{"id":9829,"date":"2015-11-24T15:53:32","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.prd.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/?p=9829"},"modified":"2015-11-25T19:34:56","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:34:56","slug":"working-for-play-erin-sullivan-mba04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/working-for-play-erin-sullivan-mba04\/","title":{"rendered":"Working for Play: Erin Sullivan, MBA’04"},"content":{"rendered":"

Would working at a toy company really be all fun and games? Erin Sullivan can tell you.<\/p>\n

She has worked at Mattel since landing a marketing internship while a student at Owen. Now senior director for Fisher-Price marketing, she has handled virtually every Mattel brand, except dolls, in her 11 years there.<\/p>\n

\"Erin_Sullivan\"
Erin Sullivan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere are times when I\u2019m at work, and I think I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m working, because I\u2019m playing with a toy or playing games, and I\u2019m doing it to see if it\u2019s fun. You need to be able to see the world from a child\u2019s point of view,\u201d she says. \u201cAt the same time, it is a Fortune 500 company. There are stockholders and expectations, and the job definitely requires a mix of creativity and analytic ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sullivan, who majored in political science at the University of Michigan, tried numerous occupations that helped her hone her interests to marketing before she arrived at Owen. When the time came for her internship, Mattel rose to the top of her list.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted a big company that had a group of good marketers, because not having a marketing background, I wanted to learn from the people around me,\u201d Sullivan says. Several Vanderbilt MBA alumni also worked at Mattel, so networking helped her land the internship. \u201cIt was a game changer.\u201d<\/p>\n

It might surprise people to know she finds similarities in Owen and Mattel. \u201cBoth are collaborative. At Mattel, as a marketer working with design, finance and operations, I collaborate with people who don\u2019t report to me and may have a lot more experience. I have to convince them to follow my lead,\u201d she says. \u201cIt takes a good mix of humility, confidence and Type A passion. I saw that at Owen as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sullivan has worked with some of Mattel\u2019s best-known brands, including Hot Wheels; licensed action figures for Batman, Toy Story<\/em> and Disney Pixar\u2019s Cars and Planes<\/em>; and created marketing strategy for games such as UNO, Scrabble and Pictionary. Now she is working with Fisher-Price preschool brands.<\/p>\n

A new mom, she is finding the Fisher-Price products she markets are the ones she prefers for her infant son. \u201cIt brings a whole new level of gratification to the work I do,\u201d she says. \u201cI can clearly see how they impact my child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sullivan says that while marketing fundamentals stay the same, there are differences in marketing techniques for different brands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what makes it fun,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019ve been at Mattel for so long. It doesn\u2019t get boring.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Would working at a toy company really be all fun and games? Erin Sullivan can tell you. She has worked at Mattel since landing a marketing internship while a student at Owen. Now senior director for Fisher-Price marketing, she has handled virtually every Mattel brand, except dolls, in her 11 years there. \u201cThere are times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":10008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-acts","category-departments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/365"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9829"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9958,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9829\/revisions\/9958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}