Get to Know Shelby Harrison
To learn more about Shelby, from the best advice she's received in her shopper marketing career to who her hero is, check out her interview below!
I love shopper marketing because...
I love that it focuses on human behavior. I love learning how people work, how big world events happen, and how those events adjust shopper behavior. We can cater and change to evolve with our shoppers. I love that shoppers are getting smarter. They continue to see through a ton of branded material and want something a little more personal including ads that feel curated to them. I think that's awesome and it gets them closer to conversion as well. I also love being able to optimize campaigns and get better over time. The more data we collect, the better the shopper experience. I think the psychology behind it is interesting – what makes people tick and how certain people purchase in certain ways or certain people who shop at specific retailers focus on specific ways to purchase. I really enjoy the personification and how it evolves. It fascinates me and it doesn't get boring.
The best advice I've received in my shopper marketing career is...
I love the idea that we don't stop learning.
Be curious and think critically – want to know more. I think this applies to me in life as it does to work. I love the idea that we don't stop learning. I think we stand in our own way when we just plug and play and do the same thing every time. Be curious or have that desire to sharpen yourself or learn more, even just through listening to a podcast or reading something you wouldn't normally do. Early on in my marketing career, I had an amazing boss that told me to present a problem with an answer like, “I'm presenting bad news but here are some solutions." I know that's really table stakes, but that's something I was lucky enough to learn early on and I think that's been beneficial for me.
Something I've learned in the past week is...
I've been researching habits and ways to adjust your lifestyle. I thought this statement was super powerful – “If you're trying to change something, you can't think your way through it, you have to act your way through it," so I learned about habit stacking. I think it's fascinating, and it kind of goes back to the interesting psychology, the way our brains work, and what we will and won't act on. I will go for a morning walk, but I have a call with a friend in the morning at the same time where we'll talk about our day and plan for it. It's such a great way to start the day, and I think it's a little reward to have the conversation while I'm doing it, especially if it's cold out and I'm not really wanting to bundle up and go walk. Or listening to a podcast while I'm doing laundry, so it's a reward while I'm doing the work. I think that's so interesting. It’s something as we’re getting close to the end of the year and I’m trying to see what I want to work on in 2023, and that feels tangible – they’re little actions that create big changes.
If I weren't in shopper marketing, I would want my career to be...
I would love to be a writer. Storytelling is something that is essential in my family. Every time we all get together there's always food involved, and we're in the kitchen just telling the same stories of funny misadventures that happened. It’s something that's been threaded through my childhood – the stories of our grandparents and the importance of knowing their history. We’ll talk about “Oh my gosh, I did this because it reminds me of my grandmother” and things like that. I would love to have the ability to tell a story on paper that makes someone feel a certain way.
My favorite travel spot is...
Whitefish, MT. One of my best friends from when I was around 18, we've grown up together, has a spot up in Whitefish, MT, and she's wonderful to share it with me. We have a group of three of us that go, and we've gone for every season. We go in the summer and go hike Glacier, then we've gone in the fall and seen the leaves change, and we've gone in the winter. It’s a beautiful space and the hiking is ridiculous. They have this cute little downtown with breweries and you can walk there. It's just the nicest that she shares the space with me and it's something I look forward to. We try to go once a year or twice a year if we're lucky, but it’s such a silver lining.
If I could have an unlimited supply of one thing, it would be...
Dog food! I feel like I'm always running out…always! I have two dogs, so I am just constantly saying “I have to go back to the grocery store to buy more dog food”. That's probably a strange answer either that or Starbursts because I love having those on hand. When I first moved into a house years ago, as a housewarming gift, my friend mailed me this care package and it had Starbursts. I put them in a wine carafe, and I've always had it on hand and refilled it. It's like a little bit of happiness in the middle of the day.
My hero is...
My mom – 100%. She had me when she was a little bit older, and we've been laughing since day one. She is the epitome of a strong woman, a creative strong woman, and has just always marched to the beat of her own drum – from the things she wears to the way she paints to the way she interacts with people. She does things differently and thrives in them. It's the most wonderful thing. From day one, she always wore turquoise. It was always a thing and it's like she was cool before it was cool. She always talked about the importance of being independently happy by yourself, being different, and thriving in being different, which I think is just the coolest lesson. I'm still figuring that out even in my late 30s, but she's just been the ultimate role model.
The coolest or most important trend I see today in CPG is...
I feel like I've been a broken record here, but curated experiences. I'd read an article that talked about how as elder millennials, myself included, curated experiences really get you closer to conversion. Even if it's just something that's asking you questions like what you guys [Breaktime Media] do with quizzes. It feels like it's specific to you. I'll totally engage. I know that we get a lot of information from our shoppers, but I do think it makes for a better shopper experience, so you’re not just being bombarded with branding. By taking in that information, people feel like it's more thoughtfully curated. I love that we have the technology to do that.
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