J. Hathaway: Entrepreneurial Marketing Intern

Company

Luxury Watch Startup | Houston, TX | 2017

J. Hathaway creates classic essentials for the modern traveler. It offers luxury travel watches inspired by the greatest cities in the world and guaranteed for life.

What I Learned

Online Business
Website Software
Website Development
Social Media Management
International Business Relations

Key Tasks

At this internship, I learned about the foundation of social media management such as: creating a content schedule, using social media automation programs, curating content with RSS feeds, and understanding buying personas to tailor user content. I also determined the best heat/click map software to collect website user behavior. Lastly, I corresponded with international manufacturers to determine product packaging designs and negotiate prices for the product. Overall, this experience allowed me to understand project management and the four P's of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion.

In 2017, I obtained an entrepreneurial marketing internship with a start-up company that was preparing to launch its online business. It's products consists of luxury watches with future plans to expand to other product categories. As a freshman student, this experience was extremely helpful in understanding online business models and the foundation of digital marketing.

During my internship, I took part in deciding which softwares and programs to implement for its website and social media through research. Furthermore, I learned about social media behavior and programs that aid in curating and scheduling posts. Additionally, as an international business major, I was exclusively assigned to communicate with international manufacturers about product parts and packaging. Read each project description below for more information on my learning process.

Website Analytics

Heat + Click Map

Heat and click maps are used to observe user behavior on each page. Heat maps show which areas the mouse tends to move on the screen. Heat maps can also analyze the scrolling patterns of the website. On the other hand, click maps show what the mouse is clicking on.

For this internship, my partner and I proposed CrazyEgg, a reputable and cheaper program that was successfully implemented into the company website.

Social Media

For social media, I was assigned to find an affordable social media management platform that could post content automatically on a schedule. For pricing and capability reasons, I proposed to use Social Pilot.

This program can manage multiple social platforms, bulk schedule hundreds of posts at a time, and use an RSS feed that enables content curation. In other words, you can recycle other people's content to grab the attention of your followers based on their interests. Content curation is a great way to keep your followers engaged.

Content Schedule

To make use of this service, my team created a posting schedule based on user behavior research for these social platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. See the posting schedule below.

Global Business

Because of my successful performance as an intern, the Founder entrusted me with exclusive projects related to international business. For my project, I was assigned to communicate with Chinese and Swedish manufacturers. I research independently through blog writers whose expertise was on Chinese and Swedish communications. These cultures are very distinctive and require a different approach in communication.

With Chinese manufacturers, I was assigned to communicate through email about product packaging details such as: dimension, color, box material, and closure type. I learned that establishing a time table with your manufacturer is a great way to foster efficiency at a production viewpoint.

At the end of my internship, the product package was complete. I had finalized details such as logo size, engraving depth, box size, and stuffing material. Each detail was a different cost. I convinced the founder to utilize a hinge-type box that was cost-effective yet elegant for the luxury brand. Here are photos of the final product.

For my correspondence, I was careful to not use wording that could be easily misinterpreted. I was detailed yet concise in my wording to respect their time. Conducting business with Chinese partners require a strong relationship strengthened by trust and respect. It is important to warmly show your appreciation to them while still being detailed in what you need.

Additionally, I was assigned to negotiate the pricing of leather from a Swedish producer. The company uses the leather to create its watch straps and leather casing for the watches. Correspondence was conducted through email and WhatsApp, a popular phone app for international business communication. With the help of the Founder, I renegotiated the leather's pricing through the concept, "economies of scale". I presented the numbers of potential sales for the first year and the number for the next five years. Additionally, I communicated the design for the leather packaging. The final product can be seen to the right.

Communication with Swedish partners did not require much relationship building. Swedish business culture is more transactional than Chinese business culture. Price negotiation required a straightforward approach with logical reasoning.

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