Marketers want to see their customers get excited about a new product or service, yet sometimes this exuberance of positivity and greatness can distract from the actual product and can make a marketer not be as honest about what they are marketing. In one of the biggest industries, you see people have a conflict with ethics in marketing. When it comes to ethics, I must form my own opinion and uphold my own values as I begin my marketing career. We will discuss why people are not always honest in marketing and why we should be honest with our work. There was an article on PR Daily back in 2018 titled, "Do marketing pros have an honesty problem?" and it basically boiled down to this: yes. It isn’t uncommon for children to be dishonest, and is something they outgrow over time. As we get older, we understand that it is not right. Yet, it is a little different for some marketers. Most professionals believe they are following honest practices and most have the intention of doing so (Chapman). But imagine if you inflated a statistic to increase sales. Are you still being honest? With these practices, it is becoming harder and harder for consumers to trust companies. Two-thirds of consumers in the US don’t trust large businesses to “do the right thing”. While word of mouth used to be the only second opinion a potential customer could get, in the age of the internet, it is a little different. Over 60% of consumers read online reviews before purchasing nowadays (Chapman). One may be wondering, "Why is it so hard to be honest?” It’s important to say that most marketers do not lie on purpose (Chapman). They can often be under a lot of pressure and have goals they need to hit and targets to reach. Marketers are storytellers, and it is their way of telling a story to sell a product or service and reach that goal they have set up for themselves (Champman). From dental care to sun protection, we have observed companies being deceptive. 17 years ago, the mouthwash company Listerine claimed that their product was as effective as floss at preventing tooth decay (NBC News). There was a huge controversy over this campaign, and U.S. District Judge Denny Chin make a public decision that he would order Pfizer, the maker of Listerine to stop the advertising campaign (NBC News). Back in 2021, Banana Boat marketed its product as reef friendly. In reality, sunscreen contains ingredients that are harmful to coral reefs and marine life (Edwards). As you can see, this can directly affect not only consumers but the environment as well. Personally, I think it is really important, to be honest in marketing. What comes to mind is the quote “treat others the way you want to be treated.” While I may be working in the marketing industry, I am still a consumer that wants to trust the brands I buy from. Now let's look at why marketers should be honest. Businesses are starting to be held to a higher standard of accountability. Especially in the age of social media, one does not have much room to hide (Gallegos). Things will come to light. Authenticity may seem like a buzzword, but it's here to stay. Consumers are curious about what is real when there are so many brands online claiming to be this or doing that (Gallegos). Honesty also builds trust among customers. 86 percent of consumers say that authenticity is an important element when deciding what brands they like and 81% say they need to be able to trust the brand before making a purchasing decision (Mohsin). When a brand creates a connection with a consumer, positive things can happen like creating brand loyalty and can provide the basis of a consumer-brand relationship (Gallegos). If you are genuine, consumers will notice, which will make you stand out among your competitors. Dishonesty may seem attractive to marketers in the short run so that they can win quickly, but in the long run, integrity is stronger and leaves lasting impressions on consumers. Sources Gallegos, J. A. (2021, January 6). Attention Marketers: People Don’t Trust Your Marketing Strategy! TINT Blog. https://www.tintup.com/blog/best-marketing-strategies-2017/ Edwards, B. J. (2021, October 4). Banana Boat Sunscreens Contain Chemicals That Harm, Kill Coral Reefs, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges. Top Class Actions. https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/banana-boat-sunscreens-contain-chemicals-that-harm-kill-coral-reefs-class-action-lawsuit-alleges/ Mohsin, M. (2021b, August 2). 10 Branding Statistics You Need to Know in 2021 [Infographic]. Oberlo. https://www.oberlo.com/blog/branding-statistics NBC Universal. (2005, January 8). Listerine no replacement for flossing? NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/listerine-no-replacement-flossing-flna1c9475851 V. (2018, October 22). Do marketing pros have an honesty problem? PR Daily. https://www.prdaily.com/do-marketing-pros-have-an-honesty-problem/ https://www.oberlo.com/blog/branding-statistics
0 Comments
My shyness goes back a long way. At a young age, I would hide from people on my birthday because I didn't want to be sung to. I never liked being the center of attention. Presentations have never been easy for me, whether they are in front of 3 people or 30 in a classroom. Nevertheless, it has never kept me from doing something. I am able to say that about a lot of different aspects of my life. I have faced many challenges along the way, but I have always remained determined. A couple months ago, I was nominated to speak at Champlain College's Admitted Student's Day (ASD). Champlain's ASD is a weekend event for parents and accepted students to attend and learn more about the college. Champlain brings six students from different interests/roles to campus on that Saturday, and they speak in front of an audience. Fall 2021 was the semester I studied abroad and I was asked to share my journey. I was honored and humbled to be asked about my study abroad experience. I have never been the person who gets asked to guest speak or share a story so I was really excited to get this opportunity and to share with prospective students an experience that made a difference in my life. However, I was nervous. Like I have said, public speaking has never been easy for me. There was some hesitation about whether or not I would do it. "What if I trip getting up to the stage, what if I stumble, what if people don't like my speech?" But in my heart, I knew that I could do this. So I replied, “Yes!” After saying I would speak at the event I had to write my speech. Writing a speech can be challenging. Engaging your audience is critical, but you also need to be serious and convey your message. For me, it all came down to my heart and why I decided to study abroad in Ireland. My Dad grew up in county Galway and because of this, I have always had a special place in my heart for the country. When the pandemic hit, I had very few opportunities to study abroad. Even so, I hoped and pursued my chance to study in the Fall of my senior year. In my speech, I talked a lot about perseverance and resilience. I also talked about my internship at a start-up tech company and the learning experience I gathered from it. I remember reading an article from Forbes saying the number one way to write a speech is by making it memorable. My experience was memorable, I just had to share it. During the first Admitted Students Day, I spoke in two different places on campus. The first was in the Champlain Room, where every chair was filled and people started lining up along the wall. This was my first time speaking in front of so many people. My palms were clammy and I felt a pit in my stomach. However, as I started speaking it became a lot easier because I truly wanted to share my story. I wanted to show other students that they could have memorable experiences as well. After my first speech, I raced to my school gymnasium where I said the same speech. This time I was out of breath, but it did not stop me. Two weeks later I presented for the incoming students one last time, but this time at The Flynn theater. For more than 90 years, the Flynn has been at the center of the cultural landscape in Burlington. I remember attending my Admitted Students Day at The Flynn, excited to start my journey at the school. Being there and sharing my speech made me reflect on how fast these past four years have been. Overall, I am really proud of how far I have come over my four years of college. It was not the easiest four years of my life. We had a pandemic that changed a lot. But I did gain confidence and I did gain the ability to explore what I am passionate about. I go back to that shy senior in high school watching the student speakers, and never imagined that that would be me. My advice for incoming first years in college is to do it all. See what interests you, make changes, learn and explore. Even though it's not always easy to do, it's so rewarding in the end. Learning about inspirational people is one of my favorite things about the digital world. I have found several women who have been leading the marketing and business worlds. Let me introduce you to three of them. Bozoma Saint John Bozoma is an incredibly smart and talented businesswoman and marketing executive. She has lived all over the world, including Ghana, Nairobi, and Kenya, before moving to the United States when she was 12. In 1999, Bozoma graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in English and African-American studies. Over the years, Bozoma has worked at some very prestigious companies. In 2005, she began working for PepsiCo as a Senior Marketing Manager for all of the PepsiCo beverage brands, and she then became the Head of Music and Entertainment for the multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation in 2011. Jimmy Lovine recruited her based on her music marketing experience in 2014 when she joined Beats Music. She moved from New York to Los Angeles to lead the company's marketing efforts. Soon after, Beats was purchased by Apple, and she became Head of Global Consumer Marketing for iTunes and Apple Marketing. She commuted to Apple's Cupertino headquarters several times a week. In 2016, she redesigned Apple Music on stage for the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, and journalists called it her breakthrough moment. Her appearance helped to highlight Apple's complete rebuild of its Apple Music software, according to Business Insider's Biz Carson. She was dubbed the "coolest" person at the Apple keynote by Buzzfeed. Bozoma then joined Uber in 2017 as Chief Brand Officer. A year later, she joined Endeavor as Chief Marketing Officer. In her most current role which she has recently left, she worked as the Chief Marketing Officer at Netflix. She was the first black senior executive to work for Netflix. Bozoma is also an ambassador. She has been named as an Ambassador for the African Diaspora and Special Envoy to the President of Ghana. In addition, she is a philanthropic ambassador for Pencils of Promise in Ghana and serves on the boards of Girls Who Code, Vital Voices, the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Soho House, and the and the CFDA. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of his, for her alma mater, Wesleyan University. Maggie Chan Jones At 14, Maggie moved to New York City by herself from Hong Kong to live with her father so she could benefit from a quality education. She graduated from Binghampton University with a degree in Business Management in 1996. In 2005, she started working at Microsoft and gradually got promoted to Director of Microsoft Cloud Services & Office 365. Here she was responsible for leading Microsoft’s commercial cloud services marketing strategy in AMS. Her team also drove product and marketing strategies for Office 365. After working for Microsoft for 7 years, she started a new job at Level 3 Communications as Senior Vice President and North America CMO. After two years here she moved on to SAP where she became the first woman to become the global chief marketing officer of SAP. She led a global team of 1,300 marketers across advertising and brand experience initiatives, sponsorships, digital marketing, strategic events, the customer audience journey, and field and partner marketing functions for the market leader in enterprise application software provider. Then, in 2017 Maggie became the CEO and Founder of Tenshey. This is an executive coaching company that helps advance women into tech-focused leadership roles and the boardroom. She is committed to advancing gender equality in the workforce through executive coaching and leadership development. She states, that as a woman of color in the tech industry, getting promoted to the C-suite level was rare.“Only 20% of people in the C-suite are women, and only 4% are women of color,” says Jones. “I want to be part of the driving force to change that.” She founded the company to help businesses deliver on their diversity and inclusion vision. She would like to support women and other minority groups to accelerate leadership and development. Her accomplishments include being named one of the top 20 World's Most Influential CMOs in 2017, and the Women of the Decade in Marketing, Branding, and Communication award in 2018. www.linkedin.com/in/bozoma-saint-john-0305441/Marisa Thalberg Being a mother to two girls while balancing being a CMO is Marisa Thalberg's superpower. She graduated from Brown University in 1991 with a degree in American Civilization. After graduating, Marisa worked for a variety of companies including Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising, J. Walter Thompson, and then started working for some more notable companies like Revlon as a VP, Management Director, and then Unilever as Vice President of Global Advertising. From 2007 to 2015, Marisa worked as VP of Corporate Digital and Content Marketing Worldwide at The Estee Lauder Companies. Here she was responsible for the corporate leadership of digital and social marketing and the content strategy to help support the brand and eCommerce development worldwide. Marissa then began working at Taco Bell, one of many people's favorite fast-food restaurants. She started out as a Chief Brand Engagement Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, and then Global Chief Brand Officer. Here, she reshaped the company’s vision to be a “culture-centric lifestyle brand”. This was followed by updating the brand identity for the first time in 25 years, and implementing brand culture moments like The Bell: a Taco Bell Resort and Hotel, Taco Bell weddings, Taco bell x Lyft, and Taco Bell x Forever21. Currently, she is the Executive Vice President, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer at Lowe's Companies, Inc. Not only is she a busy business professional, but Marisa is also a mom who is the Founder and President of Executive Moms. This is an organization dedicated to women who are professionals and working mothers with peer support, networking, and resources to help them thrive in both roles. ... Learning about these women has been truly inspirational. For more information about them, visit their LinkedIn profiles. Bozoma Saint John - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bozoma-saint-john-0305441/ Maggie Chan Jones - https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiecj/ Marisa Thalberg - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisathalberg/ We all have that special something that keeps us motivated. Some people may love to play video games, and others might like to bake. Traveling is my “thing”. Since I was young, I have held a deep interest in exploring new places, whether it be 30 minutes from my house or halfway across the world. As someone who has always been a bit shy, travel has taken me outside of my comfort zone and has inspired me to discover and surround myself with new places and people. Traveling abroad to study and intern in Dublin, Ireland, gave me this opportunity. From my experience, it seems like a good time to discuss how marketing and traveling can be integrated. Which types of trends do we see within the travel marketing field? Here are four trends we'll see in travel marketing in 2022.
1. TikTok Marketing Travel marketers are loving the opportunities this platform is giving them. People are craving to see what is out in the world, especially after the long 2 years of staying home. TripHacks DC, a company that provides guided tours of DC was able to see phenomenal success using the platform. In December 2020, they posted a daily video to their platform. In that month they gained 738, 551 video views, 3, 511 followers, 92,300 likes, and 6,572 profile views. And it was almost a year and a half ago. TikTok is growing at an incredible pace. They have 689 million monthly users, and only became a platform in mid- 2018. So, how can you incorporate TikTok into your travel marketing? Make use of relevant hashtags. For example, if you are in Paris and you would like everyone to know that, use the hashtag. Also, geolocation is a factor when it comes to the algorithm. Make sure to add your location, as your geo-tagged post will show up in relevant searches. Marketers passionate about travel can show viewers places they didn't even know existed. The opportunities are endless. 2. Virtual Reality You can see the whole world… from your living room. Virtual reality is an artificial and fully immersive experience. This has been an increasingly popular form of travel marketing. Think of the opportunities it gives to different industries. Hotels can use VR tours to show their hotel rooms. Travel agents can show tourists attractions through VR videos. VR allows a user to really feel like they are at the destination which benefits marketers as they try and make that jump with their customers. Video and images have long worked to portray what a place has to offer, but virtual reality allows people to experience it in a more immersive way. 3. User-generated content Have you ever scrolled through your feed and someone had just been to your dream destination? User-generated content includes videos created by users, pictures uploaded to social media, and comments on blog posts. Travel marketers can incorporate user-generated content into their marketing strategy. This can all help build brand loyalty and authenticity. As part of their For the Love of Mesa contest, Visit Mesa asked users to share what Mesa means to them through creative content. They then featured the best of the photos and videos and created a music video called “For the Love of Mesa.” They were able to take relatable content. Hashtag campaigns within user-generated content have also become popular. This can all be done while subtly promoting your business. Back in 2015, Cathay Pacific created the #lifewelltravelled so that it could align with its global advertising campaign. Bloggers started to pick it up, with frequent usage from Jessica Stein. The hashtag is still popular with almost 3,000,000 million posts on Instagram. 4. Influencer Marketing Lastly, let's talk about influencer marketing. By now most marketers know that influencers are a great way to reach audiences. You can have an influencer endorse a product/service to their personal social media pages. The audiences of influencers will likely trust them more than a brand. Travel images and videos are a great way to show off a travel experience. The Ritz Carlton has 91 hotels in 30 different destinations. They are known for luxury and extravagance. They have worked with well-known travel influencers like Jack Morris @doyoutravel and Travel Awesome @travelawesome. As a result of their exposure, these influencers are attracting a younger audience, which was their main objective. Two years ago I left campus and went home for spring break, a small weekend bag in hand. I was thinking more about my recent midterms than the news about Covid-19, which had been slowly starting to spread, with lots of rumors about this strange - but far away - virus.
I started my break in Boston with a friend. We had taken a packed train into the city and watched a comedy show in a crowded room. I then went about my usual day-to-day activities of being in my hometown. Hanging out with friends, shopping at the mall, eating out – all things I would soon realize I took for granted. As the week went on, I received an email from the school stating they were going to extend Spring Break for one week. My first reaction of excitement quickly turned to a realization that things were about to change. That second week of spring break, while in theory was all about fun with friends and family quickly became lockdown. Panic rose out of me, I took deep breaths and was thankful I got to be with my family and that we were all healthy. The county would have bigger problems than one disrupted college student - but as that student, I felt uneasy not knowing what my future would look like in these early days. What I feared most, was the fear of the unknown. *** Fast forward two years, and I just had my last spring break as a college student. Despite my thinking through those endless Zoom classes that this pandemic was the longest road ever, my college years have flown by. And this year, I spent part of my spring break in Montreal, a place firmly shut to travel since 2020 I was able to explore the city, eat delicious crepes for breakfast and poutine for dinner, and reflect on what has happened over the last couple of years. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that it would all be okay. Facing the unknown with masks, gloves, nose swabs, more tests, horror stories of overcrowded hospitals and morgues haunted me. I wish I could tell myself that with perseverance and patience it would all turn out okay - and I came out stronger, not derailed. As I face a future of unknowns, I have a few things to apply to my thinking for facing the next challenges that await:
Image by Vanilla Bear Films Videos have been around for a long time. We went from watching movies solely at a cinema to an infinite scroll of 6-second videos. Now, they are flashy, quicker to grab your attention, and addictive. I know personally, I will be twice as entertained when watching a video than reading texts, and marketers have realized this. Have you noticed that more companies are sharing videos recently? That’s because videos are a consumer favorite type of content. As a marketer, I do not see this trend going away anytime soon.
Still unsure if your business should include more videos into your daily content? Here are 5 reasons your company should be using videos. SEO Video helps boost SEO! Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making your site better for search engines. It is one of the best ways to grow a brand's visibility on a search results page. It is especially important to know that Google loves videos. SEO experts believe that Google prioritizes search results with video. Google will not just scan the text of a page, it will also scan for other types of media. They want high-quality text as well as high-quality visuals, especially in video format. Videos will also make viewers stay on your site longer. For example, if someone clicks on your page and they see text and are not interested, that may be only a couple of seconds, but if they click on a video and watch at least 30 seconds of it, Google will reward them and rank it higher as it will be deemed as a higher - quality page. SEO also allows for a lot of traffic generation. If someone sees a video on YouTube, they will be more likely to look at your website if it is linked. Many B2B and B2C companies are now creating YouTube accounts specifically so they will show up faster on SEO now. Humanize Your Brand Have viewers get to know the real you! This is a clever way of connecting with a consumer on multiple levels. If a video is well-produced and engaging, a consumer may forget that they are ultimately being sold a product. This is also a great way to share the faces of your company. For example, incorporating a day in the life of an employee at “__”. This will build trust for your business. The content is more transparent than written text or marketing collateral. Users Love Videos The human brain processes visuals almost 60,000 times faster than text. Viewers also remember 95% of a message when it is watched but only 10% of text-based messages. As humans, we are hardwired to avoid cognitive strain, so your brain does not want to focus more than it has to, and actually rewards humans to watch videos. When you scroll through your phone, your brain gets a shot of dopamine. Dopamine is one of the types of neurotransmitters that send signals to your body and brain. It helps you feel pleasure, focus, and strive towards doing things that ignite those neurotransmitters. With apps like TikTok, there is a never-ending supply of videos so brands are hopping on the video train to get viewers to watch their content. Better Metrics Metrics for videos are able to tell you more about your audience than written content, starting off with view count. View count is the total number of people who have viewed your video. Platforms measure views differently. For example, on YouTube, a viewer needs to watch a video for 30 seconds for it to be considered a view but on Facebook they would have to watch the video for only 2 seconds. Another metric to look out for is the engagement rate. The engagement rate allows you to see how long a viewer has watched your video. For example, you can find out if someone watched your video for 2 seconds and was not interested or 45 seconds and presumably interested. This will allow you to experiment with what consumers may want to watch. You can also measure the play rate. The play rate shows the number of page visitors and who actually clicked the video. This can show you what thumbnail may be captivating for a visitor. This also shares if your video is relevant to the keywords people used to find the video. Mobile Users Statistics strongly show that mobile users love videos more than any other type of content. Nearly 90% of consumers watch videos on their mobile phones. Most users have their phones with them at all times, which will automatically lead to higher conversion rates. Video viewers are 1.4x as likely to watch ads on their mobile devices and 1.4x more likely to pay attention to ads on branded content on YouTube. Cenk Bulbul, Head of Agency Marketing at Google has stated, “Mobile devices have redefined the way we live our lives and online video is in the midst of that redefinition… understanding and taking advantage of the changes in consumer behavior is more critical than ever for brands.” A Gen Z’ers Story
I was born in 2000, the start of the new millennium. I cannot remember a time when I could not Google something, ask my mom to dial someone on her mobile phone, or have access to any and all of the virtual world. In the early 2000s, I remember computer lessons in my first-grade class, playing games on my dad's Blackberry, using Craigslist with my mom to get a good deal. And once the 2010s hit I had complete access to the internet, getting my first phone at age 11 and having been attached to the hip with one ever since. Now in 2022, I am 21. A soon-to-be college graduate. An adult. I am a Zoomer as one would call Generation Z. So long to the Millennials ruled media while we were children, Gen Z is taking over. Who is Gen Z? Generation Z is the demographic cohort from the years 1997 and 2012. This generation is just starting to come into the professional world, make purchasing decisions, and most noticeably be active online. Gen Z is the first digitally centric generation, and most (like me) cannot remember a time without the internet. As the generation enters the workforce and shares more of their voices, it is important companies know how to cater to this audience. Bloomberg projects Gen Z’s future earnings will reach $2 trillion by 2030. They represent an estimated $143 billion in annual spending power and $127 million was spent on their behalf this year. In other words, it’s important to know how to market to this audience. Here are four tips to cater to the Gen Z audience on social media: 1. Be Authentic Gen Z wants to see the real you! We have grown up in a time where we have seen the effects of false advertising, we have read about it online. We have seen lawsuits against endless companies for false promotion. We want to see a company that is genuine and authentic. Gen Z is willing to spend, but on a company that they can trust. They want to connect by sharing a story, by keeping your brand persistent. Be purpose-driven in your actions and words. According to a study with Agility PR and McKinney, 65% of Gen Z will pay 48% more on average, for products from a purpose-driven brand. As you consider changing your strategy to appeal to this audience, remember that authenticity is key. If you are not telling the truth, these young consumers will find out and it will hurt your business in the long run. 2. Invest in Influencers We are not talking about celebrities here. Gen Z wants to see relatable, realistic influencers to showcase your products. Gone with one-size-fits-all, and on to focusing on individual differences and interests. This generation values inclusiveness and authenticity. Much of the generation does not trust purchasing from the company but will trust an influencer who can motivate them with their purchasing decisions. 3. Customize This generation is always online and is constantly flipping through social channels. Do not think that your audience will not notice you posting the same content to all of your accounts. There should be fluidity, around in-store, digital, and mobile content. Marketers need to create enough of a difference to appeal to the specific channel. Do your research and see who is your target audience. You may want to incorporate visuals, but that might only work on Instagram. You may share a quick video, but that will only work on TikTok, not YouTube. Think about what you are sharing and its purpose, then customize it for each platform. 4. Speed When Gen Z scrolling through their phones, or online they need something to pop and to pop fast. We are used to an exorbitant amount of information and are now accustomed to filtering through it quickly. Quick visuals! Gen Z has an attention span of 8 seconds, a lot shorter than previous generations. Focus on quick, energy-producing content and platforms that accommodate this. Think TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat. These short-form videos will capture their eyes for a few seconds so make sure to be quick! A survey from The Manifest shares that 89% of Gen Z’ers use YouTube, 74% use Instagram, and 68% use Snapchat on a weekly basis. 63% of Gen Z use TikTok daily so if you are not on TikTok already, now is the time to do so! Gen Z is coming into its own. The time to start marketing to this audience is now! … But be quick - you don’t have much time to catch their interest! The first year of the pandemic was tough on everyone, including college students. In September 2020, I found out that I could not study abroad in the spring of 2021. Months before, my highly-anticipated internship in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, was also canceled. Yet again, the pandemic had turned my dreams into another dreary day of learning by Zoom.
Feeling discouraged, I was excited to learn that my college was planning on resuming its study abroad program in Ireland in the fall of 2021. Without hesitating, I said “Yes!” While many of my peers decided that they didn’t want to be abroad in their last year of college, I decided that I would do whatever it took to get into the Dublin program. I’m an anxious person, but I knew that after college, there would be fewer chances of living in another country for four months. With multiple meetings, rearrangements of classes, and dropping the idea of completing a second minor, I was given the green light to go abroad. Meanwhile, the pandemic dragged on. I truly didn’t think it was going ahead until I got on that airplane that hot August day. When I landed in Ireland several hours later, my heart felt like it could burst. I had worked so hard, hoped so much, and I was finally here. I walked 35 minutes to class every day, and even on the days when it would pour, I always felt lucky to be part of the local culture. I’d pass the local butcher shop, the bakery, the daycare where little ones got dressed up in their matching rain boots and jackets. I passed the pubs where the locals sat every day, smiling hello. And my last stop passed by St. Stephen’s Green, a lush public park. By the time I got to class, I felt like a local. The Champlain Dublin campus is in a beautifully renovated, Victorian townhouse with large glass windows overlooking the city. I took classes relating to my major but also had fun electives, like my Irish music class where I learned how to play the Irish Whistle. Hands-On International Learning: My Internship Not only did I get to study in a different country, but I was also able to intern at a local startup. I found the differences in marketing for an Irish company to be fascinating and different from my internships in the United States. From the simple things like spelling - “favorite” was now “favourite” - to the way content was promoted, there was much for me to learn. English is, well, not American English. And the Irish culture was unique too. I had to be mindful in my work, especially in the content I created for the company’s blog, to look out for these differences. One of my responsibilities was researching and writing food blogs, as the startup, I worked for developed a food ordering app. For one of my articles, I was asked to write about autumn seasonal produce and find some recipes that matched key ingredients. As an American, my mind went straight to my favorite - or should I say, favourite - comfort foods. My supervisor chuckled and said those were very “American” dishes. Mushrooms stuffed with cheese, would not sit well with most Irish. I then again remembered to shift my focus to the mindset of their buyers and suppliers. Wild venison with parsnips, anyone? When not in class or in the office, I was truly able to explore Ireland. I developed newfound confidence in my ability to explore on my own. I went to a new destination every weekend, whether it was the rolling hills of Connemara, the coast of Kilkenney, taking a walk to see the Book of Kells and Dublin Castle, or hearing traditional Irish music on a Friday night. I even got to visit Italy during our week-long break. My Takeaways I am so happy that I got outside of my comfort zone and took a risk to go abroad. Don’t get me wrong, living and studying in a different country is not always easy. There were times when I missed home. But most of the time, I was genuinely so happy to explore and be free in a magical city. I gained confidence and learned the joys of exploring new places on my own. With my semester abroad behind me, I am taking all of my experiences to my next adventure when I move across the country this summer to start my new job. Here are the lessons I learned from studying abroad that I will be taking with me:
As a marketing major, I had an ‘a ha’ moment when I realized that I can relate this all back to Marketing, because in Marketing we want to understand our audience and who they are. See who they are, what they are interested in, be curious, ask questions. Being a college student in the middle of a pandemic has not been easy. I feel like I have missed opportunities, but to have this experience has been life-changing. When my anxiety kicks in, I can now tell myself, ‘you lived in another country during a pandemic; you rode the train every weekend to venture out on a new exploration; you took an airplane, train, and bus to get to Lake Como, Italy where you did not speak the language. These moments help me to know that I can do anything that life throws at me. And I’m glad I took that chance. |
AuthorKaren Canavan is a Marketing and Event Management professional passionate about tech, trends, and travel. |