It is often said that
if you do what you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life and this is what I experienced during my two-month stint at Tata Steel. But first things first, how to get there?
I started off by contacting a few of my seniors who had interned as Marketing and Sales interns at Tata Steel during the previous year to understand the kind of work they did and the company’s work culture. The takeaway here was that they look for calm and composed individuals with a sense of integrity and honesty. The candidate is often tested for these qualities during the GD and interview. To prepare, I studied all the offerings of Tata Steel not only from the marketing standpoint but also from the lens of strategy and operations which came in handy during the interview.
Let’s jump forward to the first day of the internship at Kolkata. My guide briefed me about the project: creating and executing the promotion plan for a recently introduced premium offering. I kicked off the project by speaking to more than 100 customers over a call to understand the consumer behaviour and what struck me the most was the trust people place in the Tata brand. This trust further motivated me to do justice to the project assigned to me.
Next, I travelled to the Vasai/Virar region near Mumbai to connect with some early customers and dealers of the product to gather their feedback and apprehensions about the product to be used as an input for the promotion plan. The most exciting part began when we started implementing some aspects of the promotion plan on the ground.
First, I took end to end responsibility of the conceptualization, scripting and production of an advertising audio-visual. I visited customers across 8 districts to capture their positive experiences with the product, finalized the script based on the concept and co-ordinated the video shoot with a third-party agency. The video is now being deployed to promote the product through both online and offline channels.
Second, I created the design and content of the product brochure which is now being circulated to all dealers to help customers make more informed decisions about their purchase. I also initiated a lab test to back the claims being made in the brochure through specific numerical metrics.
Lastly, I visited dealers and manufacturing plant of major competitors to understand their marketing mix and devise a long-term strategy to counter them. The promotion plan was tailored to fit this long-term strategy.
The project offered me an opportunity to interact with various stakeholders across the value chain of the product ranging from manufacturing manager to marketing head to zonal sales manager to district sales representative. This helped me derive insights at various levels and come out with a comprehensive promotion plan. But if I am asked about the most significant learning during the course of these 2 months, it would be that a successful marketing plan requires the input of all stakeholders in the value chain.