About marketingGraduate TrainingDigital MarketingProduct MarketingCreative and Design3 Minute TestEmployee stories
With a team of 30 professional marketers, 288 Group provides some of the best marketing career opportunities in Dorset.
The Westminster Collection
Comprising 4 key disciplines, the Marketing Department sits right at the centre of The Westminster Collection’s business.
Product Management
The product management team are the business managers of the company. They are responsible for the lifecycle of each and every product, from the initial product concept, through development, sourcing and buying, to the final marketing strategy and analysis.
Digital Marketing
Our team of Digital Marketing Executives work alongside product managers to provide a full range of digital marketing, including managing the online product catalogue, email marketing, search, and paid-for display advertising. They also support social media activity.
Offline Marketing
Our Offline Communications Team, mail over 4 million pieces of mail a year and advertise extensively in the national press and on TV.
Creative
Our team of designers produce a real range of creative work from new coin designs and product packaging, to print-ready advertising artwork, as well as a whole host of digital graphics. We also have in-house video production, which we use for TV ad production and online videos.
Sitters
Sitters operates its own Marketing team encompassing brand, digital and social marketing.
We have 25 years’ experience recruiting and developing graduates trainees in marketing roles.
Central to the success of our Marketing Department is the recruitment and development of graduates. A number of our key positions, including Head of Digital Marketing and even Managing Director started their career with 288 Group as Graduate Trainees. Many others have gone on to develop their marketing careers in senior marketing roles within organisations such as the RSPB, Nationwide, RBS and Blue Square.
What we offer Graduate Trainees
After an initial four-week induction, we’ll give a “real job” from day one in one of the following roles:
- Junior Product Manager – working on the development, merchandising and marketing of a specific group of products.
- Junior Digital Marketing Exec – managing products online, producing email marketing and executing digital advertising campaigns.
- Junior Marketing Exec – co-ordinating our offline advertising activity, including direct mail and national press advertising.
You may remain in a single role for your 2 year training period or you may move between positions.
As well as extensive on-the-job experience, we also offer you a £5,000 tailored personal training budget to include:
- The Essentials of Digital Marketing or The Essentials of Direct Marketing – during your first 3 months.
- Specific training courses to suit your requirements, for example: Excel, Assertiveness, Time Management
Our Graduate Training timeline below shows a typical training plan for a graduate in their first 2 years.
As well as a good salary, you receive 25 days holiday a year + your birthday off, and we’ll cover the cost of your Student Loan repayments during your first 5 years. In addition, you receive a number of other benefits and perks.
A successful graduate can expect to be earning up to £30,000 + bonus after 2 years.
Regular Assessment and Feedback
It’s always difficult to know how you are developing when you first set out on your career. That’s why we have a system of regular assessment and feedback that helps ensure your development is on-track during your first two years.
What we are looking for
Don’t worry, we are not looking for Marketing experts. What we do want is bright, keen and enthusiastic people with some common-sense and general knowledge.
Most successful candidates have 3 B-grades or better at A-level and a 2.i degree but neither are essential if you stand-out as been an excellent candidate in other ways.
Similarly, we often recruit candidates with English, History or Humanities degrees, as well as Marketing and Business, but equally we have employed candidates with Maths and Drama degrees.
Your personality and drive are the most important factors; we’re here to help develop your work and marketing skills.
Watch James’ Story – one of our Graduate Trainees
HOW TO APPLY
We typically advertise Graduate Trainee position 2 to 3 times a year. If it is not listed in the Current Vacancies below, you can click here to register to receive a notification when we are next recruiting.
To apply, you will need to complete the online application process, providing us with your C.V. and a covering letter. If we like what we see, we’ll invite you to an Assessment Day with between 6 and 10 other graduates.
The internet provides an ideal platform to tell the engaging stories that help people really get into collecting. Consequently digital marketing is at the heart of what we do, and we have a team of Digital Marketing Executives working to support the business in the following areas:
- Email campaigns
- Paid advertising on Facebook, Google and other platforms
- Content generation and marketing
- Social media
- Testing new platforms and technologies
With such a diverse range of brands, products and campaigns, digital marketing at 288 Group is different every day and provides an exciting challenge in a fast paced environment.
We have a strong social media presence, with a particularly active Facebook community of Change Checkers, who also use our Web App to collect and swap the coins in the their pocket.
Product Management
Our experienced product management team forms the backbone of the Marketing Department, with responsibility for everything to do with the product from the initial concept, through its development, managing the supply change and planning and implementing the final marketing.
In effect each Product Manager, who looks after their own range of products, has their very own business, with true responsibility for its sales and profitability.
Our team of designers produce a real range of creative work from new coin designs and product packaging, to print-ready advertising artwork, as well as a whole host of digital graphics. We also have in-house video production, which we use for TV ad production and online videos.
3 Minute Marketing Suitability Test
Due to the nature of our business, we expect all members of the marketing team to have a basic level of maths and English. As many of the products that we offer also have a background in British history and / or current events, we also look for some evidence that you have a reasonable level of general knowledge
We normally ask people to complete a quick test at interview. Take a look at the questions below to see how you would get on with the test at interview.
A. General Knowledge
1. Between which years did the Second World War take place?
2. Who is the Duke of Cambridge better known as?
3. What is the capital of Germany?
4. Who was the UK’s first female Prime Minister?
5. Who became king after the Battle of Hastings in 1066?
B. Maths
1. A marketing campaign went to an audience of 25,000 customers and achieved a response rate of 5%. How many customers responded?
2. A product is selling for £80. We offer a 20% discount. What is the new selling price?
3. A product sells for £10. It costs £4. We have a marketing cost of £18,000. How many products do we need to sell to break-even? For the purposes of this question, you can assume there is no VAT or any other additional costs.
C. English
Please correct any grammatical mistakes you find in the paragraph below.
The westminster Collection is Britains leading independent distributor of commemorative coins. As a member of the marketing team your expected to work closely with a number of mints’, bying there coins on a wholesale basis and marketing them to UK collectors.
Answers
Other than for design positions, we are looking for candidates who are able to achieve a minimum of 60% on this test.
A. General Knowledge
1. Between which years did the Second World War take place? 1939 – 45
2. Who is the Duke of Cambridge better known as? Prince William
3. What is the capital of Germany? Berlin
4. Who was the UK’s first female Prime Minister? Margaret Thatcher
5. Who became king after the Battle of Hastings in 1066? William the Conqueror (William I)
B. Maths
1. A marketing campaign went to an audience of 25,000 customers and achieved a response rate of 5%. How many customers responded? 1,250
2. A product is selling for £80. We offer a 20% discount. What is the new selling price? £64.00
3. A product sells for £10. It costs £4. We have a marketing cost of £18,000. How many products do we need to sell to break-even? For the purposes of this question, you can assume there is no VAT or any other additional costs. 3,000 products
C. English
Please correct any grammatical mistakes you find in the paragraph below.
The Westminster Collection is Britain’s leading independent distributor of commemorative coins. As a member of the marketing team you’re expected to work closely with a number of mints, buying their coins on a wholesale basis and marketing them to UK collectors.
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