INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE SUMMARY

The past months of my internship have been very instructive for me. Kenya Institute of curriculum Development has gave me an opportunities to learn and develop myself in many areas. I gained a lot of experience, especially in the market planning field. A lot of the tasks and activities that I have worked on during my internship are familiar with what I’m studying at the moment. The area that I found most interesting is marketing & communication. By developing a marketing plan, I had to do lots of research where I had to find the best way of marketing the institute. I learned many things about viral marketing by using and learning about social media tools.
 This internship was definitely an introduction to the actual work field for me. I have learned to work in a business organisation and apply my knowledge into practice.
I learned a lot from the different interns that I have been working with during my internship. Each intern had a different educational background and that made it interesting for me. By working with them I got to learn from them and become aware educational background.
This internship was definitely beneficial for me and I’m grateful and thankful that I got to experience and learn many things.

The working areas I develop and improved during my internship are the following:

MARKETING & COMMUNICATION
 Working in this area has helped me develop and improve more in this field. I developed a marketing plan with improved ideas and strategies using social media. Also working in this area has helped me understand how to promote an event and creating public awareness using the social media tools. This area has helped me gain more knowledge about viral marketing & communication.

RESEARCHING & ANALYZING Working on these area’s has helped me develop and improve my research, observing and analyzing skills. During my internship, I had to conduct researches on different activities planning subjects. As for my observing and analyzing skills, I had to monitor and observe the use of the social media tools weekly. Also I had to conduct surveys where I had to analyze the results.

Supervision

Today I had supervision with my teacher at Campus køge, we talked about the implementation matrix of which he helped a lot to understand on what I was to do.

Feedback from the company

Today I had a skype meeting with my mentor and she was very happy about my work. We talked about the Implementation matrix which was a bit tricky for me. She said they well do it and I dont have to do it.

Pictures from my internship place

 the new logo for after changing from KIE.

The entrance to the main office.

 The office where i was working.

Reflection

This week was a bit of a challenge to me since the company has asked me to make  a strategic plan implementation matrix. Although we talked about this and the Company agreed that they will work on it and send to me, hope they will keep their promise and send it to me. I also did the strategic implementation, which I have learnt a lot from it especial on the success factor, Now I know the things which one should consider to make sure that the strategy should success.

Marketing strategy implementation success factors

Content:
Products will remain the same, but there is different presentation of services based on online web shop. The service would offer experience to get new things (small gifts), packaging and lower prices than in offline shopping.
Control:
To increase online sales-the area which could be controlled all the time (24hours). Good communication between online and offline store (Products fulfillment).
Interaction and Commitment:
Inviting people to buy the products online by giving them additional value, such as one more products (the Institute’s calendar.) Additionally, people could get packaging that they want.
To make people feel secure about buying online, a personalized customer purchase service will be activated, to make them feel confident as if they were at the store.
Price sensitivity:
To sell online means less time consumption on real people work. That also affects, the price could be lower due to this reason in some cases with bigger discount, in other- sales method.
Partnership:
Through the internet it will help the Institute partners to connect together, participate in commercial trading. The internet enables all suppliers in a supply chain to identify and co-ordinate data transfers with each other, and this will help in expanding their market.
Process improvement and Integration:
There could be online chatting system that people could ask whenever they want. This will give people to be safer when they will buy products online.

Customer Touch Point

The day started with a meeting on skype as this is very important to me as this is the time I normally get the feedback from the manager and also this is the time we normally have discussion, brainstorming and plan for the week's task. First we started by discussing about the strategy I gave out, on how it will work. The manager approved on it and this was very good for me. It is at this point I was asked to do a strategic implementation plan matrix for the company, so we latter did brainstorming on how to should look like and things to put. But on the other hand I had to argue with them about the matrix since they know their company very well and also about their responsibilities,  and this could be a very big challenge to me and I could have done it the wrong way. The manager agrees that I might be difficulty to me and promised that they will work on it and then they will send it to me and see how it is supposed to look like.

Last Week

This is the last week been at KICD, that doesn't mean am through with my internship but will continue with it when I go back to Denmark. Generally I have had a great time and a good experience when was at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.
I have learnt a lot from some of the staff members and some of the interns who were there.
One thing that was incredible was that they have been no E concept programs in Kenya and been a concept developer there was a great opportunity for me and the Institute.

There was the Business canvas model that they got really impressed with i made it for the institute and it really helped them. 

Reflection

During this week the task was to give or rather to implement the strategy which the company will use on Facebook. I did a lot of research in the internet and also in the books, and out of it I managed to come up with the strategy, which if the company approve it I can say that I have learned a lot this week.
Mostly I can say that I now know things that is a must for company to have before starting marketing through social media. Also I know how to implement a strategy and engaged users in social media, which is very interesting and important for me.

Facebook strategy

Both yesterday and today I have been working with Facebook  strategy and I have send it the company for them to read and give me the feedback. Am hoping that they will like the strategy and approve it.
The strategy which I came up with is improve online loyalty by creating care value for the customer.
It is very important to ask customers opinion and show them that you are company who cares about customers.
On Facebook they should ask simple questions like what do you think about our services?  Also they should show customers they can complain there and share either bad or good experience they have.
It might sound strange but complains are very important part of the strategy, because reacting to customers complains and helping to solve the problems they have is the way to show that company really cares about the customers and want to help.

Reflection

This week  we did revise the strategic Objectives which I did last week as were asked by the manager to intermarry the Vision and Mission that I did, together with the ones of the company. This was something new that I have never done before. We also did SMART analysis and I can say that the most important thing that I have learn thing week is how to set a SMART objective, since I didnt know how to do it but now am very happy that I will never have a problem with setting a SMART goal again.

As we finished with the vision and mission, I was asked to make a strategy which the company should use on Facebook. So I had to do a lot of research so that I can come up the best strategy which the company will use. 

Strategic Defination

The first step of strategic planning is to set the right objectives, which is through social media to keep customers and to create customer loyalty and retention.
The social commerce strategy is to improve online loyalty by creating care value for the customers through social media.
Giving KICD customers a good experience about the company and its products and involving them into social media life is a way to build a community. 
I did SMART analysis so that we can get a SMART objective which the company will use while marketing themselves through social media.

Specific
Goal......Increase sales, 
          To increase Institutes customer base and sales,

 Measurable
100 likes----per week
50 content---per month
increase revenue 4%

Attainable
customer engagement- through customer care response ( questions)
                  - sharing relevant information( technical challenges)
                  - promotions
                  - product marketing and brand awareness
                  - customer statistics( names, age, location )

Realistic
              - on call and online support
              -real time online solution
              - promotion / offer on products sales
Timed- one month
            - per year
                 

Reflection

This week we were focusing with the internal resources where we did both Swot and Tows analysis of the company and porters five forces. It was very interesting as I was working with my colleague from the company and he was very open when we were analysing the company. 
I also did Strategic Analysis, to write the goal, Mission, Vision and the objectives. Which am waiting the person in charge to approve on them

Porters Five

New Entrants: This refers to the companies that are not presently competing in the market but have the capacity to do given a chance. KICD has to be careful to the new entrants since they can create capacity and desire to gain market share hence affecting prices, costs and the rate of investment required to compete in the market. 
Competitor Rivalry: This refers to the competitive tussle for market share in a sector. This is a  threat to KICD since the rivalry can come in different forms such as price discount, more digital content.
Buyers Bargaining Power: This refers to the customers who purchase the end products and their powers to bargain on the prices offered by the companies is the sector. KICD has to be careful to such customers since they can bring down their business.
Suppliers Bargaining power: Suppliers here refers to the companies that provide inputs into the industry. The powerful suppliers gain more value through various ways; they either charge higher prices or limit their products quality. If KICD deals with such suppliers this means that they need to charge their services high for them to get profit, and this is a threat since they might lose customers due to the high price. 
Product and Technology Threat:  This referred to as the threat of substitutes which execute similar or same function as an industry's product using different means 

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE
Goal
The goal for the company is to increase customer base and sales

                           VISION

Embark trust and loyalty  as a center of excellence in transformative and globally competitive curricula.

                          MISSION

Consistent care value,loyalty and support for our online customers and clients

OBJECTIVES

• To create customer loyalty and customer retention through social media.
• To acquire more customers through social media

SWOT Analysis

Today we started with a small meeting as this is normal for the company since they want to know whether everything is going on well. Later after the meeting me and the person am working with we started by doing a research of the company in order to identify the internal resources of the company. In this case we did:
Situational Analysis

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESSES
Offer good services Have products of good quality Trustworthy. Professional employees Development of digital content Online shop	poor social commerce
OPPORTUNITIES	THREATS
Has  a chance to get new partners New services Better social communication Social marketing Customer loyalty	Competition from other broadcasting media houses.  Competition from other providers coming up with digital content.

TOWS ANALYSIS

Internal Strengths (S)	SO "Maxi-Maxi" Company has a chance to get new partners	ST "Maxi-Mini" Offering good services would mean less competition
Internal Weaknesses (W)	WO "Mini-Maxi” Has a chance to do social commerce means they will have better customer loyalty.	WT "Mini-Mini" Good customers support system wouldn't engage people to use competitors services

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Reflection

I started to implement the strategy which the company will use to market their company through social media. I started by making thei business model canvas and it was very interesting since it was their very first time to make a business model, and I was impressed when we were discussing and seeing the company making their business model since they have their ways of categorizing their customers segments, which is one of the things that I have learnt.

Strategy Analysis

Been that KICD is an institute that offers services like, online primary teachers orentation courses, tertiary education and training etc. They also sells products such as books to secondary and primary school and also supplies to some of the bookshops in the country. That why they need a marketing strategy.

Today I started with analyzing the strategy, I analyzed the business environment, looked at factors that may affect the Institute. I also looked at the factors within the Institute that may affect the it position. For the external analysis I examined the social issues that affect the institute through a PEST analysis.

PEST Analysis. These analysis will help in understanding the analytical processes in which KICD managers understand, their customers and the market environments in which they are operating.

Political:

Social: There is an increase of educational achievement and living standards, Kenya has also increased in social awareness and this has lead to expansion of social media. Meaning that KICD by use of social media will able to reach a big number of people

Legal: KICD type of business isn’t unusual, so laws can’t affect it a lot. However, they need to care a lot about the quality of the products because there are a lot of laws about buyer’s protection and health / safety. 

Economic: lower people income could affect the sales of the products at KICD. Although the kind of products and services that KICD offer are not expensive, they get their product directs from the Suppliers where they get discount and are able to lower their price with a small percentage off, so people could choose them instead of buying similar products in expensive type of shops in case of lower income. 

Technological: With connection to undersea fibre optic cables enhancing internet speeds, and data, this might be benefit to KICD since there is lot of people who are shifting to digital technology and KICD will get a lot of customers

Business Model Canvas

We started the day with a small meeting as the company wanted to know whether everything is going on well  and whether I needed any kind of information about the company. We later discussed the task for this week and we did brainstorming. From today we will start with implementing the strategy to use on social media. But before we start to implement the strategy we started to make the business model for the company, where we were discussing and defining company's business model, and it was very interesting. This business model will help me to explore and see which area the company is not doing well and where there is a 
possibility for improving.  

Reflection

This week was rather busy but very productive, since I continued to do marketing and it was very interesting since we did a lot of discussion with my colleague from the Company and we both shared a lot, and it is amazing that these people that don't know or have never thought about participatory journey.  I also created the concept to use on the digital platform chosen. I was also asked to give the advantage or benefit of using the social media chosen, This was also a benefit to me since there before I didn't know all the benefit of marketing a company through social media but now I can say I have added some few points in my knowledge

Today I delivered the task which I was given, which was to give out or rather to write about the benefit of the digital platform which the company is using to market their company through, we went through it and my colleague didn't have anything to add on it.

Benefit of social media
LinkedIn

• To connect with fellow minded people.
• To generate trust and credibility.
• To get recommendations.
• LinkedIn provides its members the opportunity to generate sales leads and business partners.
• Members can use "Company pages" similar to Facebook pages to create an area that will allow business owners to promote their products or services and be able to interact with their customers.

Twitter

• Brand loyalty: Once your business and its brands has been known for great services and customers supports, your customers will be loyal to your brand.
• Allows you to spy on your competitors: You can use twitter to spy on your competitors. You can be able to see what your competitors are saying, and its customers by reading through their tweets.
• It helps you keep up to date with what’s going on your industry.
• It lets your customers stay in touch with the latest happenings of your business.
• It brings you closer your customers: With twitter, you can monitor what customers are saying about you. If they are complaining about your services, let them know you are sorry and give them the reason to stick with you by improving your products/services.  If they says well about your services then try to keep them happy and keep improving on your service

Facebook

• Good for branding: Facebook is an excellent platform for creating a brand for your business or product. It can help instil in the minds of the customers what you want them to think of your product.
• One can engaged your customers: Because you is communicating directly with your customers, you can entice them to get your product directly. You can engage them through different means. 
• Online traffic: It is necessary for businesses to have websites these days and a good way to drive traffic to ones site is by including links of it on one Facebook page and promoting it there. That way people would discover your site and visit it more often.
• Getting new customers: It is very easy to spread around Facebook and one have to take advantage of that in order to be promoted to many new people. That is the best way that one can get new customers
•  Retain old customers: It is a lot more difficult to get new customers than to retain old ones, so you have to do everything to keep the old customers that you have. One way that you can do that is by engaging them on the Facebook profile of your business.

Today I worked on the next step on media planning. It is important to think on how the company will promote their digital platform they are using to market their company. At this point the company have to consider choosing the right media and also the one they can afford, I suggest that since their target market have access to internet, they can use Google ads to promote their digital platform.

We started the week with a meeting manager of the company as he wanted to know whether everything is going on well with my internship. Whether I have any questions regarding task and also whether I need any kind of information regarding the company.
The thing that I really wanted to know is why the company want to market itself through social media? in other words what is its 
goal (KPIs)? And what social media platforms they want to use?
 The company  pointed out their goals they have set,

Company Goals (KPIs)
 Customer Acquisition.
 Creating customer loyalty.

Choice of social Media channels.

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. LinkedIn

After knowing the company's goals I moved to the next step which is to choose digital platform.

Platform proposition 

Competitive Differentiation:
Providing useful and relevant information to users will increase brand loyalty and generate word of mouth exposure. In this matter, 
Facebook page will be use by the target group to share any kind of experience they have by using KICD services and products, and ask any kind of questions.

On the Twitter account will also be updated more frequently and will be more relevant and user generated content.

LinkedIn page will be used by the company to showcase their services and work done.

Addressable Channels (Channel mix plan)
Channel Insight 
One way of meeting the customers of KICD to digital platforms is by use of various social media platforms. The company has already decided on using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. 
This is because the target market are already utilizing this sites as part of their daily lives, and can be accessed via mobile phones.

Participatory Journey.
At this point I have created a customer journey map which will show the steps that the target market of KICD will be passing through in order to find out, consider or perhaps use KICD company.

Concept 
Currently KICD Institute has a Facebook which is very dormant and it is not utilized at all and has only 311 likes. My idea is to improve it and become a place where the customers of KICD will be sharing their experiences when using services and products from KICD.
I will create a twitter site for the company which will be updated with the news by the company and lets its members to know what's news in the market.
The company will also have a LinkedIn account which the company will showcasing their services and product to their customers.

Content Outline
After creating concept be-hide the chosen digital channel I asked the company about their content outline they will provide, how often it will be shifted. We discussed this with the person who I was working with and finial we came up with an idea that with the purpose of maintain a high degree of loyalty (retention), and to ensure an attractive interface-it is a necessity to give the end-user a perception of living and ever changing content. 
Therefore I suggested that it is a paramount to the company to keep in touch with the end-users and respond to their feedback.
I also suggested that the content should be refreshed based on few criteria:- Customers' feedback and changes in services provided by the company.

Both the company and I today we have shared alot and we were happy for the day. One amazing thing is that the company didnt know or they have never thought about the participatory journey.
The company also asked me to write to the about the benefits of social media  

Reflection

We started to implement the strategy which the company will use to market their company through social media. we started by making their business model canvas and it was very interesting since it was their very first time to make a business model, and I was impresses when we were discussing and seeing the company making their business model since they have their ways of categorizing their customers segments, which is one of the things that I have learnt.

Marketing

After doing user research/survey and analyzing the data. It is time to do marketing. But the first step is to identify the Target group. And after discussing with the company about the Target group, the company have already decided that it would like to keep their target group.

Target Group

The company has 3 types of target market.
    1.Government Institutions i.e primary and secondary schools.
    2. Both general public

Digital Profile

    a)Digital usage profile

As we have done a research for the target group, we have seen that they are fun of internet and the technology. Also by the fact that KICD  has a website, we are sure that the target group is already digital users. Also the target group owns digital devices that include televisions, radios, computers. They use their Television when it comes to getting news and information. 

    b)Content Consumption Preferences

It is important to point out that “adoption of use” is not the same thing as embracing technology, KICD's Target group, are less embracing and more reluctant adopters of new technologies. Therefore I can assume that the target consumers would not read printed content about KICD unless they were specifically and intentionally searching for that type of information. However, it is important to also note that the target market will like to stay connected to the latest information, which explains why customers of KICD are using the Internet to check the news and other information most often.

We started the day with a small meeting in the office since the company wanted to know whether everything is all well and whether am having any problem regarding the internship, whether I have all the information, I need to know about the company. In addition, whether I have any questions. We also discussed with the person whom am working with the plan and the task for this week. Which include-:
·         Do Online survey
·         Data analysis
·         Define and segment target group

Reflection

I was doing user research and survey and what I have learnt from comparing the results from both the quantitative and qualitative research I have done is that, the quantitative research has given me a lot of useful information that I needed to know and I will apply during the marketing. However, the results from the qualitative research were not that good since people were not giving any useful information although there some few points which are useful..

Research and survey

To research KICD identity and image, I conducted surveys both online and during the curricula activities of KICD.  The online survey was quite challenging, because filling out online surveys is not popular.I did survey to to obtain the perception of KICD'S customers regarding the quality of its services. The information I obtained from the respondents am going to use to develop a composite index of the customer satisfaction.

The survey I assessed through the following questions:

•        How they know about KICD servises and products?
•          The usage of the products and services?
•          The attitudes and perception of customers regarding KICD's services?
•          The quality of the services provided?
•     Which online tools they use.?

I obtained response from various stakeholders including teachers, publishers, government agencies and other clients of the Institute. I obtained and analyzed both qualitative and quantitative data.

KICD has a number of challenges in its internal processes and operations. The Institute is committed to respond to the external demands of the stakeholders in the education system in Kenya; it provides quality curricula that will transform the country's education to a globally competitive status.

User Research

After been introduced to the company and knowing they need, it's time to start the research. Today we started with a small meeting where we discussed about user research. I started with brainstorming and decided to follow the 5 steps of user research and the first was to create and set goals (objectives). After that i choose a hypothesis questionnaire i choose to use both interview and online survey. We discussed about who will be they participant and they decide they will be teachers and general public. 

User research plan
I was shown on how to create a user research plan which was new to me.

KICD User Research
Author: Lydia Nyoike
Date: 08/07/2013

Company's background
KICD has been in the market for the past 45 yrs, they are not able to offer a good customer retention and customer loyalty.
They would like to hear views from their customers about their services and products. In addition, they would like to know if there is any difficulties in reaching their customers.
 Goal
To identify the strength and weakness of their communication with their users and provide opportunity for improvement.

Research questions.

• Do you KICD?
• How did you get to know about KICD?
• What do you think of the quality of the services provided?
• Do you use social media?
• What online tools do you use?
• Do you think that KICD marketing themselves through social media will make them create loyalty and retention?

Methodology
Interview people and also do online survey.

Participants

• Teachers
• General public

Schedule

Recruiting start 09/07/2013

analysing data 17/07/2013

result delivery 18/07/2013