Brittany Floyd (Simon, ‘22) spent her summer as a Marketing Intern at Pepsi. While working on the Energy Strategy & Innovation team, had the chance to take on a project to create a new innovation platform for the multicultural consumer, and pursue her career aspiration for working within the marketing organization. During our interview, Brittany spoke to us about her summer internship experience at Pepsi, and shared her reflections on her learnings from the experience.
MBASchooled: What did you do for your summer internship and what projects did you work on?
I was an MBA Marketing Intern at PepsiCo North American Beverages working virtually from the White Plains, NY Office. I worked on the Energy Strategy & Innovation Team, primarily for the Rockstar Energy Brand. My project was to create innovation platforms for the multicultural consumer. I took ownership of the entire process from concept to innovation readiness and worked with my team and lots of cross-functional partners to be able to gather insights, do consumer testing, and design the products.
MBASchooled: What initially attracted you to the role?
I wanted to work for a marketing-led organization where brand managers have ownership and develop overall general management skills along with the marketing speciality. I also sought out Pepsi because of its diverse staff and commitment to innovation.
MBASchooled: What were the important skills you had to use to be effective as a Marketing Intern at Pepsi?
The most important skills in my role were time and project management, relationship building, communication, storytelling, as well as passion and curiosity for the industry and PepsiCo brands.
MBASchooled: What was an important lesson that you learned from your summer internship?
Your ideas and talents can only take you so far, relationship building and aligning your processes with the organization is the strongest way to push through new ideas and concepts and have the most success within an organization.
MBASchooled: What was a challenge that you had to overcome or work through?
I came into my internship as a career pivoter, so each day everything I did was very new, and I had to manage my own feelings about how to measure my success. There is an emotional barrier when you switch from an industry that you have command of, to an industry where you have to learn while making assumptions in your work. I had to remind myself that I knew from the time I accepted my position that I would likely be challenged everyday, and now that I’ve completed my internship I feel like all of the challenges only made me a stronger innovator, leader, and marketer.
MBASchooled: What was it like to build relationships virtually? What helped? What was hard?
Building relationships virtually can be very challenging, and it requires much more intentionality, but overall it’s possible. I built the strongest relationship with my intern cohort, and leaned into the employee resource groups to connect further throughout the organization. It helps to set up an introductory meeting where you just chat about life and background before jumping into mentorship or help with a project. You have to remember in the virtual environment to connect as humans first, and then focus on work, to get the best out of your working relationships. I still feel like I missed out on the magic of meeting people around the office or more serendipitously, but overall I still build strong and meaningful connections.
MBASchooled: What was the highlight of your summer internship?
I got to test my innovation concepts with Nielsens BASES!! There is nothing more rewarding than having your ideas invested in, and to see such positive results from consumers. It showed me that my process of gathering insights, conducting consumer interviews, and synthesizing the data was worth the investment of time and money. I helped my team make a breakthrough in their multicultural strategy and may even see some versions of my innovations on the shelves in a few years.
MBASchooled: What advice do you have for MBA students considering internships in Brand Management?
Always remember that most Brand Managers have some level of ownership for the brands they lead. It’s important to build your marketing toolbox, but also make sure that you are building skills in data analysis, finance, and communication. Also, start listening to podcasts, have coffee chats with Brand Managers and classmates. Talking the talk of marketers is half the battle to communicating your ideas effectively to your team and cross-functional partners. Lastly, the profession has a lot of areas where you can build expertise. I was placed on an innovation team this summer, but you can be placed anywhere a marketer is useful, so don’t be surprised by the range of opportunities available.
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