics that underpins a lot of activations. Especially as a scaling company, it’s important to step back and look at the bigger picture, keeping a solid level of awareness of the market and to consider the importance of long term brand building.
Read more on plant-based:
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Lidl triples plant-based range and sets new sales targets to support climate goals
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Veganuary founder launches anti-RSPCA Assured campaign
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Breakthrough moment for lab-grown meat as government backs fast-track testing
What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? Find what you love. Within food and drink there are so many categories and sectors and having a passion and knowledge for relevant brands and innovations will help you stand out when applying. Also having a proactive and go-getting attitude is key, especially if you’re keen to go for challenger brands. Be prepared to think outside the box and bring something new and valuable to the team.
What’s your ultimate career dream? I’d love to stay in food and drink, exploring more within the wellness space. I really enjoy managing people and would love to have my own team.
Interested in finding out more about food & drink careers? Check out GrocerJobs for the latest vacancies
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