Time is flying, halfway through internship – Week 6 at Purpol Marketing

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Categories: Uncategorised

From spa days to social values, I am now halfway through my placement and have already learned more than I foresaw!

I started the week practising my written communication, drafting an article we hope to release soon. With a focus on bid management after Brexit, it helps to make educated guesses regarding future practice in the UK procurement sector. Interestingly, we have been relatively unaffected recently, with a few companies looking for bidding help in the up and coming weeks to keep us busy! The main consensus from my research is that it’s ‘business as usual’, at least until the UK legal decide how to unpick themselves from the EU. The relationship the UK maintain with the EU will largely influence the future in procurement. One reoccurring theme, however, was predictions that the UK will only be making small tweaks and amendments to regulations already in place.

I’ve also been researching the steps necessary to register a trademark, which is an exciting time for Purpol Marketing! I have been continuing on with award writing. This was something I was always oblivious to, and had never came to my attention before my placement. Having said that, I would strongly encourage all small businesses to apply for local and national awards to promote their business, its essentially free PR!

Of particular interest to me this week has been producing a direct mail campaign flowchart. From the database formulation right through to response rate analysis, this helped to capture the stages we went through in doing our mail out, and seeing it as a step-by-step process. From doing this it was easy to see timescales for action and the feed through loops of the process for future reference.

Towards the end of this week I have been asked to help Denise and Gavin with the bid writing side of the business, looking at social values in relation to the contract. This has been more challenging than the marketing strategy work I have focused on up till now. Despite this, I am keen to learn the success to the services Purpol offer and will hope to be able to add this to my personal skill set.

Denise and I have striked a perfect balance of independent home working whilst collaborating on tasks. Denise continues to excel in her mentor role, making sure I always feel supported. She has proven herself as an amazing boss this week, letting me take her place on a lovely networking and spa day! Not many people can say there boss let them go to the spa for the day! I was accompanied by wonderful Center Parcs staff within the events department and other Inspire women, who really made me feel like a longtime member despite it being the first time I met them. This has opened my eyes up to the importance of networking, even though links and new clients may not immediately come out of it.

At events and meetings, I am often told that I am ‘in very safe hands’ working alongside Denise. Her enthusiasm, knowledge and commitment to the company and her clients continues to give life to this statement with every week I am here, and I look forward to new challenges next week.