Week One
July 15th I had my performance review session to measure my performance with Snell for the past 6 months as a sales intern. It went incredibly well. My mentor; Teboho had raving reviews about me not forgetting to mention the shortcomings that I have. The company is pleased with my performance thus far stating that I am where I am meant to be. I could only thank the Almighty, my cheerleader; Nobampi and my ancestors for the proactive progress that I am making in my professional life as well as in all spheres of my life. Camagu ( a Xhosa term meaning gratitude )
Performance review finished and now I am one foot in at the door. I just joined the Marketing Department Team to gain some fruitful knowledge and experiences. Employees here have seen me hanging around probably wondering “Who is that lass?” and here I was waiting for the pulchritudinous Marketing Director to arrive to give me the 411 as it is my official first day with the Marketing Department Team. She is running late because of an early morning meeting she has. She said we should meet at 9AM but it was already 10AM and I got here at 8AM already. Right. So I decided to make myself useful and formerly introduce myself to the staff and ask if there is anything I could do. I mean they have seen me on the block doing some errands such as; recording invoices or just handling affairs on behalf of my mentor; Teboho. Next to Adri, Kellee and Dineo is where you would find me. Right there at their cubicle, until one day I needed to charge my laptop in order to complete massive paperwork that my mentor had given me and I found myself in a modernized Remy Martin-themed office -similar to the once that a CEO would have. Without asking who it belonged to, I stepped in and made myself comfortable. Perhaps more than comfortable. (laughs) I was meant to occupy the space only for the period that I was charging my pc and completing the outstanding paperwork but moghel decided to feel entitled and whenever I would come in, I would find myself being and working in that office.
Either way, back to my first day. So after formerly having introduced myself to the staff, they received me with such warmth and affection. It was not long until I ran to the receptionist Sia to ask when the Marketing Director is stepping in or rather calling my mentor and Jane to find out about the Marketing Director’s whereabouts. A couple of minutes later she arrives, clothed in a yellow-mustard coat and blond hair similar to Sia of Chandelier. I wait for her to walk into her office and just a couple of seconds later I walk towards her. I was marveled and beyond ecstatic to be in the same room as her. We were in her office and I gave a brief explanation of my experience and what I have to offer. It was not long until she sent me to another cubicle and gave me large files concerning brands that I was going to work for. Brown/White spirits. It took me 5 hours to read and process everything. Call that information overload! The day was already over and the Marketing Director had to rush to run errands so I could not get back to her.
Day two (Thursday, July 18, 2019)
ALL HANDS ON DECK!
It is Madibs Day! (In Oprah’s Voice) and I had just rushed in around 8 AM and Adri (receptionist) had to remind me that it was Tata’s special day. Holy Macaroni! I had not brought anything from home such as clothes I no longer wear. However, I had brought my willingness to assist in terms of getting my hands dirty and being all hands on deck with Snell’s staff.
Early that day, I met Lauren who was going to be the individual (together with the Marketing Director) that I was going to report to. As I was standing at Adri’s desk, I spotted her marvelous wavy blond hair and I walked towards her to formerly introduce myself. In no time, she told me we had a Stretton’s team meeting with event management agencies; Mullen Lowe, Loxyion staff and other agencies I could not recall. Trust me, she had already told me that my brain’s about to fart cause I would not be entirely familiar with the language they would be uttering. Right, I was as cool as a cucumber and the meeting went quite well. It was not long when I was back at my desk and I had to present to Lauren what I had grasped from those large files the Marketing Director gave me. Lauren then officially introduced me to sir Ian Hooper and it felt so great to be acknowledged by a man of his stature.
Day three Friday, July 19, 2019
Brand Knowledge training with Jane
I have undergone this for the first time on January 9th during my Induction training. So why did I go a second time? Well, being on trade entails that you familiarize yourself with all the brand portfolio of the company that you work for –that you know all the variants in the range. Moreover, the background and details concerning that brand. The set-up consisted of all the brands on display and crackers to clean our palettes after each tasting and glassware on our tables. It was yet again such an interactive session and talk about starting the weekend off on a high note! (chuckles)
FRUITFUL INTERNAL YEARNING(learning) ASPECTS COVERED
Here are key activities or perhaps fruitful internal learning aspects I have covered till date (July 22- August 22, 2019)
Recording extensive invoices
Dates: 22- 26 July
Duration: 7 hours
Unlike my mentor’s invoices where the budget tracker is in one Excel file, Bongi’s budget trackers are divided into various Excel files. In other words, each brand has its own budget tracker, so I had to record badges of Russian Bear and Stretton’s invoices in the respective Excel files. These Excel files are also extensive, because I had to divide the invoices in different categories and when it comes to figures, to the respective categories for example Agency Fees or under the current campaign we are working on.
PowerPoint presentations and proposals
Dates: 29- 31 July
Duration: 12 hours
I was given tasks to develop and work on Stretton’s as well as Russian Bear presentations. My PowerPoint presentation skills were put to the test, I had to create and tell a story for each of these brands.
Overseeing activations for other representatives
Dates: 1- 10 August
Duration: 15 hours
Akhiwe made me oversee two of her activations in different venues. It was my first time working on Cointreau and to oversee an activation that spanned 8 hours! Moreover, the next day there was a Jose Cuervo Tequila festival –a first for me too. I had incredible fun overseeing that activation too.
Finalizing things for the BE US campaign with agencies
Dates: 12-17 August
Duration: 1 hour
Being with Marketing for a little over a month now entailed that I jumped on the bandwagon and also play a part in our Russian Bear BE US campaign that launches on September 1st. I attended meetings with agencies Loxyion, Mullen Lowe, Jalibird, etc to make sure that all the arrangements before the campaign officially kicks off are in place –connecting the dots, crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s.
Attending cycle-brief for the first time with sales team
Dates: 19-22 August
Duration: 10 hours
Cycle-brief probably put me or aligned me with everything else that everyone else in the Marketing department team has been up to or working on and how their 3 months will look like –presenting of their campaigns and many other elements that revolve around that. Moreover, I also got to see how internally Snell empowers their team and gets them geared up for the peak season. Team work makes the dream work indeed.
The day has come to an end with cold winds roaring outside and here I am drafting Yeye’s experience in the workforce. It is 16:55 PM and Yeye needs to dot the i’s and cross the t’s and rush to the MyCiti bus station and officially sign out cause Yeye needs to upload Yearn with Yeye’s latest ‘Yeye Yearns with Snell’-video. Keep Yearning.
Sincerely Panduleni
Yearn with Yeye 