Mastering Sports Marketing: An Internship Experience at The Lendingtree Bowl

Abstract

Institutional Affiliation 23rd April 2021 Internship Report (Marketing Intern at The Lendingtree bowl in Mobile Alabama) Internship This is the designated position occupied by students or trainee in a company with or without compensation (Zhang, 2021). The objective of this arrangement is to obtain work experience or accomplish obligations for a qualification. Securing the position as a marketing intern involved specific pre-internship preparation activities. First, conducting research about Lendingtree bowl to obtain an actual understanding of the organisation’s marketing strategy. Second, researching and examining substantial nature of the competition. Third, thinking about my digital footprint which is all information about me that can be obtained from social media accounts. Forth, considered the company’s media presence especially in social media by reviewing their website to establish how they are portrayed in the media. Lastly, I was open-minded and ready to learn from seniors with long term experience. This provided opportunity to share conceptual work and learn from corporate world. Undertaking marketing internship while pursuing a career choice in tourism and hospitality consists of sustainable opportunities, diversity and innovation as compared to other jobs which are usually tedious. The outcome of this internship provided an opportunity to connect with many people since as a marketer, it is important to associate with everyone around us. It also improved on my innovation skills through daily content creation to convince clients about our products and services. Furthermore, the process of pre-internship preparation provided a room to get ready and boost confidence level when conducting the actual responsibilities. Consequently, it allowed for a marketing intern to prepare and gather actual information to be used in the tourism and hospitality. For instance diversity in marketing is relevant to tourism industry since is characterised with multicultural features. People are attracted to things within their continent and across international borders and tourism industry ensures the possibility of achieving this attraction from diverse perspectives. Job descriptions and specifications Job description is a manuscript which states an outline of the obligations, tasks and purpose of a particular job in a company. Its objective is to help in alluring, aiming, recruiting and choosing appropriate candidate for job position (Juneja, 2015). A Job specification is a declaration of the qualification, character attributes, expertise expected from a person to complete the job (Juneja, 2015). It assists the candidates to examine whether they are qualified to apply for a specific job opening. As a marketing intern in Lendingtree bowl, there were specific responsibilities aligned to the job. First, keep up with social media platforms to observe the changing patterns of sports marketing and also creating content for daily social media posts. Second, compose and send promotional emails to the company’s clients. These tasks are connected to my career as a marketer in the field of hospitality and tourism. Tourism is about travelling and exploring the world hence, it is fundamental to create ways of presenting this idea through sustaining the excitement and reducing the monotony. For instance, the experience will increase competence to my career by helping in the innovative conception of written, video and image contents that are used in various tourism companies to attract visitors. Furthermore, the knowledge will increase the intensity of conducting research on marketing trends from social media platforms. Job specifications for marketing in hospitality and tourism require an intern to have substantial communication and computer proficiency. In order to accomplish my responsibilities diligently, it was essential to communicate efficiently and think productively. Interactions with customers via email and on social media platforms improved my communication and thinking capacity that are very essential to marketing. In hospitality and tourism, communication plays a major role in reaching out to the visitors via television, social media and radio. Thus, the concepts of communication such as effectiveness and productivity will have an impact on my career as a hospitality and tourism major. S.W.O.T. analysis This is a premeditated planning strategy used to assist a company or an individual to recognize strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats connected to corporation competition (Grant & Gordon, 2021). It is used by many organizations to check the performance, competition, difficulty and potential of their operations. According to SWOT analysis, my experience as a marketing intern was characterised by strengths and weaknesses. The strengths included adaptability characterised by the development of confidence to work as an employee in the future. Better time management by learning how to maintain the value of time and punctuality in daily operations. For instance punctuality in sending emails to clients and updating posts on the company’s social media sites about the schedules and match arrangements. Lastly, I was passionate about performing job responsibilities and this was motivated by the desire to transform from being a college student to having a corporate identity. The weaknesses include handling the tight marketing budget of the company and promoting the unstable brand image. The lack of experience in these sectors slowed down my performance and used more of my time to research and understands the issues better. In addition, it was challenging to handle criticism about the reputation of the company on social media especially negative feedback about the annual bowl games. The marketing internship in Lendingtree bowl improved my strengths and provided direction for my weaknesses. On strengths, internship enabled emphasis on the use of social media to boost the sports activities of Lendingtree bowl today. It also provided an actual working environment on marketing in hospitality and tourism which was very different from the theoretical perspective of my course. On weaknesses, it created awareness about my inadequate and limited information about Lendingtree bowl, and its functioning activities. This shortcoming resulted to using a lot of time to investigate and obtain relevant information about the company. It also provided the realisation of my weak reaction to criticism on social media. Thus, motivated the need to nurture my emotional capacity and instead use the criticism as a way of enhancing and rebranding marketing strategy. Workplace culture Workplace culture is the mutual principles, trust systems, mind-sets and the suppositions shared by the people in the organisation (Agarwal, 2018). This is constructed by personal development and the influence of social-cultural factors especially the leadership and organizational power (Agarwal, 2018). Culture is also a foundation in talent acquisition that improves branding, marketing and advertising of the company. The marketing internship in Lendingtree bowl provided a diverse perspective of tourism/hospitality workplace culture. The annual bowl games are held in [City, State] and the activities accompanying the games are conducted all over the city. This workplace is characterised with organizational diversity of employees and tourists. The benefits of diversity are sustainability of talent within the company. Thus, Lendingtree bowl manages to retain many of the employees because of the diverse workplace that makes it impossible for them to leave. Furthermore, the company provides opportunity for growth by creating internship opportunity for college students to gain experience. The working environment was also very conducive as there was no form of harassment, contempt and discriminative behaviours against interns. It was very educative to gain more insight on marketing from seniors with more years of work experience. Diverse workplace culture is essential to my career in tourism and hospitality. This is because a good workplace culture represents better performance and success of a company. As a marketing intern, most of my responsibilities were influenced by a diverse workplace culture that was stipulated in the strategic goals and objectives of the job descriptions and specifications. It also influenced the communication within the company and the activities that were to be given priority. This is a good fit since a healthy culture connects employees and employers in ensuring satisfaction and performance. Good fit analysis This is a statistical proposition analysis to view the performance of illustrated data with a standard distribution (Zhang, 2002). It outlines the inconsistency between the viewed attributes and the results that are expected from the standard distribution. Good fit tests are applicable while making business decisions. The conceptual knowledge in school facilitated the process of working as marketing intern. The process of transforming from a student to a professional is not simple as it contains a lot of obstacles while adjusting to the new environment. As a tourism/hospitality student, the skills and knowledge derived from our studies are the tools to be used during our internship. For instance, tourists sometimes focus on conducting research about beautiful sceneries in the world and evaluating for the purpose of choosing the best for the visitors. This awareness facilitated my pre-internship preparation activities especially the one that involves conducting research about Lendingtree bowl to obtain an actual understanding of the organisation’s marketing strategy. Marketing strategy in tourism/hospitality via social media is also applicable to my internship responsibilities. Most of tourist companies create websites and social media accounts to updates their clients with relevant information about products and services. This information influenced the idea of using social media to posts activities of Lendingtree bowl to improve the flow of information from the company to the clients. Thus, knowledge from school created a way for the internship programme to boost my student’s abilities and improve professional development and experience. Professionalism and work ethics Professionalism/Work Ethic is described as exhibited personal responsibility and effectual work customs. It is characterised with promptness, productive work relations, efficiency in time management and effective communication (Aron, 2020). Professionalism is personal observance to the set standards, code of behaviour and traits that are recognized in the company (Aron, 2020). Every organisation seeks for professionalism and work ethics in all the job seekers since it reveals a person’s reliability, accountability and work patterns. As a marketing intern, it is important to observe professionalism and work ethics to make a difference in the work place. First, respect towards the customers should be paramount especially while sending or replying to their emails or comments on social media. As a marketer, identifying a customer’s need by giving appropriate instructions and feedback should be a priority. Also, we have to be available for when we are needed by the clients. Showing respects towards the clients creates a way of seeking relevance but taking advantage of client confuses our judgement of what is ethical. Second, remain calm in a competitive environment instead of reacting aggressively. After analyzing the competitors of Lendingtree bowl, it is clear that competition is a normal feature in business world. Organizations in a competitive environment alternate places and develop new inventive to provide an upper hand in the competitive world. It is important to treat any competitor company with respect. To maintain professionalism, conduct a comprehensive research to understand their point of view better. Furthermore, the research should not be for obtaining private information about the rivals and their products. References Aron, S. (2020). Professionalism and Ethics. Entrepreneur, Retrieved from: https://www.entrepreneur.com/terms/s/professionalism-and-ethics Agarwal, P. (2018). How to Create a Positive Workplace Culture. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Forbes. Grant, M, Gordon S. (2021). Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis. Investopedia. Retrieved from: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/swot.asp Juneja, P. (2015). Job description and Job specification. Management Study Guide and Content Team, ISO 2001:2015 Certified Education Provider. Zhang, Jin. (2002). Powerful goodness-of-fit tests based on the likelihood ratio. J.R. Stat. Soc. B. 64: 281-294. Retrieved 5 November 2018. Zhang, L. (2021). Everything You Need to Know about Internships-from what they are to How to Get One. The Muse. Retrieved from: https://www.themuse.com/advice/what-is-an-internship-definition-advice