INTERNATIONAL. Sue Gosling, former Marketing Director and more recently Chief Brand and Culture Officer at Harding+, has joined fashion and lifestyle brand DENIZEN Destination as a strategic advisor.
She will bring her many years of experience in brand and retail strategy, and her deep travel retail knowhow, to help DENIZEN Destination capitalise on the fast-growing destination retail category.
Gosling, who stepped down from her role at Harding+ in February, has worked with over 200 brands in the travel retail space at World Duty Free and Harding+, co-creating brand strategies and customer experiences driven by data and insight, and championing the value of collaboration across all parties in any retail mix.
She was responsible for creating, developing and implementing the in-store digital media marketing programmes for both Dufry and Harding+, and has a track record of driving strong financial returns through innovative and engagement-led marketing.
Gosling’s consultancy role is in addition to her post as Duty Free World Academy Chair.
DENIZEN Destination opens up a new chapter for the DENIZEN business as it celebrates its 40th anniversary as a jewellery brand. Denizen is designed to match the growing demand for localised merchandise that helps travellers celebrate and mark their own Sense of Place in their world. The brand’s mission over the next three years is to become the number one destination merchandise brand in global travel retail and related channels.
Explaining the partnership, Sue Gosling said: “A key part of my career has been focused on working with brands and partners to land well-targeted blends of right product, engaging experiences and relevant strategies for the specific needs of individual customers. Drawing upon my extensive industry knowledge, and front-line experience of building destination and Sense of Place-led offers in cruise, means the insights I can bring to the partnership with Denizen will be grounded in how the destination category works now and can work even smarter in the future.
“Destination jewellery is a category with massive potential to make a real difference, and is very much a customer-driven opportunity, with training, development and best practice sitting at the heart of commercial success. I’m looking forward to helping Denizen achieve the brand and market potential that they truly deserve and working with key partners to achieve this.
“With experience in both the cruise and airport industries, I can bring an understanding that combines the remote team elements of shipboard needs, team development and extended customer exposure with the fast-paced, often time-driven interactions of airside realities.”
DENIZEN Destination Managing Director Estelle Baumann said: “I am delighted that Sue has chosen to support us on our strategic journey. We have much to offer as a brand in what is still an untapped opportunity for bespoke jewellery and mementoes of life that matter to individuals globally.
“Sue’s experience of working with key retail partners, across the spectrum of travel retail, and with breadth of experience of what really works, will be key for our next stage. And as she is already a practical and forward-looking champion of destination retail as a category, the partnership is an exciting one.” ✈
*Click here for an interview with Estelle Baumann on DENIZEN Destination’s growth ambitions.
**As reported, DENIZEN Destination has become the exclusive media partner for The Moodie Davitt Report’s extensive coverage of the all-important Sense of Place concept and of related destination merchandise and jewellery content.
