Jukushop Marketing Internship - Essay Example

MARKETING INTERNSHIP I. COMPANY BACKGROUND Jukushop is a house of style for pets that deals with designer dog apparel and dog clothes in all stylesand fashion. They have a variety of products for pets which they market international. They also stock other products that include: haute diggity, dog designer, pet beds, bowsers microvelvet, donut beds and dutchie beds to match any homes decor. (http://www.jukushop.com/index.html) During my internship at Jukushop, I practiced all what I had learnt in college and gained a lot of experience in my marketing career and it will be one of my memorable moments in my marketing career. Marketing is the process of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service. It's usually an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. Organizational Structure To ensure effective communication and coordination, Jukushop has an organizational structure which interrelates groups of the organization. Jukushop has adopted divisional structure. Divisional structure is formed when an organization is split up into a number of self contained business units, each of which operates as a profit centre. The division occurs on the basis of the products or market or a combination of the two with each unit tending to operate along functional or product lines, but with certain key functions such as personnel, finance and corporate planning. (Burns and Stalker, 1961) Promotion Practices Jukushop has invested heavily on marketing especially in sale promotion. Sales promotion is one of the four promotion mix. The other three are advertising, personal selling, and publicity or public relations. Sales promotions are non-personal promotional efforts that are designed to have an immediate impact on sales. It is usually a media and non-media marketing communication employed for a pre-determined and limited time to increase consumer demand and also to stimulate market demand or improve product availability. Examples of sales promotions aspects include: discounts and sales, free samples, gifts and incentives, coupons and rebates. In their sales promotion, Jukushop has been targeting both consumers and retailers/wholesalers hence they applied consumer sales promotion and trade sales promotion. (Mitchell, 2005) International Involvement Companies that are international involved have a major market to deal with hence they have to be aware of all the required regulations in the international market. They have to be aware of the requirements with various countries and even join a number of international trading bodies. II. INTERNSHIP GOALS A formalized internship program gives a hands-on experience in ones preferred field so that one can truly determine if it is the right industry for him. It is very important for one to participate in an internship program as one receives the exposure to his chosen industry. The beauty of an internship is that it helps one determine what he is looking for in a career before graduation such that one can make adjustments to his curriculum if needed. Internship helps one to apply the skills learnt in college and allows one to identify opportunities for improvement. Recognizing where improvement is needed is essential for one to have proper skill and become competitive in the job market by the time one graduate. For this case, in my internship, I have received a lot of exposure in the marketing field and more so I have applied what I learn in class. III. TASKS ASSIGNED Jukushop being a house of style of pets that are marketed internationally, I was assigned a number of marketing duties in the organization. I was assigned the duty of formulating marketing strategies for the firm. Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to reach marketing objectives. A marketing plan contains a list of specific actions required to successfully implement a specific marketing strategy. While formulating marketing strategies, I was integrating the organization's marketing goals, policies, and action sequences into a cohesive whole. IV. SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC OPERATIONS Product Policies In product policies, there is a lot of similarities between a product manufactured both for domestic and international operations. Product policy consideration as one of the marketing mix is very essential for a product to be successful in the market. Both domestic and internationally operations products take into consideration on the product policies. Distribution Channels When it comes to distribution channels, there are a lot of differences. Products that are for domestic operations takes a shorter chain of distribution as compared to a product that is for international operations. The methods of transfer also differ for a product on international operation has to be exported. Other means of delivery of international operations products are: mailing, sending them as a facsimile or email or even uploading the on the internet. On the other hand, a product on domestic operation is delivered locally by means hand delivery, by road transport or rail transport whereby at least there is close contact between the seller and the customer. Financial Considerations When it comes to the financial consideration, a product that is for international operation is more expensive that a product that is for domestic operations. This is because a product that is being exported, has to go through a number of middlemen, hence the cost per product increase unlike the domestic one that just have a few middlemen, hence the product price will not be as high as those on international operations. Human Resource Issues Human resource issues are almost similar for a company dealing with a domestic operations and the one dealing with international operations. A company manufacturing a product on international operations has to employ workers internationally. For example, due to the fact that there a number of major internationally spoken languages in the world that include; English, French, German and Spanish, then they employ bilingual skilled employees. Unlike the domestic operations company that manufactures products for domestic consumption, they do not require international recruitment but they recruit their employees locally. Manufacturing Operations and Others When it comes to manufacturing, there is no much difference between the products that are manufactured at either domestic or international operations. The only difference is that those manufactured at domestic operations are produced in small scale unlike those of the international operations which are produced in large scale because their market is large. Product Promotion There is no much difference between the product of both domestic and international operations. The only difference is on free sample and display. In free sample, a product that is on international operation is difficult for it to use this promotion aspect of free sample for the customer to test it use before purchasing. On the other hand, a product on international operation can not be displayed for the customer to view what he is purchasing. These two promotion aspects are only applicable to products that are for domestic operations. V. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES During my internship, I had a lot of strength due to the fact that I had learnt a lot about marketing. The knowledge I learnt in class on marketing really helped me out during internship. However during internship, I had a weakness of not being sure of every task I performed because I was new in the field. I confirmed from my experience colleague on any task I was to undertake just to be sure that I was doing the right thing in the right manner. But every time I confirmed what I was doing, surprisingly, I would find out that I was in the right track. VI. SUMMARY During my internship, I learnt that there two major aspects of marketing which are: recruitment of a new customer and the retention and expansion of relationships with existing customers. Once a marketer has converted a prospective buyer, base management takes over. Then the process of base management shifts the marketer to building a relationship, nurturing the links, enhancing the benefits that sold the buyer in the first place, and improving the product or service continuously to protect her business from competitive encroachments. I gained a lot experience at Jukushop during my internship and it was really enjoyable working in such a firm. I would not hesitated to recommend anyone to go for his internship at Jukushop or even working for them. To conclude, I can say that from the experience I gained during my internship, I can fit in any marketing position if given a chance REFERENCES Burns, S. and Stalker, G. M. (1961): The Management of Innovation, Tavistock Publications, London Jukushop (2006): Pet Styles, Available at http://www.jukushop.com/index.html, Accessed on 7/30/2006 Mitchell, S. (2005): "Resale Price Maintenance and the Character of Resistance in the Conservative Party: 1949-64," Canadian Journal of History 40, no. 2 (August 2005): 259-289. Read More