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June 21, 2009
Strat 425 Entry 1
For internship credit, I have to write five journal entries this summer. For the first, I chose to just reflect on the experience so far. I figured I might as well include it here:
In looking for a summer internship, I focused on the service end of marketing while keeping my options open to all types of marketing. I never thought I would end up at a summer internship that’s more about public relations than marketing, but here I am, three weeks into it. On my first day, I knew next to nothing about the PR field and probably the same amount about my firm’s area of expertise, luxury brands. However, this has taught me what feels like an important lesson about not only doing my applying what I know to my job but also working hard to learn as much about your profession and specialization as possible.
My boss, the founder of our company, considers it an integrated marketing/PR firm because we work so closely with our clients to understand their brand strategy and create a purposeful media plan. She analyzes the key assets of our clients and determines the most beneficial and fitting media outlets for directing our pitches. For example, we work with a number of luxury hotels, one of which has a special service in terms of check-in/check-out time. Knowing that, we’re able to describe the benefits of this service to a journalist doing an article about how check-in times are changing at LA-area hotels.
I’ve spent a lot of time so far playing catch up to understand this industry and apply the kind of thinking used by my boss. Not only do I have to know the assets of our clients, I have to know why these assets set them apart from their competition. From there, we have to know which media outlets would be interested in these assets based on whether or not they have a similar message and audience/customer. So the other parts of my time have been spent becoming familiar with many types of media, such as luxury magazines, specialized magazines, columns in newspapers, and online outlets.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the learning aspect, especially coming in with little previous knowledge. But I’ve found that, in the midst of taking everything in, it’s important for me to show why I’m here and what I can still bring to the table. I might not have a background in PR, but my time spent studying business provides a different outlook on their company. For example, my boss wants to look into the realm of social media networks but doesn’t want to jump in blindly. One of my projects is to do research on the best ways to use social media networking for our company and present what approach I think they should take. So I get to use some of the skills I’ve built at Ross and apply it to the business foundation of a PR firm. Being in a field that was previously unfamiliar to me has granted me a great opportunity to learn a lot of new things while forcing me to broaden my ability to apply what I already know.
Posted by jenmmart at June 21, 2009 09:03 PM