1. Joelle Moorman
Aramark Marketing Internship
When I first looked into helping Aramark, it was just to apply to be a part of their dining
ambassador team that helped promote meal plans at summer orientation sessions. Once I joined
the team; however, I was offered a year-long internship. Going into this internship, I had no idea
what to expect other than the fact that Aramark Corporation was looking to better their marketing
department by hiring a qualified intern to join their marketing and advertising team. Since their
company produces dining campaigns to present to students, my job was to segment target
markets, and overcome obstacles by developing an improved, innovative way of printing
promotional materials, preparing presentations, learning personal selling skills, conducting
surveys, organizing nutritional information, designing displays, and creating and participating in
various stages of print and online marketing promotions.
The first task I performed in my internship was one of the first steps any marketing
department should take: consumer segmentation. We aggregated prospective student customers
into groups based on their needs. First we grouped them based on their homogeneity, or their
common needs and similar characteristics. We broke down this grouping into two segments:
students that lived on-campus, and students that lived off-campus. We further broke down the
meal plans for students that lived on-campus based on their living quarters and their age; students
who lived in dormitories had more meals in the cafeteria than students that lived in farther
quarters such as the Park Place apartments. This conclusion was based on the idea that students
who live further away were more likely to want food packaged to-go, where as students that lived

2. close to the cafeteria could sit and eat. When we moved from on-campus students, we decided
that students who commute to campus are more likely to eat less on-campus and either cook at
home or consume food at off-campus retailers. In order to target these students, we started
commuter meal plans that consisted of a small quantity of declining balance, or the combination
of declining balance and cafeteria meals. Most commuters would rather grab a meal to go in
between classes, but do not want to pay a large amount for a plan since most of their food is
consumed elsewhere. We figured that the diffusion rate for the adoption of commuter meal plans
would be relatively quick as long as the word got out. Personally, this process allowed me to
acquire more knowledge on segmentation and the product adoption process. This also enabled
Aramark to target different categories of consumers who perceive the full value of certain
products and services differently from one another.
While I did not expect my internship to be without its difficulties, I did not anticipate the
amount of challenges I would face. The first difficulty came about two weeks into my job; they
were really struggling to promote their different services because their printing methods were
ineffective and out of date; particularly, the department was in need of huge displays for future
orientation sessions, but no one had any means of acquiring these displays. In order to adjust our
distribution method, we had a plan to place an order at Rapid Signs of Ruston; however, we did
not anticipate how great the cost of that plan would be. Since the department had a limited
budget, I took the initiative and utilized my other connections on campus in order to find proper
high-tech equipment to print greater quality promotional materials. These new materials
effectively attracted the attention of incoming students as well as their parents, increasing our
number of sales.

3. Once printing methods were in place, the next step in promoting the on-campus dining was
to prepare presentations for over 3,750 students and parents regarding Aramark's service options.
This was also a challenge since it was the first time Aramark had ever participated in on-campus
presentations. I was given the task of creating the presentation and power point to present to the
plethora of incoming students and their parents. Through this process I discovered how to
effectively eliminate unneeded material while still making the existing material fetching to the eye.
In addition to the creation of demonstration materials, the marketing department had to
host these presentations to the incoming freshmen and their parents. This portion of the project
was done by my supervisor, marketing director, and myself, though there were a few times when
neither my supervisor nor director were able to present and I was given the challenge hosting the
presentation by myself. Through this presentation, I was able to work on my personal selling skills.
By presenting Aramark’s services and food products to our target market I gained experience
presenting to large crowds. In addition to this experience, I gained knowledge expansion. In order
to effectively answer questions from parents and students, I had to have an exceptional
understanding of how the dining services worked. This question and answer portion of the
presentation allotted me to be quick on my feet, and gave me the ability to answer difficult
questions in a timely manner.
While the presentation process included a large amount of involvement, conducting and
analyzing surveys also took up a great amount of time. Researching our market involved a large
collection of data. Since data can be collected through various processes, we chose a method
based on our need: online surveys. The marketing department assumed that online surveys with
multiple choice, true-false and constructive response portions would give us the most accurate
feedback. Once we had come up with a plan to collect our data, it was then up to me as a

4. marketing intern to make sure that plan was executed. In order to execute this, we first needed a
way to promote it. The department decided that any student that completed the survey would
have his/her name entered into a drawing for multiple gift cards. This tool seemed to be extremely
effective when conducting the surveys because all we had to do was mention free gift cards. To
get the word out further, I had to send multiple emails to students promoting both the survey and
the free prize. In order to meet our survey quota, I also had to manually conduct the online
surveys by personally interacting with students. Once our data was collected, it took careful
analysis on the marketing team’s part in order to come to conclusions on what to implement. This
process gave the marketing department a greater understanding of Aramark’s customers,
Aramark’s competitors, and the industry in which Aramark operates. I learned that surveys and
research are an ongoing process: a process that involves using data to drive decisions related to
running a company.
While the collection of data is a huge portion of running a business, organization is also a
tool used to overcome obstacles and helps make a business successful. When I first came to
Aramark at Louisiana Tech University, I discovered that organization was one of the dining
service’s greatest challenges. I set out to make this a better place to work by first acquiring a
piece of furniture to place papers, ink cartridges, limited-time-offer flyers, and voice of the
consumer cards in. Once I completed that task, I created folders on the computer for different
promotional campaigns, napkin inserts, consumer response flyers, retailer signage, etc. This way
the marketing department could know where everything was, and managers of different retailers
could use the marketing department’s computer to create quick memos by using our already-
made templates. Once this was complete, I decided to update the nutritional system. Nutritionals
are vital in the 21st century because of FDA guidelines for calorie count and ingredient displays.

5. Aramark struggled to display their nutritionals because the nutritionals were sporadically filed. I
took it upon myself to alphabetize the entire system of nutritional displays in order to better the
company. Through these efforts I discovered how important organization is to a company and
throughout different departments.
Another task I completed while as an intern for Aramark Dining Services was the new
design of displays. In order to liven up the cafeteria, I was able to create new displays such as
commuter meal plan napkin inserts, Halloween themed menus, and add Christmas décor.
Designing the Christmas display especially, taught me how important color and character are to a
customer. When the Christmas season started, there were no Christmas decorations in the
cafeteria. I noticed fewer students were eating in the cafeteria than normal. A couple students
complained to me about the lack of Holiday spirit, and workers appeared dull and dreary. I knew
that the marketing department did not have much money, so with the help of another marketing
intern, I sought out items from the Dollar Store and Walmart that could brighten things up while
staying within budget. I wrapped the columns with royal blue tulle and red ribbon to add color.
Then I added blue embellishments to the check-in desk and sandwich station. A Tech Christmas
tree was placed on display in the corner as well. Once all of these decorations were in place, the
workers smiled more, commented on the decorations, and the students thanked the marketing
department. If you have an unhappy workplace, you will have unhappy workers, and thus unhappy
customers. Through this small, but trivial improvement, Aramark, and myself, were able to satisfy
customer’s emotional needs and their physiological needs as well.
The last challenge and major duty as an Aramark Marketing Intern was to participate in
various stages of printing and online marketing promotion. For online promotions, I had to assist
and often times solely create e-mail campaigns, retail signage, and calendars. The emails were

6. sent out to students notifying them of our weekly promotions. The signage was used for the dining
website as well as for logos placed on media flyers. The calendars were placed on our Instagram
page, and were comprised of limited-time-offers and promotional campaigns. In addition to
online promotion, the calendars were printed and handed out to retail managers to remind them
of all of Aramark’s upcoming events. For printing promotions, I had to create flyers for basketball
games, baseball games, limited-time offers, and cafeteria themed events. Small-scale signs and
labels were also used to promote items such as soups, cookies, and coffee. These personalized
touches better attracted the customer to the different products Aramark had to offer.
Ultimately, as an intern I gained knowledge on segmentation and learned how to attract
target markets by using appropriate material to send promotional messages. I personally
connected with the consumers while learning the importance of data collection. I discovered the
need for organization, customization, and how to effectively satisfy consumer needs all while
being prepared to work in a fast-pace environment. I finished the internship having gained broader
experiences in various aspects of marketing.