Internship report
Name
Institution
MY INTERNSHIP REPORT AS MARKETING EXECUTIVE AT GAINWELL COMPANY LIMITED
INTRODUCTION
Gainwell marketing company limited is one of the world’s largest marketing companies. The company bases in Guangdong, china, and it provides its marketing services to most of the fortune five companies not only in china but also throughout the whole world. With an employee base of over four hundred staff members, the company provides employment to many people. During marketing contracts, the company normally hires temporary staff on a contract basis to help in carrying out the duties it is entitled to undertake. It has a financial base of over five hundred million US dollars and is the biggest marketing company in china. The company was formed in the id nineties when it operated as a small marketing firm for the local companies. It later developed to be one of the best sought after marketing company in the world with a worldwide client base. The company is headed by a chief executive officer who is appointed by the board of directors of the company. After the chief executive officer is the assistant company director followed by a series of company managers, assistant managers, sales unit managers, sales executives and other subordinate staff members such as drivers, guards, cleaners, and chefs who form the structure of the company (Bowden, 2004).
SUMMARY OF THE INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE
General Description of Cases: during my service period an intern assistant at Gainwell marketing agency in Guangdong, china, I had the privilege to undertake a number of marketing cases. For instance, I was in the marketing and branding team where I had the opportunity to travel throughout china with my colleagues in the quest to gain more sales for my company and make it a big brand in the whole of the Chinese republic and even in countries outside china. My company produces quality work for major Chinese companies; some of these companies are recognized internationally. This international recognition made our task even more competitive than the common marketing jobs since we had to maintain and keep the reputation of these companies on check. Any malpractice, which may have tainted the image of the fortune five companies, was to be highly avoided, and any individual who was involved in any such malpractice would instantly be cut off from their job positions or get a demotion or suspension for a certain period from his or her duties. This harsh and strict punishment meant that all employees and the interns were to be at all times be vigilant in their line of duty, or else face the company’s disciplinary committee. I recall one time when one of the employees in my team unit gave out misleading information to a client who later sued the company. The company faced a major blow since most companies avoided our outsourcing services. The company also landed a fine of one thousand US dollars for such unethical practice. With this blow to the company, most interns and workers were laid off duties since the company did not land marketing jobs from most of our previous clients as they feared such image tainting, which would affect their general sales and even lower their competitiveness in the crowded Chinese and international market. I was among the lucky few who were spared from mass sacking. After my application to serve as an intern in this company was accepted, a man who later I learnt was my manager took through orientation and some training just to familiarize with my working environment. This was an epic experience I enjoyed every bit of the orientation and training.
Evaluation of the internship experience: during my service period in this respected and internationally recognized company, I had certain duties to undertake on a daily basis. These duties were as follows; assisting in the creation of signatures, circulars, mock ups, email campaigns, and online promotion among other duties. I was also charged with assisting in the distribution or delivery of marketing materials, fulfillment of marketing offers, execution of trade shows, preparation and delivery of training materials, analysis of marketing and sales data, and preparation of presentations. It also involved opening and sorting of mails, feeding of all the contact information into the contact management systems, provision of support to social media efforts, and maintenance and tracking of public relations activities. This marketing intern job requires patience and perseverance. The pressure one goes through during his or her line of duty as an intern can sometimes be stressing and depressing. The workload sometimes is too much to bear, and this calls for individuals who take heart and persevere no matter what situation he or she is involved in during the line of duty. This job involved a lot of talking and; therefore, it required one to have good communication and computer skills. It also requires one to have a high level of creativity. When it came to the creativity part, I always enjoyed coming up with packages, which aided the company to rocket their sales rate in china and even in other foreign countries as far as Africa. The work force at this company is very competitive and cooperative during the working hours. When you seek the help of an individual, the colleagues are cooperative and helpful. I remember one time when I had my hands full, I had many duties at hand to take care of, and my colleagues immensely helped and finished all my duties in time. The manager was impressed, by the way I handled my duties and with the help of my colleagues, I managed to make such commendable achievement. This achievement added quality to my curriculum vitae as it placed me at a higher and more advantaged level than many other job-seeking candidates. From this great and awesome experience, I would highly recommend for any individual who wishes to undertake his or her internship to apply for it at Gainwell marketing company limited. They provide the best conducive environment for interns. This friendly and conducive environment provides encouragement for the interns giving them morale and spirit to undertake their duties in goodwill and faith (Bowden, 2004).
My supervisor was also understanding, cooperative and a helpful person who believed in me. He always encouraged me whenever I felt like giving up. This boosted my morale and passion for my career choice. The bosses were also friendly and understanding. It did not matter if one made a mistake for the first time. All that mattered was that the same individual corrected and learnt from the first mistake and improved his or her work quality. Apart from being friendly, my supervisor was also open and helpful since he allowed me to access some of the classified files he possessed with the aim of helping to improve my delivery and work quality. This greatly assisted me in solving some of the duties I was I assigned to undertake at the company. The supervision at the company was encouraging and professional at all times. If I were to rate, the supervision work I would give my supervisor nine out of ten since he did a superb job in assisting me to tackle my duties without any difficulties or unwillingness. This site undoubtedly gives interns the opportunity to meet and realize their goals in their respective fields (Bowden, 2004).
If provided with an opportunity, I can never hesitate to work for this company since they know the value of their employees, therefore, providing them with a conducive and favorable working environment. I have also built my profile in this company and they know my worth, so working for them will not provide a big challenge during my service as one of their employees.
CASE SUMMARIES
During my service period at the company as an intern, I handled a lot of client cases or tenders. Some of these cases involved individual companies while others involved more than one client or multi-client cases. These clients’ cases helped me finish and achieve my goals as an intern in this company. For instance, one case of a single client, which had an impact in my working period, involved a kitchenware manufacturing company, which had availed anew product in the market. This job required both local and international marketing since the client was an internationally recognized fortune five companies with over one hundred branches all over the world. This case involved a lot of effort and dedication since the client wanted the product to penetrate both the local and international market. The preparation for this campaign had different faces, for instance it involved online marketing via social sites, website marketing, and email marketing. It also involved road shows marketing and provision of offer packages, which attracted potential buyers. The online marketing sector was not as challenging as the road shows and offer-packaging sector. Since my company has great following online, marketing the product online was an easy task. The online marketing sector was successful since it helped the product penetrate both the local and international market. The sales and the demand of the product were overwhelming since the reception it received was not as we had anticipated. Most stores ran out stock within the first week of the product’s release. The client was overwhelmed with the success of the marketing strategy my company deployed in the campaign of their product. The client even signed a deal with my company as its official marketer in the whole world. This earned not only my company great deal of credit but it also paved ways for me as a future powerful marketer.
The challenge came in the organizing of the road shows and developing of offer packages. The unexpected sales rate made this even harder, since coming up with the packages was a great deal of a challenge to other unit members and my work force team. Organizing road shows in over fifty countries posed a great challenge to my team since it involved different vigorous procedures. Most countries, which do not allow a certain level of public noise even, denied my company permit to conduct road shows within their territory. This was a setback to the marketing force but online marketing strategy at least covered for the damage caused by these unfortunate events. Coming up with a suitable promotion package was another great challenge to the company, since most of my team members had divergent views on the most suitable package for the company marketing strategy. After deep consultation among the team members, the team resolved to one package, which we used for the marketing campaign. The packaged involved gifts to clients when they purchased a certain number of the kitchen appliances as this encouraged sales rate. It also involved gifts for clients who spent a certain amount of money when purchasing the kitchen appliances, customers who purchased single items were offered discount on the purchase made depending on the item the customer purchased. Finally, these packages worked for the advantage of the company since they contributed in making the sales rate or level increase at a commendable rate. This promotion campaign lasted for a period of six months since it covered a large perimeter. It involved more than twenty countries in the world with the exclusion of china. This meant that the campaign required a lot of time and effort from my company and specifically my team. It also involved the use of many resources for its successful accomplishment.
The multi-client promotion tender involved two companies, an insurance company and a farm produce manufacturing company both from china. The farm produce company had a deal with the insurance company to insure its products purchased by clients who were willing to buy the insurance packages. The insurance cover covered loss incurred via drought, animal destruction, and other natural calamities such as storms and floods. The manufacturing company’s products covered by the insurance package included seeds, fertilizers, and other farm products. This partnership worked on the basis that, clients or farmers who bought such product and wish to take cover for their investment would only take the cover with this insurance company. Since only a few insurance companies offered such insurance coverage, there was little competition for clients. These two companies charged my company with the duty of conducting a countrywide marketing campaign for their package. This involved offering extension services to prospect clients who were farmers in the Chinese territory. The company deployed marketing executives in selected agro-vet outlets who educated and highlighted the farmers who came to such outlets on the available packages. These marketing executives were also charged with the duty of insuring the products for farmers who agreed to buy the insurance cover. This task was not as challenging as the first task since it only involved marketing the product within the Chinese territory. Despite the small territory coverage, my company and sales executives still faced a number of challenges when marketing the products, the insurance packages, and the insurance sales. This resulted from the fact that a good number of Chinese farmers are illiterate with no or low level of education. There view on insurance companies, and insurance cover was very misplaced. They viewed insurance companies as thieves and looters with the intention of stealing from them. This posed a great challenge to the marketers since most farmers would even get abusive at the mention of insurance policy cover. Most of these farmers were from the southern region of the Chinese territory. The southern region of china enjoys the availability of irrigation water; hence, most farmers from this region saw no good in taking insurance covers against drought. However, their counterparts from the northern region had no option but to risk and purchase the insurance cover. After purchasing the cover, upon realizing that, it was not a fraud more farmers followed suit. They purchased the cover in large numbers. This boosted our marketing force giving my team and the company an upper hand in achieving our goals of satisfying our clients’ needs. Despite satisfying the needs of our clients, this job was one of the most difficult since it involved dealing with semi illiterate individuals, with a negative fixed mind about insurance covers and insurance companies. It also did not involve the provision of promotion packages or subsidized prices on the items being marketed by my company.
SELF EVALUATION
From my intern period and the services, I offered to my company, I could evaluate my performance in a different section. This section may include the following areas communication skills (written and speaking), computer skills, and creativity level. From the cases I took as the head of my marketing unit, I can rate my communication skills as excellent. This decision of rating my communications skills as excellent is evident from the way I related not only to my supervisor, colleagues or even the company’s clients but also according to the way I led my team in making wise decisions when different people had divergent and conflicting views on the same issue. An example of such a situation is during the first case discussed in this report work, where my marketing team had difficulties in coming up with the best promotion package for marketing purpose for our client. I managed to bring all the team members together we discussed all the available options together and unanimously settled on one, which all the team members felt comfortable with at that moment considering certain factors. These factors included market competition level and the supplier user demand during that period. Another situation where I displayed a high level of communication skills was during my relation with other employees and mostly my supervisor. There was no time my colleagues and I had any conflict. This shows that my communication skills and sensitiveness level is highly appreciable.
Computer skills; I can rate my computer skills as good and this evident from my online marketing projects, which made a great impact on the success of my company’s marketing projects. For instance during the first case of marketing of the kitchenware, online marketing platform was the main source of the success achieved during that campaign. Without the online platform and my good computer skills, which I used to pass the message to the masses that the project could have been a massive flop. This would have not only damaged the company’s reputation but also my career profile as a marker and sales executive (Marshall, 2013).
Creativity level; in marketing and sales, creativity is a vital and a very crucial tool. Without good creativity level, any marketing package is as good as nothing is, from the success of the marketing projects I undertook at the company, all the results were exemplary and very stunning. They raised the company’s profile and competition level in the Chinese and even the worldwide market. This successful accomplishment can only be attributed to my awesome creativity level. When coming up with the right promotion package or marketing strategy, which favors the masses during all the promotion contracts awarded to my company, my creativity played a vital role in ensuring that all the projects succeeded. In order for an individual’s creativity to have an impact on the market, he or she must undertake a good research on his area of marketing. Researching helps one to come up with the correct package for the masses or the market. One can be creative, but without proper research, he or she may release the wrong package to the market. Releasing the wrong package to the market not only cost the company of its sales but also damages the reputation of the team leader since he, or she will be considered as no competitive (Marshall, 2013).
EVALUATION OF THE ADMINISTRATION AND OTHER STAFF MEMBERS
From my experience as an intern in this company, I would rate the administration in the following areas/ factors strictness and cooperation with the employees. The administration of this company is very strict when it comes to maintaining the company’s image and serving its client. Any employee who is involved in any activity, which may either taint the name of the company or its clients’ name, is mercilessly dealt with despite their position in the company’s chain of command. If found guilty of any vice which may taint the name of the company or the names of the company’s clients, an employee may be sacked, demoted, or even suspended depending on the intensity of the damage caused to the company’s image or the clients’ image. The company’s administration is also cooperative to its employees when they seek any help while undertaking official duty. The company provides all the needed support be it financially or in terms of personnel or work force. It does all these to ensure that the company succeeds in their duties hence, making the company’s name and its services famous and known to the people. It also cooperates with the employees to ensure all the clients’ needs are well taken care of by her employees (Marshall, 2013).
When it comes to rating the staff members, I give them thumbs up in whichever area involved. The staff members are friendly, cooperative and are ready to help in any way possible. They work around the clock to ensure that all duties are all taken care within the set time possible. They dedicate all their strength and power for the success of the company and satisfaction of the client. It is, however, not easy to evaluate the clients since not all clients are the same some clients for instance, the one in the first case discussed in this report is very grateful and cooperative (Jenster et al, 2005). Cooperative clients make the work of the company’s personnel much easier and faster, since they do not interfere with the way the company’s staff undertake their duties. They have faith in the company and its workers giving them ample time to work and achieve their goals. Some clients, on the other hand, may be stubborn and insensitive, such clients make the work of the company’s personnel very difficult since they always interfere with the way the company staff handle their duties. Such clients are not easy to satisfy and most of the time they end up cutting short their contracts with the company. They never trust the way the company undertakes its operation, therefore, constantly interrupting the company. Such companies lower the morale of the workers making them to underperform. From this behavior, we have discovered that the success of the company depends on three groups of people. These groups of people may include the company administration or management unit, the clients, and the company’s management unit. Cooperation of any of these groups greatly determines the success of the company and satisfaction of any of the group members mentioned in this section (Jenster et al, 2005).
However, the satisfaction of the client is the most vital and sought after satisfaction. Companies’ exist to satisfy the needs of its clients or customers. The satisfaction of the clients depends on the quality of the job the company delivers to her client, for instance any company who does as per the specification of the clients satisfy the client’s needs and vice versa. Satisfaction of the client’s needs also depends on the cooperation of the clients, clients who cooperate with the company and its workforce is likely to have satisfaction while the ones who always interfere with the activities of a company’s workforce are likely to experience dissatisfaction from the services of the company (Jenster et al, 2005).
References
Bowden, J. (2004). Writing a report: How to prepare, write and present effective reports. Oxford: How To Books.
Jenster, P. V., Hayes, H. M., & Smith, D. E. (2005). Managing business marketing & sales: An international perspective. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.
Marshall, P. S. (2013). 80/20 sales and marketing: The definitive guide to working less and making more.
