From ‘Ganne Ka Rus’ With Salesmen To Developing Product Concepts With Marketers – Mohit's Internship Experience At Dabur - IIFT (Kolkata)

When in the evening I used to come back from the ‘market’, learning number of new things – how margins, CDs, line and bill cuts etc. work, everything actually started to make perfect sense! After every few days, I used to meet my project guide and the strands of sales and distribution I learnt in the market were more strengthened. He was the perfect guide I could have asked for. Despite his busy schedules and meetings, he always used to give me ample time and hence at the end of 1 month, I was appreciated for my work by the North Regional Manager.

The second month began with an exceptionally interactive session with some of the top leadership at Dabur - the CMO, CFO and the likes. They told us why Dabur is a perfect company to work for and what makes the employees stick to Dabur for decades – the reason being that ‘Dabur gives its employees the freedom to do what they want to and how they want to’. Many of them were at Dabur for over 25-30 years. The next day, we were assigned our Marketing projects and the respective guides too.

Luckily, I was assigned the pain relief category, which my guide told, was an excellent learning opportunity as the New Product Development (NPD) was in this 3^rd month – i.e. it was neither an idea generation nor a product launch. My product was development of Marketing Mix (the 4 P’s we hear a lot about in lectures) for the Pain Relief Category. I was given a project brief and told that I was free to recommend any product based on my understanding and consumer interactions. I had market visits, went to interact with consumers ‘in pain’ and it was overall, an amazing experience.

I actually got to know why our professors chant –‘Consumer is the king’. The internship made me use everything from macros in excel to SWOT and Marketing Mix.   My stay at Dabur was much more than what I had dreamt of. It was perfectly smooth, extremely warm and professional and the memories of those 2 months will always be alive in the years to come.       -------- About the Author: Mohit Mahajan Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (Kolkata Campus)