Case study: Tim Miner’s Concord Vegetable Corporation internship journal
| Published date | 01 October 1997 |
| Date | 01 October 1997 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610429710179507 |
| Pages | 336-365 |
| Author | Geoffrey P. Lantos |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
Geoffrey Lantos has struck again. This represents the second publication in
JPBM based on his internship at a large food company. The first was an
article entitled “Faculty internships: a means to bridge the
academician/practitioner gap,” which appeared in Volume 3 No. 4 (1994).
That article, although rather long, was well received by those who took the
trouble to read it in its entirety.
Now comes a case based on the same experience. I welcome this as the first
of the new style cases to be published in JPBM under my editorship as Case
Study and Book Review Editor. Designed as a teaching case (and the
instructor’s note is on our Web site (http://www.mcb.co.uk/jpbm.htm), Lantos
fully outlines the day-to-day activities of an intern. Although this case, like
the previous article, may seem a bit long, please read it carefully, and then
address the teaching note. Geoff is not long-winded by nature (certainly not
when compared to me), but he does have a lot to say that is rarely addressed
in academic writings.
I look forward to further submission of cases from readers. Lantos has set
the bar rather high on the first attempt; let us raise it higher in the future.
Dennis Cahill
Case Study and Book Review Editor
Tim Miner’s first semester as a senior marketing major at Old State
University included a three-credit business internship position in the new
products area of Concord Vegetable Corporation. This one billion dollar
vegetable products company for over 40 years has manufactured and
marketed canned and frozen vegetables for the consumer market, and over
the past decade has diversified into vegetable juices and cocktails. Concord
also sells vegetable-based foods as ingredients to other food manufacturers
(e.g. vegetables for frozen dinners) and as food-service items to restaurants
and institutional feeders (e.g. peeled and sliced vegetables).
Tim was excited to work for a well-known consumer goods company known
for its high-visibility, splashy TV commercials. The Internship Director
arranged for Tim be supervised by Penny Mitchell, Manager, New Products.
Tim’s class schedule let him work a half-day on Monday and Wednesday
mornings and a full day on Friday.
Case study: Tim Miner’s
Concord Vegetable Corporation
internship journal
Geoffrey P. Lantos
The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of an anonymous corporate
reviewer; Meg Kelleher, work study assistant in Stonehill’s Business Administration
Department and vegetable connoisseur; and Janet Mansfield, Information Center
Manager at Marketing Intelligence Center Ltd who provided research information on
new vegetable products.
336 JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT, VOL. 6 NO. 5, 1997 pp. 336-365 © MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1061-0421
Business
internship
position
One of the internship course requirements was that students keep a weekly
journal in which they recorded their activities, experiences, impressions and
observations regarding managerial and organizational practices, procedures,
and decisions; personal accomplishments; and assessment of the educational
benefits of the internship and its tie-in with the academic program. What
follows is the record of entries from Tim’s diary.
September 9
It seemed like the crack of dawn when the alarm went off at 6.45 a.m., but I
guess if I’m going to work in the “real world” some day I’d better get used
to getting up with the sun. I drove to Concord Vegetable corporate
headquarters, where I met Penny, who seemed really friendly and eager to
have me work under her direction.
Upstairs in the marketing department, Penny showed me my office “cube”
(cubicle). It is pretty spiffy and includes my own phone plus a personal
computer with Windows NT. Penny introduced me to her secretary, Molly
Winkler, whom she shares with several other marketing managers. Molly
showed me some of the basics (e.g. where supplies are kept; how to use the
photocopy machine and fax machine; and how to log-in to the computer
system). Then Penny took me on a “walkabout,” introducing me to the wide
variety of people she regularly interfaces with in new products work:
research & development (R&D), manufacturing, marketing research,
promotion, packaging, strategic alliances, sales, corporate planning, several
strategic unit managers (called SUMs, like product managers), ingredients
and recipe development. Penny told me that I would be working most
closely with Karen King, the marketing research analyst.
Penny explained that Concord wanted to diversify into other vegetable-based
consumer food and beverage products and that I’d be assisting her on two
major food projects: generating ideas for vegetable-based food products; and
Concord’s first planned entry into healthy vegetable-based snack products
“Vegetable Crunchers.” This snack item is completing controlled distribution
testing in nearby Harbor City, and I’ll be involved in analyzing Vegetable
Crunchers’ in-market results and in planning its test marketing in Charlotte,
North Carolina and Portland, Oregon. Vegetable Crunchers is a pouch of
bite-size, vegetable-shaped, crunchy vegetable-flavored pieces (e.g. little
yellow ears of corn, little red tomatoes, and little orange carrots). They are
made from real dehydrated and processed vegetables, are lightly laced with
sugar, and are salted to make the taste similar to salty snacks such as potato
chips and corn chips, only they are sweeter.
To help me get up to speed, Penny gave me a huge stack of marketing
research reports, project proposals and memos which had been written over
the last few years by Concord’s marketing research department as well as by
outside consultants and Concord’s ad agency, Bullock & Bullfinch (B&B).
These documents concerned the Vegetable Crunchers project as well as
various aspects of the vegetable-based food market. She asked me to spend
the rest of the morning digesting these extremely detailed documents. Later,
Penny took me to lunch in the corporate cafeteria – her treat! She told me I
was coming at a time when she really needed help as she was now the only
person working full-time on new products; until three months ago she used
an assistant, but that person was let go during a restructuring to make the
company more “lean and mean.” Consequently, everyone is now
JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT, VOL. 6 NO. 5 1997 337
Concord
vegetable
Major food
projects
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