Nicknamed “the Kris Jenner of Marketing,” Kent State University alumna Mary Seats knows what it takes to build a powerful brand.
Graduating from Kent State in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science in Fashion Merchandising, Seats today is the founder of the full-service marketing consultancy Icing Agency as well as Bakery Cowork, a creative coworking space that currently boasts more than 100 monthly members and features a photography studio, event space and podcast studio.
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Seats started her marketing empire from the ground up. According to a Forbes article about Seats and her marketing savvy, she launched her first business – a fashion brand called Cupcake Mafia – in 2011 with just $300. Her company grew into a $2.4 million business in four short years but ended in a loss due to an acquisition that went wrong. The deal cost her the business and ended up with Seats sleeping on an air mattress, according to the Forbes article.
Today, Seats is “highly sought after for her expertise in building brand campaigns and strategies that generate massive brand recognition and sales,” the article stated. Seats shared in the Forbes article that she combined the tools she acquired while a student at Kent State with her own passion and grit to create the successes she enjoys today.
“I took my formal education and did the work,” Seats told Forbes. “I studied. I loved my craft, and I worked endlessly and entirely to make something of it.”
Following the trials of her first business launch, Seats dusted herself off and went back to work. She founded the Icing Agency in 2015, with the aim of helping other entrepreneurs and business owners, particularly minority female founders. She told Forbes she’s also dedicated to giving back to her community through mentorship of young women in Greater Atlanta, in addition to hosting retreats, conferences and webinars focused on entrepreneurial-driven women and girls.
“I just want to be the person that shows other women that not only can they [succeed] but give them the resources to do it,” Seats told Forbes.
Read more about Seats and her top marketing tips in Forbes.
Learn more about Kent State’s Fashion Merchandising program.