Where I learned how marketing actually operates

BabySquare was my first Canadian job. I quickly learned that a retail marketing calendar was never just a calendar. Annual and quarterly plans gave the work structure, but fixed deadlines, store needs, short-notice manufacturer campaigns, and social or cultural moments often arrived together. Online and in-store execution had to move together too.

A World Cup campaign tied a manufacturer's limited-edition stroller to a winner prediction. Customers could predict the tournament winner, and correct predictions entered a draw for the limited-edition stroller.

I learned to plan the work I could see coming without filling the calendar so tightly that there was no room for what I couldn't. During this period, my role grew from Marketing Coordinator (2018–2019) to Marketing Manager (2020–2021).

BabySquare served Chinese-speaking customers in Greater Vancouver, so the marketing calendar did not simply mirror standard Canadian retail. Lunar New Year, Double 11, and Double 12 could be relevant for particular customer contexts and offers.

The work was not just translation. A calendar moment mattered when it changed the customer context, product relevance, or timing. Around Lunar New Year, for example, we considered which products and information were genuinely useful for the occasion.

Earlier Chinese-language work included WeChat Official Account content, campaign copy, promotion, and customer communication. I later helped BabySquare begin experimenting with Xiaohongshu, although that work was still early when I left in 2021.

I learned that reaching a different audience could mean changing when and where we marketed, what products we highlighted, and how we framed the occasion—not simply translating the same campaign.

As campaign work repeated, I stopped treating every deliverable as a separate task. A campaign needed a sequence that connected the rules, the sales team, customer-facing assets, and the launch.

Before launch, store staff needed participating products, discount levels, dates, and channel availability. Some store promotions were not visible online, so frontline staff still needed to explain the campaign accurately.

Product publishing needed a workflow because brand materials could lack descriptions, details, or usable images. Manufacturer material came first; when it was incomplete, I checked official Canadian or U.S. sources and other useful references before completing the page.

Secondary product references could help fill information gaps, but details still had to be cross-checked before use.

Brands could set strict rules for logos, photography, approved assets, product presentation, and retailer advertising. Some reviewed authorized-retailer sites, so an accurate image was not automatically permitted or appropriate to publish.

That habit stayed with me: if a task was going to happen repeatedly, I wanted the checks and rules to be part of the process rather than something I had to remember each time.

The largest project was rebuilding BabySquare's website. The owner wanted a site that could better support mobile browsing, a large product catalog, online ordering, clearer product information, and future e-commerce growth.

The business considered Shopify and BigCommerce. BigCommerce was selected for its flexibility against the requirements at the time. An external agency handled technical implementation. I translated business needs into requirements and coordinated from the business side, while the owner reviewed major decisions.

Some requirements needed several revision rounds. As implementation exposed ambiguity, the requirements had to become more specific.

The catalog included obsolete, unavailable, or duplicate records and mismatched manufacturer/internal SKUs. Titles, descriptions, specifications, images, prices, categories, variants, and SEO metadata needed consistent handling.

I defined and reviewed product-page standards. A junior colleague completed much of the migration and later handled more daily publishing; I reviewed the work and continued managing banners and promotions.

The rebuild was already underway as COVID reshaped retail, and online ordering became more important during the pandemic.

Customers also researched online before asking familiar store staff to reserve products. I helped with early order handling before it was handed off. The rebuild became a working retail channel, not a one-time design project.

One Instagram campaign asked customers to submit photos and participate in a public vote. The goal was to increase engagement, but the resulting ranking was no longer reliable enough to support the original campaign mechanic.

The resolution changed. The finalists ultimately shared the prize pool instead of relying on the compromised ranking. I personally contacted the affected participants one by one to explain the decision and apologize for the experience.

The experience changed how I evaluated campaign design. I became more careful about how an incentive might change customer behaviour, how results would be verified, and what we would do if the original mechanism stopped producing a fair outcome.