Nirveeta
Mahabir
Marketing Intern at StyleOwner
Week One
I am a senior and Management major at the Peter J. Tobin College
of Business.
It was once said by Seneca, a Roman philosopher in the in the mid
1st century AD that, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets
opportunity.”
In the fall 2011 semester an opportunity presented itself in my
Marketing class. As a final project and a way to get students
engaged and actually put their marketing skills into practice, we
were required to create a marketing plan for StyleOwner. StyleOwner
is an e-commerce based business, one of the first to adapt the
concept of “social selling.” Persons are given the opportunity to
open stores for free, market it to their friends and family via
social media platforms and earn 10% commission on every sale they
make. We were informed that we would be given the opportunity to
intern at the company if we won.
Immediately, I knew that this was my chance to show my true
potential, I spent a lot of time brainstorming ideas and putting
together a coherent and thoughtful project, constantly reviewing
and editing. Even though I put a lot of effort into this, I still
had some doubt on whether I would be able to land this internship.
A total of 38 plans were submitted by students from all three
campuses, both graduate and undergraduate and I was chosen as one
of the five finalists. Two plans were selected and I am very
grateful to be one of the lucky winners.
I began my internship at StyleOwner on January 18, and one of
the first impressions that stayed with me was the atmosphere in the
office. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming. The employees also
had such a great bond, it felt family oriented. Immediately, I knew
that this was the right place for me. The setting and layout of the
office makes communication flow easily. I can approach my
supervisor, Alexa Brandt, at any time and she is always open for
any questions and problems I may encounter.
Currently, I am working on a plan to raise awareness among
college students so that they can become affiliated with
StyleOwner. The plan is basic and it seems like a great way to
attract the right college students to open stores. It is a
competition, directed towards the sororities at St. John’s to get
them on board. The plan incorporates and reflects on St. John’s
mission as a Vincentian University as it incorporates that aspect
of helping others. Sororities are required to raise funds to donate
every semester and this competition serves as an easy way for them
to raise money for a cause they value. It also creates a way for
sororities to easily raise funds for any event since the stores
they create will serve as an ongoing revenue stream.
I have always been a shy person, but after interning for just a
couple of days until now, it has really impacted positively on my
communication skills especially since it requires a lot of
interaction with people. One of the best experiences, thus far, is
my ability to apply my knowledge from my marketing class to this
internship. As full time college students, we are always obtaining
a great source of knowledge from our classes but are hardly ever
given the chance to apply that knowledge. So, I am taking full
advantage of this great experience.
Week Three
It is already more than a month into my internship at
StyleOwner. Throughout the weeks, I realized that everything is a
lot more difficult than it seems. Something as simple as launching
a competition, requires a lot of effort for every aspect of it,
from brainstorming the best ideas, to setting dates, to getting
people involved and getting them enthusiastic and even sending out
email messages all takes a lot of effort and time. However, every
effort and time of mine spent working on this project is totally
worth it!
Since my project is based on St. John’s University, there is a
lot to do on campus. I created flyers for the competition and
distributed them at the Activities fair. I also spoke at a
Panhellenic meeting in order to address the sororities about the
competition.
On the other hand, at the office, I usually produce drafts of
promotional material which I send to my supervisor to be reviewed.
The edits that she makes and advice on the work that I submitted
are very useful.
Thus far, all of the tasks and responsibilities that I am given
have really molded my character. I am learning and adopting new
skills in Marketing from her assistance and I am very grateful to
be given this opportunity.
Week Six
The time is going by really fast, just about one month left for
the semester to come to an end and so will my internship. The
Fashionable Fundraiser competition has finally launched and we have
three great sororities on board, Kappa Phi Lambda, Sigma Gamma Rho
and Theta Phi Alpha. Since only 3 sororities signed up, StyleOwner
decided to add extra awards so that the sororities can donate more
money towards the charity of their choice. The National Asian
Pacific American Women’s Forum, St. Jude Children’s Research
Hospital, Relay for Life and the Theta Phi Alpha Foundation are the
organizations that these sororities wish to donate to.
Throughout my experience thus far, I am in the process of
continually learning more about marketing that I would have ever
gotten in the confines of a classroom. Although I knew that
sometimes things don’t go as planned in the business world. I was
able to witness this at first hand. After a lot of effort went into
continuously trying to reach out and communicate with to our target
audience for this competition by any means possible, we were only
able to capture the attention of a few. I initially expected more
to sign up, but we at StyleOwner are very contented with the
results thus far since college students have a lot of other
prioritized obligations.
Furthermore, I would be continuously tracking the progress of
the competition and communicating with the sororities so that they
can reach the ultimate goal and beyond to raise the money for
donation and their sorority budget.