Summer Internship Experience At Aditya Birla Fashion And Retail

Summer Internship for an MBA student is the best opportunity to get acclimatized to the working culture that they are going to be a part of one year down the line. For a fresher, the importance of this experience multiplies manifolds as it is their only such experience before heading into the challenging corporate world after completing education. My internship experience at Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail began with the first few days full of interactions with the top-level managers at the organization where we had interactive sessions on the fashion industry, ABFRL’s structure and the way in which the retail sector works. The project I was allotted was extremely relevant to the industry and company at that time- Consumer behaviour analysis post lockdown. The next part was focused upon understanding Van Heusen, the brand for which I was supposed to work. It was my first hands-on experience of actually applying the theoretical understanding of concepts like STP and Competitor analysis. Moving ahead, along with the regular project progress meetings that I used to have with my mentor, there were meetings where we discussed the fundamentals of Marketing, Retail Sector and the different kinds of interactions that they have with the various external agencies that they collaborate with. After getting done with the Market Research part of the project when I was in the process of structuring my suggestions for the Back to Market strategy, my mentor encouraged me to contribute in the other projects that the company had at that point of time. These were projects on brand communication and designing plans for the next year. They further helped me in contributing to the brand and expanding my learning horizon as I got to know about the different tasks that keep on coming for the Marketing division, the way they approach it and the framework of implementation that they follow; and how Marketing was much more than what I used to think it was. The entire experience from the word go was a very different one for me as I was the one setting up a timeline for various phases of my work, coming up with the strategy for a brand and not just learning how to do it through books and lectures but actually working with some of the best in the business on real-time implementation of ideas for the brand. Even as I write this article, I am still in awe of the composure with which the company handled, the not so favourable conditions and provided me an opportunity to learn so much about marketing, management and fashion and gave me a glimpse of what I will be signing up for as soon as I enter the corporate world one year down the line.