As chief advertising and marketing officer of Uncommon Magnificence, Katie Welch has efficiently and thoughtfully used storytelling to attach with audiences.
“It’s so flattering and fantastic and kind of arduous to just accept, as a result of it’s a crew,” she mentioned, humbly, of being acknowledged by CEW as a pacesetter shaping the sweetness business. “It’s not simply me. I battle with it, as a result of every thing with Uncommon Magnificence, it’s the crew, it’s the sum of everybody who has contributed to the success of Selena’s firm.”
As in Selena Gomez, in fact, the founding father of Uncommon Magnificence and its nonprofit affiliate Uncommon Influence Fund, which works to develop psychological well being consciousness.
It was in September 2020 that Gomez launched the corporate alongside her crew that features Welch; chief govt officer Scott Friedman; chief digital officer Mehdi Mehdi; chief product improvement officer Joyce Kim; chief gross sales officer Kim Magee, and chief affect officer and president of the Uncommon Influence Fund Elyse Cohen.
They got down to not solely create a magnificence model, however to deliver constructive affect. (Greater than $20 million has been collected up to now for the fund, with 1 p.c of all Uncommon Magnificence gross sales going towards supporting 30 psychological well being organizations in 5 continents and reaching an annual common of 1.9 million younger folks. The aim is to lift $100 million.)
The model has additionally been profitable when it comes to web gross sales, clocking in at round $400 million in 2024.
Welch has been instrumental of the model’s mission and success.
“I mentioned to my crew simply yesterday, ‘It doesn’t matter what degree you might be, we’re all enjoying an instrument on this orchestra. All of us must make stunning music,’” she continued. “Each degree is so vital.”
Welch grew up in St. Louis and studied English literature at Denison College in Ohio earlier than shifting to New York.
“I didn’t actually even know that the sweetness business was one thing that you might have a profession in, as a result of it wasn’t round me,” she mentioned of her childhood. “And so they say, ‘In case you can’t see it, how will you be it?’ However I all the time beloved make-up. I’ve all the time been a make-up junkie.”
Her first job was an internship at Marie Claire underneath Glenda Bailey within the late Nineties. “I wished to be {a magazine} editor and a author,” she mentioned.
However life took her on a special path, and she or he went on to just accept a job supply from Macy’s after collaborating within the firm’s purchaser coaching program. “I used to be not in cosmetics. I used to be in baggage and frames, tremendous glamorous,” she laughed.
She then landed at varied corporations in retail and communication, together with Victoria’s Secret Magnificence, Weber Shandwick, Tractenberg & Co. — nevertheless it was as head of selling communications at Bliss in 2010 that she stepped into a number one position in magnificence advertising and marketing, adopted by positions at Hourglass Cosmetics (as chief advertising and marketing officer) and The Sincere Firm, earlier than making her mark at Uncommon Magnificence.
“Twenty-five years in the past, you’ll have the ability to push out a message and break by. Now it’s two-way. It’s push. It’s pull. It’s all of it. It’s actually a dialog along with your group,” she mentioned of notable shifts by the years in magnificence advertising and marketing.
“It’s important to take into consideration your model as a human, and it’s important to take heed to your group, take heed to their suggestions,” she added. “And I feel converse in a manner that’s distinctive to the model…It’s fascinating, as a result of magnificence is so private that I feel magnificence is the right business for in the present day’s fashionable advertising and marketing combine.”
The digital world permits for advertising and marketing autos with the flexibility to personalize and share storytelling in a manner that reaches prospects authentically, she mentioned. The business was once restricted to print advertisements, commercials, billboards and bodily retail.
“Social actually does permit you to create a world inside your model you could invite folks in, inform them not solely about your model however educate about product,” she mentioned. “Beforehand, the one manner you might do this was on the division retailer counter. You could possibly solely actually enter a world for magnificence by going right into a retail location or division retailer counter, whereas in the present day you are able to do that just about, 24-7, all over the world.”
Crucial pondering is a useful ability in advertising and marketing, she mentioned. “To have the ability to ask a query, assist clear up a enterprise drawback…and having countless curiosity, paired with dedication and decisiveness,” in addition to “empathy and compassion.”
With Uncommon Magnificence, Welch thinks in regards to the model in 3 ways, she mentioned: connecting group, high quality merchandise and its larger goal. “When you’ve gotten a fantastic product, a robust model, you’ve gotten the liberty to creatively inform that story, and that’s when the advertising and marketing job will get enjoyable.”
