{"id":3740,"date":"2026-01-20T12:34:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T12:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=3740"},"modified":"2026-01-20T12:41:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T12:41:43","slug":"connecting-past-and-present-how-my-history-degrees-led-me-into-heritage-marketing-and-retail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=3740","title":{"rendered":"Connecting past and present: how my history degrees led me into heritage marketing and retail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Below, UoP history alumni Nia Picton-Phillips writes about how her experiences at Portsmouth gave her the skills she needed to succeed in heritage marketing and retail at Chippenham Museum in Wiltshire.\u00a0 Nia studied for a BA and then an MRes in history, researching holocaust memorialisation, with Dr Mathias Seiter as her supervisor.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always had a passion for history and learning about the past, so when I was applying for university and writing my UCAS personal statement, I imagined that I\u2019d spend my career as a historian, completing a PhD, specialising in a particular field, and becoming an expert. Perhaps that is still true in a way, as I\u2019ll never rule anything out, but as I\u2019ve navigated life after university, my history degrees have taken me far beyond what I thought possible.<\/p>\n

Deciding what you want to do with your life after university can often feel pressurised, confusing, and overwhelming. You might think that whatever you do next has to be directly connected to the degree you\u2019ve just spent years studying, otherwise what was it all for? I remember the excitement I felt when I got my first job in a museum after completing my master\u2019s degree research. It was in London, as the Retail and Admissions Supervisor at the National Army Museum, and I felt so accomplished. At the same time, I was disheartened that I was staying in a retail role, a sector I\u2019d been working in since the age of fourteen. However, in the years since, I\u2019ve come to realise that it doesn\u2019t matter if your career moves away from your degree subject. What matters is taking the lessons and skills with you wherever you go. When I think about my path from history to retail and marketing, I\u2019ve realised that my degrees have, in fact, prepared me exceptionally well for what I am doing today.<\/p>\n

\"Photograph<\/a>

Chippenham Museum<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

In my current role as Museum Services Officer, I am responsible for the retail and marketing at Chippenham Museum. One of the most surprising aspects of my job is how much I draw on what you learn about people when studying history. A history degree immerses you in centuries of human behaviour: what motivated people, the actions they took, and how attitudes, beliefs, religion, and much more shaped the past. I carry this into almost everything I do now, because the skills you learn from history, particularly of understanding people and their motivations, are essential in both retail and marketing.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>

Some of the exhibits at the museum<\/p><\/div>\n

For retail\u00a0especially, understanding people and their habits is\u00a0crucial. My degrees\u00a0gave me the foundations to\u00a0explore\u00a0why consumers buy, how they respond, what they expect,\u00a0and\u00a0how they behave. This knowledge helps\u00a0me make better decisions when\u00a0choosing\u00a0product ranges,\u00a0planning\u00a0merchandising, and\u00a0even\u00a0something as seemingly\u00a0simple as pricing. Studying history\u00a0taught me\u00a0to look beneath the surface, ask questions that\u00a0expand on what is in front of me,\u00a0and\u00a0recognise\u00a0patterns\u00a0and context.<\/p>\n

From start to finish, I\u00a0am responsible for\u00a0the retail lifecycle. Using the museum collection, galleries, and temporary exhibitions, I plan product ranges to support the programme, making sure they\u00a0link\u00a0to and extend the stories we tell. Much\u00a0of what we do at the museum is connected to local people, stories, and community\u00a0heritage, so it is\u00a0important\u00a0that the work I do\u00a0reflects and\u00a0maintains\u00a0these connections. I work with many local artists and makers, some on bespoke products, some to\u00a0support specific\u00a0exhibitions,\u00a0and\u00a0others simply\u00a0as a\u00a0meaningful way of supporting small local businesses.\u00a0These relationships matter not only for the retail side of the museum, but also for the stories we share. Knowing the people behind the products helps us connect with visitors,\u00a0which in turn supports our targets and key performance indicators (KPIs)\u00a0by converting visits into sales that help to support the museum\u2019s work.\u00a0But at the heart of it all,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0still\u00a0about people,\u00a0the connections we build, and\u00a0the skills we\u00a0bring with us.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>

Some of Nia’s merchandise on display<\/p><\/div>\n

As a historian, you spend a lot of time analysing all types of source material, searching for inferences, contradictions,\u00a0and evidence\u00a0to support your\u00a0argument\u00a0or research question. Much of this\u00a0rings true\u00a0in\u00a0a career in retail and marketing. Instead of analysing\u00a0a\u00a0William Hogarth engraving for visual imagery and\u00a0its\u00a0depiction of\u00a0public execution, religion, and\u00a0the\u00a0hierarchical infrastructure\u00a0of\u00a0eighteenth-century\u00a0society, I\u00a0now\u00a0analyse sales data,\u00a0social media performance, link clicks, audience demographics\u00a0–\u00a0the list goes on. The ability to look closely at the details,\u00a0build a bigger picture,\u00a0and notice what is not\u00a0immediately\u00a0visible\u00a0is essential for my job. I\u00a0produce\u00a0reports, regularly assess the performance of retail and marketing,\u00a0and\u00a0use data\u00a0as evidence for\u00a0why a\u00a0particular\u00a0product is selling\u00a0well\u00a0or\u00a0why\u00a0a social media post has\u00a0unusually high\u00a0engagement. Studying history gave me the analytical skills I rely on every day to understand information, justify decisions, and make improvements.<\/p>\n

In both\u00a0of\u00a0my dissertations,\u00a0I followed a particular line of interest: the representation of history,\u00a0especially\u00a0the Holocaust.\u00a0I\u00a0first\u00a0explored\u00a0how it\u00a0is portrayed\u00a0in\u00a0literature\u00a0for young readers,\u00a0and\u00a0then,\u00a0for my\u00a0MRes\u00a0dissertation,\u00a0examined\u00a0its commodification\u00a0at\u00a0concentration camp memorial sites.\u00a0While Chippenham Museum has its own historical past, it is not tied to\u00a0the same level of\u00a0difficult\u00a0questions\u00a0I\u00a0encountered\u00a0during this research. However, what I learned has been invaluable. It taught me how to approach marketing and retail with\u00a0care, how to\u00a0complement visitors\u2019 experiences\u00a0rather than distract from them,\u00a0and how\u00a0to keep products\u00a0and\u00a0social media\u00a0content\u00a0relevant, sensitive, approachable, and purposeful.\u00a0The ethics and research practices I\u00a0developed\u00a0during\u00a0my studies now help me\u00a0handle\u00a0Chippenham\u2019s stories and people with care.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>

Some of Nia’s merchandise on display<\/p><\/div>\n

Looking back,\u00a0I can see how my\u00a0history degrees gave me the foundation for a career I could not have imagined when I first applied\u00a0to university. The research, storytelling, and analytical skills, amongst many others,\u00a0that\u00a0I developed and\u00a0refined during my time at the\u00a0University\u00a0of Portsmouth, continue to inform my work every day.\u00a0My degrees opened doors for me,\u00a0and\u00a0I hope\u00a0that\u00a0through this blog that you\u00a0can\u00a0see that\u00a0a degree in history will open doors for you, too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Below, UoP history alumni Nia Picton-Phillips writes about how her experiences at Portsmouth gave her the skills she needed to succeed in heritage marketing and retail at Chippenham Museum in Wiltshire.\u00a0 Nia studied for a BA and then an MRes in history, researching holocaust memorialisation, with Dr Mathias Seiter as her supervisor. I\u2019ve always had a passion for history and learning about the past, so when I was applying for university and writing my UCAS personal statement, I imagined that I\u2019d spend my career as a historian, completing a PhD, specialising in a particular field, and becoming an expert. Perhaps that is still true in a way, as I\u2019ll never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[540,731,18,1],"tags":[524,86,896,27,249,898,456,20,717,25,899,897],"class_list":["post-3740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-employability","category-public-history","category-uncategorized","tag-alumni","tag-careers","tag-chippenham-museum","tag-heritage","tag-holocaust","tag-marketing","tag-memorial","tag-memory","tag-mres","tag-public-memory","tag-retail","tag-wiltshire"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p91PlX-Yk","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3740"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3755,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3740\/revisions\/3755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}