How do you go about introducing a new product from overseas into an already competitive market?
Role
I was primarily responsible for keeping my team on target and delegating the tasks that needed to be done. Our sponsor for this project lived in the U.K., so I had to make sure that the work we were doing would be finished in Mountain Time with it's correct corresponding Greenwich Mean Time. We also had two weekly meetings as a team where I lead the meetings and wrote agendas so that our time was spent effectively. On top of this, we had weekly meetings with our sponsor, which I scheduled and made sure everyone was in attendance and on time. I took notes every meeting and made sure to forward the agendas and to-do lists of the week to whose that needed it.
The Ask
Because JBN was based in the U.K., they needed help in the marketing and advertising of JBN to their target groups.
Background
JBN Sparkling Beverages came to the Marriott School of Business in January of 2020 in search of a group of interns to help with their company. They were a new beverage company based in the U.K. and they had already done research on who they wanted their target market to be: families, millennials, generation z, and individuals who don't drink alcohol.
Strategy
JBN did not have a marketing budget for this project, so our team, in communication with our sponsor, decided on a social media campaign to reach out to those individuals who would be most likely to buy JBN. We decided which platforms would be the most beneficial to use, and which target audience would see each message through those selected platforms.
Deliverables
Our team created social media accounts for JBN during this internship as well as to use in the future, and we provided a detailed social media plan we recommended that they follow. We also gave the company social media mock-ups they could use as templates and some influencers they could partner with to grow those channels.
What I learned
1. I learned that there are some occasions where you have to be proactive, even if you aren't sure about how to reach the end goal. When the product we were introducing shipped from overseas, it didn't get to my team on time, and was pushed back by a couple weeks. This made it hard to take next steps, so me and my team had to be proactive in figuring out the things we could still do.
​
2. I also learned that it is important to determine roles and responsibilities of each team member from the beginning. This makes it much easier to manage, and no one is confused on what they should be doing.