Monday, September 10, 2012

Wharton Summer Diaries 2012 - Part 2


From Tiffany Goh at Colgate-Palmolive

This summer I’m interning at Colgate-Palmolive in NYC as part of their Global Marketing Development Program (GMDP). I worked on the Irish Spring brand (focusing on body wash) with the innovation team, or the marketing team that focuses on new products for Irish Spring. I had a breadth of exciting projects that flexed my strategic, analytical, creative and executional abilities – always focusing on our target consumer. As a career switcher from finance and non-profit, I felt challenged (in a good way!) by the work and learned a lot about the business. And it’s great to own real projects and I can’t wait to see the results in the next two years :)

In addition to the actual work, we had plenty of fun social events (wine tour, happy hours, and scavenger hunt – to name a few) and trainings to get to know all aspects of the company. What impressed me the most was how much EVERYONE invests in you. We also had incredible exposure to senior management, including lunch with the CEO and a one-on-one meeting with the COO. Colgate really values the GMDP program and I truly felt welcomed into the Colgate family and integrated into the Company during my time here.

It’s hard to believe I’m wrapping up my internship this week. I’ve really loved every minute of my internship at Colgate and am happy to talk more about my experience here or about CPG in general! Looking forward to meeting you all on campus!

Wharton Summer Diaries 2012 - Part 1

From Pilar Macdonald at General Mills

Today, I presented my end of the summer final presentation on Trix and Cocoa Puffs. This summer I worked at General Mills in the Kids Business Unit within the Cereal Division for the company. I had an absolute blast throughout the entire summer and thought I would share a little bit about my two projects.

My first project was to determine if the current strategy that the team had in place for Cocoa Puffs was accurate, if so how should the team implement it and if not what should the strategy be? I worked very closely with the Consumer Insights team (i.e. the team that figures out the attributes that our “brand champions” encompass) to better understand our brand champion. I also worked with the creative agency to better understand what are our competitors doing in the space to determine where the opportunity is for Cocoa Puffs.

My second project, was a little bit different than typical intern project due to constrained resources. The team was down an Associate Marketing Manager so I was tasked in stepping into the AMM role on the Trix Brand. This was definitely my favorite part of the summer and I was able to do some really cool things on the brand. I not only worked with our Marketing Manager to develop a new twist to the brand purpose but I also worked with our Communications and Design teams to design an promotional package that will be on shelf starting in January of 2013!

All in all, I had an absolute blast at General Mills! Feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to chat about CPG, marketing, etc.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Third and Final Installment of Summer Diaries


From Amanda Hill - Target
The final weeks of Target went by in such a blur. The 10-week internship culminated in a 40-minute presentation to the entire Housewares Division on a proposed multichannel strategy and four tactic ideas across four departments. The project was a great way to get exposure across multiple departments in the Housewares Division and across the company.  Everyone was extremely willing to provide updates on their project work and Target’s approach to online, mobile, and store retailing to help inform my final project. It was also great practice in selling an idea across different people with different interests and helped me practice some negotiation and persuasion skills with a tight deadline.  The presentation ended up really well and seemed to have a great response, so it will be interesting to see if any of the recommendations come to life in Target stores near you!

After the presentation, I spent the final week of the internship in a buying simulation project.  We were put in teams of four and assigned one product category – cat accessories.  They provided us with the core information we needed—guest insights data, macro category trends, past sales data, competitor information—and we arranged the shelf space for optimal results.  We also had the opportunity to do a walkthrough with two VPs, which is comprised of presenting the shelf and walking them through the decisions to include and remove different products and how it all ties together for the category and the store.  It was such a great experience to be down in their “planogram” room and be able to set this up as a full-time buyer would for each shelf transition.  It really pulled a lot of the internship experiences together for me and helped me understand how all of the pieces fit together and end up on the shelf.

While all of this was going on, my mentor was in the middle of transition planning and he too was in the planogram room working on his new aisles for air purification and tape and glue products.  He had been negotiating with vendors over the course of the 10 weeks and now had to piece it all together for launch in the store.  I had a great time shadowing him during those negotiations and planning period and was lucky enough to see the strategy come together.

All of these experiences and the intern family that I had this summer really made it an incredible summer internship. I’m also happy to report that I received an offer and now really need to do some thinking about what exactly I’m looking for and if Target and Minneapolis fit long-term.

If anyone is interested in Target, I’m happy to discuss my experience, the buyer role, the culture, etc. Please don’t hesitate to reach out!

From Shirley Lin – Amazon
The last three weeks at Amazon have been such a whirlwind! I have been preparing a six-page white paper (with generous appendices) that outlines the project I tackled this summer, my analysis, actions taken, and recommendations on how the company can improve the business and overall customer experience. You present this white-paper to a panel of evaluators during your final presentation, which involves you bringing copies, handing it out to the panel to read for the first-time during the first 20-30 minutes of your evaluation, and then a Q&A session where they can ask you anything (a bit like defending a thesis).

After 15 iterations with my manager, who was extremely supportive and helpful, I came up with a white-paper that I was happy with. My final presentation involved 8 senior managers from the Books and Media divisions, along with one "bar-raiser," which is a person within Amazon that has been selected to help raise the hiring bar at Amazon. He or she is typically someone at the Senior Vice President level who has rotated through multiple divisions and functions, thus has insights on whether a person has the potential to make contributions at Amazon. Having a bar-raiser is extremely nerve-wracking, as they do not necessarily have insights into your group or project, and thus could ask difficult (and potentially unrelated) questions.

The preparation of a white-paper and being able to defend my summer work during a final evaluation was a very good experience. The process really helped me understand the culture at Amazon. They value people who can work independently, push themselves, and ask questions of themselves and others in order to get creative solutions implemented. The flip-side, however, is that the process can be stressful for those who don't appreciate this kind of environment. I was impressed with the caliber of people at Amazon, and their never-ending quest to improve the customer experience. There are a lot of smart people at Amazon to learn from, and they keep work exciting by constantly improving and reinventing how they do business.

For those that are interested in getting into retail or product management at Amazon, my recommendation would be to talk to people! Each group at Amazon is different, and the  beauty of the company is that each group is at a different development stage. Some groups, such as Books, are more mature and focused on optimizing their delivery and margins. Other groups, such as Amazon Mom or Amazon Student, are just beginning and are focused on building out their customer base and growing the top-line. There is a great experience available for everyone, and the keep is to just understand what you will be doing, who your managers (and cheerleaders) will be, and whether that is the right fit for you.

I'm happy to report that I got an offer! I am more than happy to speak with anyone about Amazon or put you in touch with any other interns. Feel free to shoot me an email anytime.

From Gayley Woolston – Chase Credit Card
My last few weeks at Chase have been very busy and productive.  In addition to our daily projects, the team has been gathering info and preparing slides for the joint Chase and partner quarterly business meeting.  In addition, my managers and I presented to Chase’s finance department and received full funding for the loyalty events, and with this approval, I have been working nonstop with the partner and 3rd party vendors on executing the marketing strategy and ironing out the post-events data gathering and communication strategies. 

On top of my projects, I have also been helping with the Chase and partner education of a new product feature – our card now offers an annual reward night at the partner hotel for every year customers remain a member.  With this change, we have to create new educational information for Chase’s customer service reps (and our partner’s customer service teams) as well as develop new marketing materials (new landing page, emails, and promotional materials).  I have really enjoyed getting a better sense of how the customer service works within Chase, as my other projects had been more focused on card customers.

Overall, this summer has been a huge success.  The people at Chase are collaborative and friendly, and they are willing to make time for you – whether you have a simple execution question or more complex career queries.  I have learned so much from the internship’s weekly lectures on the different business and functional areas.  Moreover, being a part of the Chase Leadership Development Program (CLDP) affords you unparalleled access to company executives and a fantastic and tightly knit network.  The CLDP starts with the summer internship and then continues (for those who receive offers) full-time where participants are placed in 3 eight month rotations in different product and functional areas over 2 years.  This program is incredible because it allows you to build skills in areas as diverse as marketing, risk, operations, and finance and get experience in different product groups ranging from innovation to card rewards to partner cards and main Chase cards.  This is a unique opportunity to broaden your skills and experience right out of business school, which is critical for those interested in upper management positions or even starting your own business.  

I am very excited by this program and would be happy to speak to anyone interested in Chase/CLDP for summer internships and full-time opportunities.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Second Installment of Summer Diaries

From Amanda Hill - Target
Hello again from Minneapolis! I’m about halfway through my summer internship at Target and things are starting to warm up—in the office and out. It’s probably about 100 degrees here, and my project is heating up. I’ve reached the point in the summer when it’s time to start piecing together all of my research and meetings for my rapidly-evolving final deliverable—a multichannel strategy. The support and the resources have been great. I’ve had access to many departments and functions including Marketing, Analytics, Strategic Pricing, Promotional Planning, and the list goes on.

I’ve also had a chance to have coffee with many people and shadow different buyers across the company to get a sense of the different career paths and the culture. Basically, there’s no absolute career path. If you’re interested in an area, you can get there. In the merchandising pyramid, we just got through the forecast period, which was great to see as part of the Home Improvement and Automotive department. Teams are also starting to set up their new aisle plans, and I’ve been able to shadow a buyer in Beauty and in Baby to see how they set up their aisles, what they look for from a financial and visual perspective, and how they sell it in to their management. It’s been a great look at the process, the negotiations with vendors, and the accountability required of the buyer role. 

We’ve also had some fun here in Minneapolis. We spent an afternoon at Target Field watching the Twins and Tampa play and also built some Target furniture for transitional housing. It was cool to see the groups of red t-shirted interns (undergrad and grad) putting together bookcases, nightstands, and dressers. And we just had our summer MBA soiree, which gave us an opportunity to meet interns from other companies here in the area and have a few drinks on a roof deck in the city.

The summer is just flying by, and it’s continued to be full of great work and great culture. Target does believe that “Speed is life….” so here we go!

From Shirley Lin - Amazon
Hello again from Seattle!  As a Retail Management Intern, Books In-Stock, I am continuing my customer analytics project to analyze traffic to specific book titles and make recommendations on how to improve customer experience and the Books team's financial and in-stock metrics

My role requires pretty heavy usage of SQL, which was expected but at the same time I was surprised that I would have to learn SQL to the depth that I have. I spent the first three weeks really getting into the weeds, understanding Amazon's multitude of databases (there is no lack of data here!) and what the data actually means. I spent the subsequent four weeks speaking with people across many groups (books, kindle, print-on-demand) and functional groups (in-stock, product managers, traffic, web analytics) to understand how I could use the knowledge and insights I was gaining to make recommendations to Amazon and my team. 

While I have a quantitative background and feel comfortable with numbers, this has been a great challenge and learning experience for me as I've had to look at data for thousands of customers and millions of transactions and try to make sense of it. While my project focus has been more specific than others, I'm glad that I've gotten to dig into the core competency of Amazon (using data to understand their customers) and work with a diverse set of people. I'm inspired to learn more about the different customer analytics roles there are both at Amazon and in the technology industry. 


From Gayley Woolston – Chase Credit Card
Hello again from Wilmington Delaware.  I am really enjoying getting to know Chase’s business, products, and employees.

My main project thus far is to design and execute the strategies and marketing for loyalty events to help differentiate our card from other products and build customer satisfaction; it is going fairly well.  I am learning how to write creative briefs, interfacing with the in-house and external research arms, and coordinating all the strategies from Chase, our partner, and 3rd party vendors.  The exposure to so many different parts of Chase and various other companies has been so enlightening, and I have learned so much about how culture really impacts how business is transacted.  I am struggling a bit with the fact that some companies’ cultures do not stress timeliness the way I am accustomed to from working in finance.

One of my bosses, as a side project, asked me to research chatter on blogs and social media, and this request has now turned into another full project, where I am conducting a competitive landscape analysis on Travel & Entertainment companies’ social media strategies and offering a plan for our card.  My team really appreciates my findings and my generational perspective.  I also have an additional project working on combining the strategies and communication touch points for new customers between Chase, our partner rewards programs, and the joint programs planned for the fall.  While this has been a bit slow going, I am excited that we will use the information from focus groups occurring as we speak to finalize the plans in a few weeks.

I have also had the opportunity to meet with people throughout the organization, in risk, finance, marketing services, other business units, and discovered a competitive landscape group and strategy group through networking.  One of my favorite parts of working at Chase is learning about the diverse roles and groups at the organization, and, actually, my networking has been helpful as I need to reach out to various parts Chase to retrieve data and execute the marketing materials.  By the end of the summer, I cannot wait to see some of my marketing materials in print/email/other channels. 

My projects continue to change due to our partner’s needs, new data, new findings from my assignments, but by summer end, I am excited to see the final results of the loyalty event marketing execution and the implementation of my strategy from social media and new customer research.

Monday, June 20, 2011

First Installment of Summer Diaries


Follow 3 Marketing Club Members through their summer internships in Retail, Technology, and Financial Services.  This installment, the writers reflect on their first week(s) of their internships.  The next installment will follow the writers during the middle of their internships.

From Amanda Hill - Target
Minneapolis in the summer is a great place to be! I am one week in to my summer internship at Target and have made Minneapolis my summer home this year. I am spending 10 weeks as part of the Merchandise Buyer internship program in the Housewares Division, and that includes everything from kitchenware and small appliances to home improvement and automotive goods. 

Target has an extensive training program for their MBA interns, and we’ve spent most of the week getting to know more about the buyer role, guest insights, financials, strategic plans, and getting to know our team. I came into this program very interested in Target’s culture, their retail approach and not really fully understanding what a buyer is and what they do. I’ll spend a large part of my summer shadowing buyers across departments and meeting with people across the company as I learn more about retail. Already one week in, and I’m pretty fascinated with how the products are selected, the interactions with the vendors, the inventory turns, store layout, and each brand approach to the aisles. Also, I’ll spend a lot of time on a promotional strategy project for the Housewares division – really figuring out how to best leverage pricing incentives, their weekly circular, and online marketing to find a way to optimize their marketing voice. So far this internship is the perfect marriage for me of the quantitative approach to merchandising and the qualitative approach to guest and brand insights. 

Prior to Wharton, I worked in Advertising and PR account management for seven years in both Washington, DC and then Manhattan. I’ve worked with government and non-profit clients and ultimately, pharmaceutical clients. In making this shift to business school and marketing on the client side, I’m looking to broaden my perspective and understand more of the business in brand management and retail. So far so good. And interning at a company with a great culture of “Fast, Fun & Friendly,” endless happy hours, and a wealth of knowledge in the retail space is pretty exciting.

From Shirley Lin - Amazon
Hello from almost-sunny Seattle, Washington! I am working in a retail management position at Amazon for 12 weeks this summer in theirBooks In-Stock division. I am working on a customer analytics project that is focused on understanding why customers are making certain traffic/navigation decisions on the Amazon website. The project is data-intensive, which is a focus and core competency for Amazon, but it is also extremely cross functional, as I get to work closely with the In-Stock team, along with product managers, vendor managers, and engineers. I have learned so much about Amazon’s business as a whole, in addition to developing a specialized skill-set for my position (lots of SQL queries!). Amazon’s culture feels very self-serve in that you are expected to seek out people and information you need for your project, but it is a good feeling to know that they trust and empower you, even as a summerintern.

Prior to Wharton, I worked in finance for 5 years: 2 years in New York in investment banking, 2 years in Boston/Providence in middle-market private equity, and 1 year in Malaysia helping my parents outwith the family semiconductor business. My summer internship is a big career change for me, as I learn more about what it feels like to work for a technology/consumer-facing company.

My goal for the summer is to learn more about e-commerce and retail management, and to also reach out to people in the various teams/functions at Amazon. While my internship is not a traditional marketing role, it helps me better understand how important it is to differentiate your product or service in the increasingly competitive e-commerce landscape. 


From Gayley Woolston – Chase Credit Card
Greetings from Wilmington, Delaware and the Philadelphia area!  For the summer, I am working on a recently launched co-branded credit card that partners with an up-scale hotel chain.  An example of a co-branded card is a Disney or Marriot Chase card.  My projects are to develop the strategy and communication plans to re-engage high-spend customers.  I am trying to understand the consumers’ preferences and patterns to better cater to their needs and inspire them to use their credit card for more purchases and rewards.  I am a part of a class of over 30 college and graduate student interns for the summer, and many times a week, we have the opportunity to learn about a specific business unit or brand such as Chase Sapphire or Ultimate Rewards.  This access to a diversity of groups at Chase provides a great perspective on how my project fits in to the organization.

My goal for the summer is to understand the various aspects of a marketing career at a large institution and get a better sense whether a career in marketing is right for me.  The biggest adjustment thus far has been navigating the work flow in such a large company.  Every task needs to be accomplished with the help of numerous people, many of whom I have not yet met.  On a positive side, I have exposure to so many different people within the organization, so when I do reach out to new colleagues, I learn so much.  I am looking forward to continuing learning more for the next 8 weeks of my summer at Chase.

Prior to Wharton, I worked at a 30-person fixed income research firm in New York City.  I arrived at Wharton looking to gain a formal business training and possibly to  launch my career in a completely new direction, in marketing.  I chose to work at Chase this summer because I was very interested in understanding marketing at a large institution highly driven by marketing and because I was looking to stay within financial services.  Chase was the perfect opportunity to work in credit cards but also be a part of the larger JPMorgan institution.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Announcing the 2011 Summer Diaries for Marketing-Related Internships

As we end the school year, we will be starting the 2011 Summer Diaries.  Current Wharton 1st year students will be writing about their summer internships in marketing related fields from Retail, Technology, and Financial Services companies.  We will provide 3 installments from the students' beginning, middle and end of their summers.  We hope this will provide insight to current and prospective students on summer internships in marketing from a variety of industries.

Have a great summer and check us out throughout the next few months!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Wharton Wins Big!

Courtesy of the Wharton Journal


Wharton Marketing Team Wins Big

Wharton MBA team collects the "Cheerwine Cup" at the 21st annual Wake Forest Marketing Summit

Published: Sunday, February 13, 2011
Updated: Monday, February 14, 2011 07:02
Marketing Team Wins Big
I want to let you in on a little known fact. The Wharton School's Marketing department is the best marketing department in the world. See for yourself. Go to http://som.utdallas.edu/top100Ranking/ for data on total research contributions (number of publications) and you will see that the Wharton Marketing Department tops the list (publications in the most prestigious marketing journals from 2000-2011). Talk to hard core academicians and you'll be singing to the choir. The rest of the world? They don't know this well-kept secret. That other school in Evanston is often associated with "Marketing." In fact, many of our own students have in their minds the perception of Wharton = Finance.
But that is starting to change, with events like the one that occurred this past weekend. I was faculty advisor for an all-star MBA team of Wharton Marketing students (Iris Chin,Jonathan Harmon, Rebecca Ricalde, Carolyn Schogol and Sodany Sor; all second year Wharton MBAs) who competed in the 21st annual Wake Forest Marketing Summit (http://www.marketingsummitlive.com/). This event is one of the most prestigious Marketing Case competitions in the world. One hundred and twenty six teams applied, and only eight MBA teams were selected to compete.
My team rocked it, and took a giant step toward letting this little secret out of the bag. In a grueling 36 hour time frame consisting of blood sweat and tears (as well as nonstop Red Bull and Donuts), my Wharton Marketing MBA team constructed a case solution for the brand "North Face" (owned by VF). The judges did not know which schools each team represented. Our Wharton Marketing MBA students were #1 in the event, collecting the "Cheerwine Cup" trophy, and pocketing a cool $75 grand. You read that right. These students won the seventy-five thousand dollar cash prize for first place.
I, of course, was very proud of their hard work—combining creativity with rigorous market analytics. I was also excited to see how the efforts of our research conducted in this department (which informs these tools and approaches), can be translated by our Wharton Marketing MBA students into strategy formulation and implementation tactics that can impress a real world company.
This is a step in the right direction, especially given recent discussions around the new curriculum and issues of aligning the school's research incentives with teaching incentives (see previous Wharton Journal articles on this point). Either way, it was a great day for the Wharton School's Marketing Department(http://marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/) and the Wharton MBA Student's Marketing Club(http://www.whartonmarketing.com/).
Credit goes to the kids. They worked their tails off. Professor Keith Niedermeier (who leads the undergraduate marketing efforts) was also instrumental in terms of preparation and support. We worked closely with his team to prepare ahead of time (incidentally Keith's undergraduates won this event last year, and came in second this year).
So, for those who think that the best place to get your MBA if you are interested in marketing is somewhere in the Midwest, we've got your wake up call. The Wharton Marketing department is the best department in the world, with the best marketing faculty and the best marketing students, end of story!
Americus Reed II is Whitney M. Young Jr. Associate Professor of Marketing of the Marketing Department at The Wharton School.