23 - Shelley Haus, Ulta Beauty

In Episode 23 of Earned, Conor sits down with Shelley Haus, CMO of consumer- (and brand-) favorite retailer Ulta Beauty. We start with Shelley’s journey from breakfast to beauty, and hear a bit about her time as marketing director for the Quaker breakfast portfolio before learning why she was drawn into the world of beauty. We then dive into Ulta Beauty’s evolution over the last few years, and Shelley shares how she and the team rethought the brand’s identity and value proposition to help bring Ulta Beauty to life and forge meaningful connections with consumers. We discuss how Ulta Beauty navigated the pandemic internally and externally, including the retailer’s transition to a full e-commerce business, and chat through the day-to-day of Shelley’s role as CMO. Additionally, we explore Ulta Beauty’s relationships with its brand partners, and how the retailer nurtures brand growth through beauty spend data and campaign exposure. Finally, we learn where Shelley sees Ulta Beauty going in the next five years (and of course, we talk about influencer marketing), before closing the episode with a sneak preview of the brand’s exciting new partnership with Target.