General Information
Name: Gabrielle McBee
Internship Hours: 10 hours/week
Internship Placement: JRM Management
Internship Supervisor: Mark Thomas
Internship Job Title: Marketing/Advertising Assistant
Background
This internship presented me with the opportunity to expand my knowledge of marketing and advertising with a woman, Kathy Byers who has worked as a marketing director for over forty years with McDonald’s. Kathy works for a McDonald’s owner/operator, Mark Thomas, who owns 13 McDonald’s franchises. A friend of mine who works in the office told me that this company was looking for an intern to work with Kathy during the summer and help create a marketing campaign for the Cape Cod McDonald’s locations. After getting in touch with Mr. Thomas and sending my resume, he asked me to come for an interview. Mr. Thomas hired me on the spot and was very eager about the experience I was going to get with himself and Kathy during the summer. I chose this internship because I know that McDonald’s is a well recognized brand and the marketing/advertising this company has done over the years is virtually everywhere, however these Cape Cod locations will be a difficult challenge for trying to figure out where/how to advertise and draw in consumers. The sales in these stores are great over the summer but their advertising space is limited because of the strictness of the towns in Cape Cod. This marketing opportunity is definitely going to be difficult. Another aspect of this job is to determine if the campaign was successful and if the sales were higher than last summer. I’ve already created some ideas for the advertising that have been implemented such as direct mail to the local residents with promotions, and gas station toppers (advertising signs on gas station pumps) that include directions to McDonald’s and coupons for great deals. The difficult part isn’t the creative ideas, but rather getting in touch with local businesses and trying to determine if the price they are willing to sell advertising space for is worth it. The ideas I’ve come up with will take until the end of the summer before anybody knows whether they worked to drive up sales or not. So far I’ve been rewarded for creative ideas and truly enjoy working for this company.
Professional Objectives
Objective One: Create a summer advertising campaign that builds sales above those of last year in the five Cape Cod McDonald’s locations
Activities/Resources:
• Find creative advertising space, such as bus stops, gas stations, and beaches
• Have employees pass out coupons in local strip malls
• Reach out to local radio stations to promote products to increase sales
• Taste tests with the radio stations and prizes/giveaways in the McDonald’s restaurants
Evidence: Include the drawn up plans in my portfolio.
Objective Two: Raise sales for summer 2012 over the summer of 2011
Activities/Resources:
• Review last year’s profit/loss statements
• Determine the amount of money spent on last year’s advertising campaign compared with this year
• Track the amount of coupons used this summer over last summer
Evidence: Include an Excel spreadsheet with the numbers listed as well as a word document explaining what worked and what did not.
Duties include:
• Assist marketing manager with creative ideas and new spaces to advertise
• Determine if an advertising space is worth buying
• Organize prize/giveaway sessions with local radio stations
• Organize the on-air taste tests with local radio stations
• Encourage employees to up sell new products
Evaluation methods:
• Communicate with supervisor/marketing manager via email telephone and in person
• Record hours worked on determining where to spend money on advertising space, contacting radio stations, coordinating events, etc.
Expected Workdays
• Complete 10 hours per week for 10 weeks, totaling 100 hours for the semester
• Wednesdays from 2-6pm, Fridays from 9-3pm
• Start Date: May 30, 2012, End Date: August 3, 2012
• *Hours are flexible with regard mandatory school functions
