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...