A taste of the marketing world

For the past 10 weeks, I have been working as a marketing assistant at Finnebrogue Artisan. I commenced my master’s study in Marketing at Ulster University in September 2020, and my university studies were completely virtual due to the pandemic. I was excited to start at Finnebrogue to meet new people face to face, interact, and enable me to put my learning and theory into practice within a highly reputable and ever-expanding company, in an industry which I have a great interest in.

I applied for the Marketing Internship programme at Finnebrogue just after Christmas. By mid-January the team at Finnebrogue had responded to my application, interviewed me via Zoom and offered me a place on their 8-week programme. Between January and June, when my placement started, the team were helpful in keeping me updated on my starting date and any information, I needed prior to starting my placement.

Finnebrogue has afforded me the opportunity to develop further insights into all aspects of marketing and I have spent the past 10 weeks learning as much as I possibly can from the Marketing Team; competitor analysis, price checking analysis, visiting supermarkets for audits & purchasing products, and preparing products for shipment to customers and award competitions.

I have a particular interest in social media marketing, and I was able to develop my knowledge and skills further in this area by managing the social media accounts for one of Finnebrogue’s brands, ‘The Good Little Company’. I created and scheduled content, ran social media competitions to improve brand awareness and created recipes to photograph product content.

During my placement I have been lucky enough to experience working as part of the wider Finnebrogue team outside of the marketing department, working closely with the New Product Development (NPD) team. I have assisted in benchmarking products with customers, helping to cook and prepare food products. I was fortunate enough to attend the Asda Christmas Showcase to assist the NPD team cook and style food for the Christmas display.  The image shows me and a member of the NPD shopping for the event!

One benefit of working within the food industry – there’s always something to eat!! Every day a ‘taste panel’ allows staff to trial products produced in the factory to provide feedback and test quality. This was a great way to sample all of the amazing food being created and produced at Finnebrogue.

I feel my time spent at Finnebrogue has allowed me to grow my marketing knowledge and skills and has given me an appetite for a career within the food industry. Finnebrogue is a highly recognised name within the food industry and I know this experience will help me as I commence my career.

Written by Emma Toal

Pictured L-R: Emma Toal and Sarah Wallace