HMV and Waterstones marketing teams merge

HMV Group has consolidated the marketing divisions for HMV and Waterstone’s.

The two teams have been combined to form the new group marketing department, which will be led by Graham Sim in the newly-created role of group marketing director.

This new structure will come into effect on Monday, August 9th and will divide the retailer’s marketers into three teams.

The first will be group CRM, which will be responsible for purehmv and Waterstone’s card rewards schemes. The second will be brand marketing, which will oversee advertising and promotions across the Waterstone’s, HMV and Fopp brands.

Finally, the brand creative team will be responsible for in-store designs and displays, as well as other creative campaign activities. Each team will have smaller groups within them dedicated to either HMV or Waterstone’s to ensure the two brands retain a sense of unique identity.

HMV and Waterstone’s are two of the most appealing and iconic entertainment brands on the High Street and within the online arena,” said Sim.

So I’m particularly excited to be overseeing an imaginative new structure for the marketing teams which, in optimising access to the resources and expertise available across the Group, will further the support the ongoing development of both brands.

We are, however, fully conscious of the need to do this in a way that will preserve their individual identity and associated values and by working together cleverly in this way, I believe it will enable Waterstone’s and HMV to engage with their respective customers with even greater passion and emotional cut-through than ever.

As far as both sets of customers are concerned, they will continue to feel they are being engaged by two separate, distinct brands. On a more personal level, I couldn’t be more thrilled at this appointment, as my passion for music and film is matched only by my love of books. This really is the dream job for me.”