Maren Westphal – Strategie, Marke, Kommunikation, Marketing

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Career · Positions · Development

My professional path.

Retail and e-commerce, international brand communications, healthcare and B2B: in every position I have built and developed brands – with communications and marketing concepts from idea to launch.

Career

Many positions.
One common thread.

The positions differ, the common thread stays the same: sharpening brand identity and positioning, developing communications and marketing strategies and implementing them successfully together with specialist departments and partners.

SINCE 2021

conference-tv

Hamburg · B2B / Media technology

Digital Marketing Manager

On 1 February 2025, conference-tv Medientechnik GmbH took over the operating business – and me with it.

Since 02/2025 · conference-tv Medientechnik GmbH

Integrated communications and marketing processes

  • Responsibility for the entire online presence and its further development
  • Integrated campaigns and content strategy, including editorial planning and editorial meetings
  • Lead generation via content, SEO/GEO and SEA
  • Press relations

More responsibilities

  • Social media and executive communications: the management’s LinkedIn presence
  • Direct mailings
  • Market, competitor and customer analyses
  • Building a holistic marketing management system tailored to conference-tv
  • AI-supported, partly automated workflows, e.g. in product onboarding

04/2021–01/2025 · conference-tv GmbH & Co. KG

Brand building and website relaunch

  • Brand identity, brand messages, target groups and customer journey
  • Buyer personas and value proposition canvas
  • Concept development and relaunch of the entire website
  • Lead generation and customer retention

More responsibilities

  • Content strategy and implementation
  • Email marketing, social media and sales materials
  • Briefing and managing freelancers

2018–2021

Project-based brand consulting

Hamburg · Freelance

Positioning, brand identity & web presence

  • Brand positioning and personal branding, incl. USP, target groups and buyer personas
  • Workshops and support from idea to launch
  • Brand and web presences with WordPress, content and social media

2016–2017

miaVILLA

Wedel · Home & Living

Head of Onsite, Campaign and Content Management

  • Transformation from a catalogue-driven to an online-first business model
  • Brand positioning and brand strategy, including a target group workshop
  • Brand, catalogue and website relaunch and further development of the online shop
  • Press relations, including a stand at a press event in Hamburg and visits to editorial offices in Hamburg and Munich
  • Staff, agency and budget responsibility
  • Ended by the insolvency of the parent company

More responsibilities

  • Integrated campaign management
  • Social media and influencer marketing
  • Photo and product shoots
  • Newsletters and direct mailings
  • Amazon: selecting products and writing product copy (bullet points) for listing on Amazon, together with the partnerships department
  • Liaising with purchasing, sales, customer service and logistics

2014–2016

UKE

Hamburg · Healthcare

Marketing Officer, Corporate Communications

  • New corporate mission statement from the initial idea (the brief) to the launch, including the concept and implementation of the internal communications strategy: a bottom-up process with project coordination, a digital employee survey, a large-scale event and workshops with executives and middle management, some of which I facilitated myself
  • Anniversary campaign “125 Years of UKE”, online and offline: media, advertising and communication measures, including supporting the City Hall event team at the Senate reception
  • Strategic and operational management of the UKE corporate brand, also for the Children’s UKE and the Hamburg City Health Study

More responsibilities

  • Partnerships with HSV and the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB)
  • Supported the online relaunch as brand manager
  • Events such as the groundbreaking and foundation stone ceremonies of the Children’s UKE

2012–2013

Female Branding

Hamburg & DACH

Freelance trainer & speaker

  • Brand and marketing consulting
  • Workshops, talks and webinars
  • Personal branding and female leadership
  • Brand strategy, integrated communications and e-commerce

2008–2012

Swarovski CRYSTALLIZED

Wattens, Austria · International brand environment

Head of Communications

  • Building and managing the international brand
  • 360° communications: ads, advertorials, inserts and outdoor advertising, online, POS, visual merchandising and events
  • Relaunch of the brand website and its development into an online shop
  • Leading a seven-person communications team, budget and agency responsibility

More responsibilities

  • Marketing campaigns for the store openings in London, New York, Shanghai and Vienna
  • Photo shoots for key visuals and products
  • Content, social media and email marketing
  • Press relations together with the Swarovski group press department: briefing and approval of press releases, press material for press events
  • English as the corporate and agency language

1998–2008

OTTO / LASCANA

Hamburg · Retail & e-commerce

From catalogue marketing via e-commerce to building the LASCANA brand

2006–2008

Marketing Team Lead, LASCANA

  • Multichannel roll-out: LASCANA’s own stores in Hamburg, Wiesbaden and Düsseldorf as well as shop-in-shop spaces in Baden-Baden and Itzehoe
  • Brand management and internal and external brand communications, including press relations
  • Development of the lascana.de brand website into an online shop
  • Leading the marketing team including apprentices and interns, budget and agency responsibility

More responsibilities

  • Marketing activities for each store opening, including events and fashion shows
  • Media, advertising and social media
  • Visual merchandising, merchandising, POS and sales promotion

2001–2008

E-Commerce Manager and Project Lead, LASCANA

As Project Lead, LASCANA

  • Development and implementation of a multichannel concept for lingerie and swimwear, from idea to launch – catalogue, online and brick-and-mortar retail
  • Brand identity: naming, positioning, target group and corporate design
  • Brand launch in the OTTO catalogue and on lascana.de as a shop-in-shop on otto.de, later developed into a separate brand website

More responsibilities

  • Market, competitor and customer analyses, including research trips to Paris, London, New York and Barcelona to study lingerie and swimwear concepts
  • Market research in direct contact with customers: employee and customer surveys supported by the sales team, as well as lingerie parties along the lines of Tupperware parties
  • Store design concept for brick-and-mortar retail
  • Project team supported by apprentices and interns

As E-Commerce Manager, Lingerie and Swimwear

  • Online ranges for lingerie and swimwear on otto.de, otto.at and otto.nl
  • Growth strategy based on market and competitor analyses – resulting in a dedicated swimwear catalogue and the multichannel concept including brick-and-mortar retail
  • Partnerships with content providers such as Bild, AOL and T-Online, and a star shop on otto.de with Heidi Klum and Verona Pooth (then Feldbusch)

More responsibilities

  • Sales promotion and merchandising, e.g. for the swimwear catalogue, as well as presentations to sales, textile buying and VIP customers
  • Project lead for cross-functional topics: teleshopping, direct sales and shop-in-shop concepts on otto.de
  • First line-management responsibility: a Junior E-Commerce Manager

1999–2000

Catalogue marketing, textiles

  • Advising the buying department on range, target group, price and communication
  • Market, competitor and customer analyses
  • Strategic optimisation of the Lufthansa Sky Shop catalogue

1998–1999

Diploma thesis in the jewellery buying department

  • Concept and implementation of a private label in jewellery
  • Market and portfolio analyses as the basis for negotiations with brand manufacturers
  • Large-scale customer survey supported by the sales team as the basis for the private label

1996–1997

Beiersdorf

Hamburg · Branded goods

Marketing Internship, Dermatology

  • Sales promotion for the brands Laceran and Epogam: shop windows, displays, brochures, ads and photo shoots
  • Managing the internal marketing planning system together with the controlling department
  • Cooperation with purchasing, logistics, field sales, agencies and print shops

1994–1999

University of Hamburg

Degree

Diplom-Kauffrau (degree in Business Administration)

  • Business administration with a focus on marketing and human resources
  • Diploma thesis at OTTO: concept and implementation of a private label in jewellery

Further professional and practical experience in Germany and abroad

1997

Pacific Press, Vancouver

Internship abroad in marketing and sales (6 weeks), alongside business school courses

  • My own project in reader sales & service for the daily newspapers
  • Concept for increasing sales: research, analysis and presentation
  • According to the reference letter, the ideas and presentation were to be implemented

1995

Holsten

Internship in marketing (product management)

  • End-to-end handling of cooperative advertising for Foster’s and Duckstein – with field sales, print shop and media agency
  • My own project: preparing the label changeover for numerous Holsten brands
  • Insight into the interplay of product management, purchasing, production and sales

1991–1993

Hamburger Sparkasse

Apprenticeship as a bank clerk

  • Customer advice and service in the branch network
  • Lending, deposit and service business
  • Final examination at the Chamber of Commerce, followed by a permanent position

1978–1991

School education

Completed with the Abitur (German university entrance qualification)

Selected qualifications & learning areas

Learning is part of my path.

Professional foundations, new perspectives and digital development – a selection of my professional development courses.

2012

Business Trainer

Coatrain, including the trainer aptitude exam (AEVO) at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce

2024–2025

Digital Marketing

OMR Marketing Academy

2026 · completed

AI & Conversational AI

DISTART

Further learning areas

Marketing, PR & digital skills

  • Online marketing (EBAM)
  • Online Marketing Manager (SMA)
  • PR Specialist (IST)
  • Google Zukunftswerkstatt
  • Workshops and conferences of the German Marketing Association

Languages

German & English

  • German: native
  • English: very good command (B2) – corporate language at Swarovski, currently working towards C1

What this looks like in practice.

Discover my concepts

More about me →