Hamish talks to us about his first marketing graduate scheme placement experience
I am 6 months into my first placement on the Marketing Graduate scheme. I am currently based within British Gas New Energy and I'm working within the Consumer Commercial team within ECO.
ECO is the Energy Company Obligation, and British Gas is working with the Government to make homes across Great Britain warmer. It is an obligation to hit certain Carbon Savings targets by 2017, mainly through cavity wall and loft insulation. It is an extremely exciting business area to be working in as the business is heavily dependent on Government announcements and changes to the scheme. It is also an extremely rewarding area of the business to work in, as we are going out to the public marketing a free product that can help the most financially strapped consumers save hundreds of pounds off their energy bills.
I am working within the Consumer Commercial team, where we are responsible for driving insulation survey requests from consumers like you and I. Our team involves a number of commercial channels aimed at driving survey requests, from Direct Mail to Events to utilising our field channels.
During my placement I have been responsible for assisting in managing two of these commercial channels, Outbound and Face to Face. The Outbound channel utilises our relationship with one of our call centres to outbound dial customers offering our insulation propositions. Our Face to Face channel is similar, however involves the use of suppliers providing Energy Advisors who go door to door and engage with customers.
We have ambitious targets to hit every week, so I am always busy trying to make sure we can achieve our numbers and improve our position. This goes from data management and targeting to stakeholder management. It is a very intense but an extremely exciting environment.
I have learnt a huge number of skills in this placement including data analysis, stakeholder relationship building and supplier management. It has been extremely rewarding being immersed in a commercial environment, and very interesting being involved in seeing the success and growth of these channels.
One thing that has really stood out to me is the dynamic of the industry we are in. The business is so dependent on governmental and outside pressures which means the area we are working within changes on a weekly basis. It is also extremely interesting working in departments that are at the height of media attention. New projects are always in the pipeline and new propositions being constantly developed, making it a very fast moving business to work in.