This summer I had the privilege of interning for Kohl’s in their marketing department on their Brand Strategy team in Milwaukee, WI. As a Brand Strategy Intern, I had a summer long project where I conducted a comprehensive competitive analyses of top industry rivals. This allowed me to uncover strategic opportunities to enhance Kohl’s company positioning and capitalize on market trends. I also was able to create a comprehensive social media and marketing campaign for 2024 Women’s History Month through the crafting of strategy briefs.
When reflecting on my STEP project, I think one of the biggest things I realized is how calculated everything is within business. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect stepping into a corporate environment, however it quickly registered to me that every decision was thought out and backed with a tremendous amount of research. For example, research and studies were done to figure out what type of words would be more efficient in getting consumers to click on a product or make a purchase.
In terms of myself, I understood early within my internship that I love to build relationships. I constantly found myself wanting to network and connect with people on different teams to understand what they did and how it contributed to the work at Kohl’s. I took time out of my day to build relationships with coworkers and fellow interns. This allowed me to grow in my understanding of how a business works cross functionally.
I found my passion for networking and building relationships throughout my summer long project of conducting a competitive analysis and seeking strategies to be implemented at Kohl’s. To begin my project, I felt I needed to gain insight from leaders in areas I was looking at. For example, I was researching what our top industry competitors did for Pride Month, I felt the need to meet with our senior leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion to gain their perspective on certain initiatives. I found myself enjoying these conversations and felt they were enabling me to be more successful in my position.
Creating this comprehensive competitive analysis was not easy, I lacked direction and information. When first receiving the project, the instructions were incredibly broad, and I felt quite lost in where to start and how to go about researching. This forced me to venture out of my comfort zone as I had to reach out to my managers for guidance and advice on where to begin and what resources to use. This was the start of an in-depth relationship with my managers as I started to become more comfortable with them. I realized I could reach out for help, and it encouraged me to put a lot of effort into my relationships and grow closer with my team.
Towards the end of my project when I started focusing on making recommendations to the Kohl’s corporations strategy plans led me to understand the hard work going into business decisions. I couldn’t just come to conclusions quickly; I had to do a lot of research and see what was effective within the industry in both sales and consumer reactions. The patience this took was a key aspect of how I came to understand and respect the drive behind business decisions.
Learning more about the patience and detailed research associated with business decisions is very valuable to me as it has made me approach personal challenges, academic projects, and professional situations differently. I am often someone who gets impatient and wants to jump into things. Sometimes it is necessary to be patient and weigh the different options in my decisions to get a more successful outcome. This semester, I am participating in many marketing projects where I must utilize strategies and come up with new ideas. The detail put into these business decisions I made over the summer will be incredibly useful when coming to results within my projects for class. I also am practicing having more patience as I search for jobs post-graduation, this has been hard for me, but shown to be beneficial as I am able to network with a lot of professionals.
Lastly, learning about my passion for relationships and building connections has been the most valuable to me. I often question my career path and what I want to do or what industry I want to be a part of. However, I realized I want to do something where I interact with others and build relationships with coworkers and/or clients. This has led me to explore more full-time jobs in sales as network building and relationship development is what makes people successful in these roles. I always saw myself strictly in marketing roles, but this change has allowed me to explore other avenues and get excited about the future.
