Summer Training Report

On
Strategies adopted by Inception Wave for Marketing and Research

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment for the Award of the

Degree of BBA 2019-2022

Under the Guidance of: Submitted By:

Mr. Praveen Kumar Singh Utkarsh Saxena
Assistant Professor 9953923798

Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Management Studies

Affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi
PSP Area, Plot No. 1, Sector 22, Rohini, Delhi-110086, India
 Student Declaration
This is to certify that I, Utkarsh Saxena has completed the Summer Training entitled ‘Strategies
adopted by Inception Wave for Marketing and Research’ under the guidance of Ms. Charu
Mohla, toward partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the Degree of Bachelor of
Commerce at Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Management Studies, Delhi. This is an original
piece of work and I have not submitted it earlier elsewhere.

(Signature)

Name: Utkarsh Saxena

Enrollment No: 15214701719
Program: BBA
Batch: 2019-2022
Date:

COUNTERSIGNED BY:

(Signature)
Name: Ms. Charu Mohla
Designation: Assistant Professor
Date:
I
 Certificate from Internal Supervisor

This is to certify that the Summer Training Report titled “Strategies Adopted by Inception
Wave for Research and Marketing” is an academic work done by “Nikita Kaimal” submitted
in the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of B.Com (Hons.) at
Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Management Studies, Delhi, under my guidance & direction.

To the best of my knowledge and belief the data & information presented by him/her in the
project has not been submitted earlier.

Signature:

Name of the Internal Supervisor: Mr. Praveen Kumar Singh

Designation: Assistant Professor

.
 Certificate from the Company

tasks successfully on time.

 Acknowledgement
Guidance, inspiration and motivation have always played a key role in the success of any
venture. I would like to pay my sincere regards to all those who guided me in my project work.

I express my sincere thanks to Inception Wave who gave me the opportunity to work on my
Summer Training project. I also express my sincere thanks to the industry supervisor Yash
Aggarwal for all the valuable guidance and support extended to me during my summer training. I
would like to avail this opportunity to pay my sincere gratitude and regards to Prof. Ravi Kumar
Gupta, Director and Dr Manju Gupta, HOD, Department of Commerce, Maharaja Agrasen
Institute of Management Studies for providing me such a wonderful opportunity to widen the
horizons of my knowledge. I would also like to express my heartfelt thanks to my Project Guide,
Mr. Praveen Kumar Singh, Assistant Professor, Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Management
Studies for giving his support, guidance and encouragement throughout the project work.

Last but not the least I would like to thank my parents, family and friends who have directly or
indirectly contributed in making this project a success.

Name: Nikita Kaimal

University Enrolment No: 02561188818

Program & Section: B.COM(H)-B

Batch: 2018-2021
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The review and analysis of research reports from dozens of sources is one of the ongoing
regimens. It’s part of what allows companies to base their ideation and recommendations on data
as opposed to just good ideas. All those thoughtfully administered surveys, painstakingly
analyzed, identifying the key take-aways, all those beautifully designed charts and graphs, and
the upcoming predictions became largely null and void.

A detailed study of various reports shows the benefits of conducting continuous research for
marketing purpose. Ultimately, businesses want to gain deep insights through market research,
there are multiple types of research they do to get the best insights, depending on what they want
to know. During the course of the internship, the work was fairly divided between the said two
domains. Out of total 7-8 tasks assigned us, half of them were dedicated to working on Grapido.
It is an application developed by Inception Wave where like minded people come along to learn
and grow together, nurturing their skills and common passion.

The rest half of our work was purely research and innovation based. We were each given topics
to read, analyze and prepare a report on which had a word limit of 500 words with strict
deadlines of 2-3 days for completion and submission. Owing to the ongoing pandemic, the scope
of my research and learning expanded as I could observe many different companies adopting
different marketing strategies to combat to the new circumstances and stay relevant. We also had
a debate competition as part of the team building exercise in which proper format of a debate was
followed with rebuttal rounds. Throughout this process, the objective of honing oratory and
communication skills was excellently fulfilled.

This pandemic has set a great example by showing how significant it is to continuously work
toward research and find niches and room for improvements. Startups usually don’t have big
budgets for promoting themselves. While working on them I realized how much a business
benefits from various marketing avenues and how much potential it has in the market if carefully
observed.

For instance, the Fast-food industry bounced back when people and restaurants were locked
down. From innovative advertisements to newly adopted methods of sanitation, the changes
incorporated by big companies like Swiggy and Zomato have set an example as to how
innovative entrepreneurs can be and how being aware is the need of the hour.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents Page No.

Acknowledgement I
Certificate from Guide II
Internship Certificate (Photocopy) III
Student Declaration IV
Executive Summary V
Chapter 1 - Introduction 1
1.1 Review of Literature 6
1.2 Objectives of the study 8
1.3 Research methodology 9
1.4 Limitations of the study 10
Chapter 2 – Profile of the organization 11
Chapter 3 – Analysis and Interpretation of Data 15
Chapter 4 – Conclusions and Recommendations 56
Bibliography VI
 CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION
 CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTTION

ABOUT RESEARCH AND MARKETING

If you take a look around the world we live in, it will remind you that people and businesses are
constantly in the race to be on top. And in this race, perhaps it is appropriate to say that, to be on
top you have to be relevant and leave your stamp on the world. As students with commerce
background, we can think of different ways to make this happen, but the most common and
brilliant way of staying relevant is doing smart marketing.

MARKETING

If I had to put it in layman terms, I would define marketing as the process through which goods
and services move from concept to the customer. It is the step by step process of:

i. Identifying the idea you want to market and developing a product (goods or services
whichever the case may be) around it.
ii. Determining how much value it carries and assigning a monetary figure to it.
iii. Analyzing and finalizing the best channel of distribution after conducting in depth
study of the consumer market.
iv. Strategizing a promotional strategy that leaves an impact on the customer where they
either instantly click and relate with it or convince them to perform word of mouth
promotion.

Just as much significant it is to be creative and imaginative with your marketing, it becomes of
no use when you don’t study and prepare yourself in accordance to the customer base you are
targeting to cater to. Research serves the purpose of conducting a SWOT analysis as well as
telling the business a great deal about its success rate and many other such probabilities of
various uncertainties.

1
RESEARCH

To quote the Hampshire College’s definition of research:

‘Research is a process of systematic inquiry that entails collection of data; and analysis and
interpretation of the data collected, in accordance with suitable methodologies set by specific
professional fields and academic disciplines.’

It is essentially carried out to evaluate the validity of a hypothesis or an interpretive framework;

to assemble a body of substantive knowledge and findings for sharing them in appropriate
manners and to generate questions for further inquiries. The source material upon which study is
conducted for research purposes is classified broadly into two categories, namely the Primary
data records and the Secondary data source.

Primary data records collate to data that has not been used before and does not come into
existence prior to this specific research. Secondary data source collates to common sources of
information provided by a previous researcher and hence is more readily available.

When conducting research using primary data, it is believed that the scope of the study is
somewhat limited to the respondents of your research tool. Secondary sources may not have this
issue however, it is very much possible for these sources to get obsolete and irrelevant over time.

RELEVANCE

Marketing and research go hand in hand. Market research is needed on a continual basis in order
to keep up with the latest trends in the market and to gain a competitive edge in the business
market. Understanding the market through research and using the insights to one’s advantage is
vital in reaching out to the target audience and ultimately resulting in conversion.

Listed below are a few of the many reasons as to why it is eminent to conduct market research:

i. It helps recognize the problem areas in your product.

ii. It helps understand and evaluate the needs of the existing customers and why they
chose your product over your contenders.
iii. Realizing the scope of expansion and possibility of increased customer base.
iv. Set achievable targets for business growth, sales, and latest product developments.
 v. Make well-informed market decisions about your services and develop effective
strategies.

Learning about who your customers are and what their demographics are, can help businesses
find other small businesses that serve them. This opens doors for businesses to potentially have
joint promotions resulting in mutual benefits. Not just that, knowing about alternates available in
the market might help businesses come up with add-ons, product bundles and upsells that
increase the average value of each order.

Many businesses don’t survive in the long run because they don’t maintain stability and loyalty
of customers. Regular market research checks in with your current customers and potential
customers by making sure that you still see to their needs.

The purpose of fliers, websites, text messages and social media platforms is to borrow the
customer’s attention for that fraction of a second. Since target customers have already expressed
their wants, needs and suggestions, the next step would be to address these using modifications
and conveying to them that you take them into consideration. On top of this, when you gather
whether your customer see your product as a luxury or necessity, you can effectively make a
brand image and label around it.

Budgeting is yet another prospect which gets a lot of clarity through detailed research and study.
Marketing budget is optimized to give the best returns possible and shows what are the most
engaging promotional avenues and where your investments are underperforming.

‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ is a common idiom and is quite relevant in
marketing as well. Knowing your rival’s strengths and weaknesses can do a lot of damage to
them and may even help you outsell them. Asking your target customers, the source of their
dissatisfaction from your rivals helps you keep in check that such issues do not arise on your end.

Research also helps you find the underserved segment in the market. It reveals that there is a
whole different and potential customer base your rival may not be aware of and thus, by catering
to their needs, you get the first mover advantage.

The need for and importance of market research arises frequently when important decisions have
to be made. Instead of having arbitrary criteria for the decisions you tend to make as a manager,
you can simply take a peek into the research report. While it may not provide solutions for all
problems, it helps a great deal in saving time and effort of having to undergo a complete
reconstruction.

The rapid decision-making power of market research and consumer insight is never more
valuable than in times of crisis. How can businesses use market research to support fast decisions
during COVID-19? Faced with the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, market research
professionals have an important role to play, by putting their management teams in touch with
customers and offering sound, evidence-based advice.

Luckily, online data collection and reporting means that “physical distancing” need not prevent
you from generating the insights you need. A crisis on the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic is
not a time for delay; it is a time to speed up. The good news is that today’s consumer insight
tools, enabled by technology, allow faster feedback than ever before. Fieldwork and data
processing that might have taken weeks in the past can now be completed in hours using
automated, online and self-serve systems.

Around the world, brands have adjusted their supply chains and sought to alleviate customers
immediate concerns with a barrage of emails detailing their response to the COVID-19
pandemic. With shops closed, people are flooding ecommerce websites, call centres and social
media to shop and get advice. The experience is often far from what they might hope for, and
frustration has unleashed a barrage of discontent on social media.

Now is the time to assess the changing needs, behaviours and concerns of your customers and
adjust your offer, logistics and communications to meet their practical and emotional
needs. When people are shut up at home, focusing on media like never before and ready to
share their views on social media, now is not the time for a communications misstep. But
brands still need to make that connection with people in order to remain salient, something
that is all the more important when people order online or have to ask for a brand by name.
The ability to check the likely response to new content within hours is more important than
ever, allowing companies to make quick decisions about whether to run or pull their content.
Faced with short-term turmoil it is tempting to abandon hope of a return to normalcy, but a
recovery will come. Maintaining relevance and salience is important if a brand is to recover
quickly. Sadly, as people suffer the economic consequences of the pandemic, we can expect
people to cut back, trade down and defer purchases.

Evidence-based decision making is more important than ever right now, this said, there are
some types of consumer insight work that probably should be deferred to happier and more
stable times. If you have been planning an ad hoc predictive study of some sort, then you
might want to put it on hold. There is an in-built assumption to all predictive research – that
the future will be similar to today – and right now things are certainly not stable.

That being said, if there is a mandate to do the work, there are many ways to calibrate your
results, like retesting past stimulus to see how much responses vary between then and now,
or including questions which you can compare back to an independent, normative database.
Unfortunately, the same is not true of forecasts made from models built on behavioural and
attitudinal data prior to the pandemic, plan to update them as soon as some stability returns.

Many companies are only just emerging from their initial response to the pandemic and are only
beginning to understand its implications. Following this initial phase will come a period of
reassessment, adjustment and fine tuning. This is the time when it is important to make the right
decisions and ensure the right tone of voice. People will appreciate that these are chaotic times
for businesses as well as themselves but only for so long, and missteps made now will likely
shape people’s longer-term view of a brand.

Companies needs to know what is happening as it happens, and automated and online research
tools and existing research platforms can help them check how people are feeling and likely
to respond to new initiatives, from innovation to marketing content. Whatever the decisions
to be made, market research plays an important role in ensuring the right actions are taken to
safeguard the future of the business, its employees and the wider community.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The review and analysis of research reports from dozens of sources is one of the ongoing
regimens. It’s part of what allows companies to base their ideation and recommendations on data
as opposed to just good ideas. All those thoughtfully administered surveys, painstakingly
analyzed, identifying the key take-aways, all those beautifully designed charts and graphs, and
the upcoming predictions became largely null and void.

A detailed study of various reports shows the benefits of conducting continuous research for
marketing purpose. Ultimately, businesses want to gain deep insights through market research,
there are multiple types of research they do to get the best insights, depending on what they want
to know. With more and more companies exporting to many global locations it’s important to be
aware of the cultural and language differences in those markets. So, while research in one
geographic location will yield certain results this may not be replicated in another location.

For instance, the world of telecoms witnessed a giant leader fail because of the very reason of not
keeping up with the market. While there were many factors involved in why Nokia had such a
spectacular fall from grace within the electronics market, ultimately, they failed to research and
understand the changing market trends. They were late to the market with new innovations,
while their competitors, customer preferences and technology were advancing so fast. Others
such as Samsung, Sony and Apple iPhone moved in and quickly became some of the leading
electronics brands in the world.

However, the ongoing pandemic opened doors for innovation in the form of smart marketing.
The most revolutionizing and concerning sector was the restaurant and service sector. While
many cafes, restaurants and bars were able to survive this truly trying time, not all were so lucky.
In a post-COVID world, a restaurant’s hygiene standards seem to increasingly beat taste when
people are checking out online ratings. In 20202, people are more likely to trust a business that is
transparent about their sanitation and hygiene standards and the actions they take to minimize the
risk of spreading a disease.

The restaurant search and discovery guide Zomato reported that its users are increasingly
focusing on the app’s hygiene ratings of restaurants they’re interested in. Businesses with strong
hygiene ratings see as much as a 25% increase in orders through the app. In terms of how
technology has
transformed the marketing and communications industry, the negative impact of the internet on
journalism has been a sad byproduct of the digitization of media and news. While technology
changes the way people interact with brands, it ultimately doesn’t change what people ask and
expect of them. The steel industry has been barely able to function under such constraints,
absence of workers or logistical support are creating roadblock.

In such a severe situation, researches show how smart marketing help companies survive and
eventually get back on track. Social media is one of the best platforms where you can engage
your customers. Some organizations used short videos and other humor-laden tricks to engage
their customer base.

A business’ reputation is built when it effectively meets the expectations of its customers. Such a
business is considered a responsible member of the community. Marketers use effective
communication, branding, PR and CSR strategies to ensure that a business’s reputation is
maintained. Every marketer understands the need for disrupting a potential consumer’s opinion
about other products. Most businesses assume that they will always remain the client’s favorite
brand because up to now the client has never complained.

This is the wrong mindset. Businesses need to find ways to remain at the top of the client’s mind.
Marketing help businesses to maintain a good relationship with customers by making them
remain relevant. During the startup phase, the options are sparse since businesses are mostly
cash- strapped.

As their marketing strategies generate more customers and revenue opportunities, they’ll begin
having options. Having options gives ventures the courage they need to penetrate new markets.
Without marketing, businesses will be forced to continue working with clients who they have
outgrown.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

I took up marketing and research essentially to understand the working of each stage. Being a
keen learner, I read a lot and try to infer as much information in areas that interest me. My
internship offered me ample opportunities to learn and grow on my own. As a college student, it
can be quite difficult to find someone who is willing to let you get hands on experience in your
target industry. Since most job openings, including entry-level jobs, require some sort of
experience in the industry, internships are often the only way that a student can get that
experience.

Learning in the classroom through discussion and texts is one thing, but actually working on a
business’ marketing plan is a whole other opportunity. An even bigger bonus is for students like
us in this generation. Many older executives and employees are less familiar with digital
marketing, so we actually have the chance to make a real impact. In addition to being able to
write down that we have experience, an internship allows us to start accumulating actual data and
evidence that you are able to create an impact in a business.

For example, being responsible for a social media marketing campaign, I could sit down and
compile a portfolio of the metrics that the team used in the campaign. In today’s marketing
sector, employers are not only looking for the best marketers, but they are also looking for
employees who can double up and act as copywriters, statisticians, public speakers, graphic
designers, editors, writers and mathematicians. Hence, through this internship, I was honing my
skills.

Successful marketers always try to seek information and identify newer ways to create,
communicate and deliver value to their target markets. Good information can be obtained
through marketing research and hence, the objective was to learn the evolution of research and
how essential it is in the field of marketing. Marketing research provides the requisite timely and
accurate information for making marketing decisions by reacting to the marketing opportunities
and problems.

Marketing research is an intelligent versatile tool of various practical applications. It is a

pertinent search and study of the marketing of goods and services. Any business executive has
constantly to watch the situation, the problems and their solutions. They have to draw up policies
and plans according to objectives and utilize the organizational set-up for effective control. This
was precisely what I understood while interning.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be

understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various
steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research problem along with the
logic behind them. The research methodology directs the whole endeavor: It controls the study,
dictates how the data are acquired, arranges them in logical relationships, sets up an approach for
refining and synthesizing them, suggests a manner in which the meanings that lie below the
surface of the data become relevant, and finally yields one or more conclusions that lead to an
expansion of knowledge

Methodology Applied:

The methodology applied in completion of this research is conceptual. Conceptual research is

defined as a methodology wherein research is conducted by observing and analyzing already
present information on a given topic. Conceptual research doesn’t involve conducting any
practical experiments. It is related to abstract concepts or ideas. The research I conducted is
based on secondary data. The reports furnished throughout the course of the internship were
originally written by me. I referred to various sources to get the requisite knowledge on various
topics assigned to me during the course of the internship.

Type of Research:

To broadly classify my research, it comes under the category of ‘Basic Research’. Basic research
is often described as research without any clear goals, or science to satisfy the curiosity of a lone
scientist without anyone else even realizing that it exists. The goal of basic research is to collect
information about how nature and people are put together. It’s not important that this knowledge
can be used for anything concrete, the most important thing is that we improve our understanding

Basic research or “blue skies research” is conducted just as any other scientific research:
scientists have a hypothesis and test it by designing experiments and making observations to
develop theories that explain how the world around us works. Basic research seeks answers to
fundamental questions and provides broad insights to many different scientific fields. Applied
research, on the other hand, tends to have a much narrower focus within a specific field. Basic
research is incredibly important because it lays the ground for major discoveries.
Basic research generates new ideas, principles, and theories, which may not be immediately
utilized but nonetheless form the basis of progress and development in different fields. Today's
computers, for example, could not exist without research in pure mathematics conducted over a
century ago, for which there was no known practical application at the time.

Data collection method: Literature Review and Observation

Literature review helps a researcher understand what has been done and what can be done
through the scope of the research. While going through the materials of other researchers, I could
find that there was one factor missing in them. The current situation of Covid-19 had changed
the direction and relevance of their studies and that is where I could fill in the gap. This led me to
develop my research based more heavily on observation than on secondary data.

Observation is a data collection method, by which you gather knowledge of the researched
phenomenon through making observations of the phenomena, as and when it occurs. Observation
data collection method is classified as a participatory study, because the researcher has to
immerse herself in the setting where her respondents are, while taking notes and/or recording.

An indirect observation was used to carry out the research. An observation technique where
some record of past behaviour is used to deduce what happened during an event is called indirect
observation. Since the internship was carried out digitally, the physical presence was not possible
and hence the phenomenon was observed indirectly.

Steps in carrying out the research:

Since the whole research was based on secondary data, emphasis was laid on ensuring that the
data utilized is authentic and relevant to my research. Falsified data would lead to wrong
conclusions and prove my research to be of no use and hence the source of information was
critically evaluated by me. Following are the steps I followed to carry out my research.

1. Choosing the topic relevant to the research:

Throughout the course of the internship, we were given various topics to read and
develop an understanding upon by our respective HR heads. This step included careful
selection of subject and communicating its relevance to the interns. After completing the
internship, with the help of my project guide I finalized the topic of my research.
 2. Collecting relevant literature:
Once I narrowed down the scope of my research, I then collected and read the literature
relevant to each subject assigned to see what previous authors had written. This helped
me bridge the gap between what had already been chronicled and what inputs I could
provide.
3. Identify specific variables:
There were various variables that influenced my research. After a careful examination of
the topic, I removed and added various elements or variables to it. The two main variables
I have for my research are ‘research’ and ‘marketing’ wherein I study the
interdependence of both. Other variables included the marketing strategies adopted and
external factors like the impact of Covid-19.
4. Generating the framework:
After going through the various variables of my research, I started adding my viewpoints
as well as learning throughout the internship. Here, I tried to answer various questions
that arose during preparation of mini reports and tried to derive relevant conclusions. The
framework of the whole research was developed and the structure that it followed was
laid down in this step.

The topics on which I conducted research are mentioned below which are later discussed in
detail in chapter-3:

1. Work from Home vs Work from Office

2. Revenue schemes of five social media applications
3. Post Covid-19 lifestyle
4. Multinational Corporations-Boon or Bane
LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH
1. The biggest drawback in my research is that my research was carried forward sitting in
quarantine whereas I could’ve gotten a better understanding of its operations had I
been physically present there.

2. Another limitation of my study is that at the point of writing reports as part of the tasks,
we were given strict deadlines to produce good quality reports which put a lot of pressure
on me.

3. That way, when I ended up making STR, I realized that I had left out a lot of valid points
in those mini internship reports. Hence, I had to do my research again on the same topic
after the internship was over.

4. The time constraint has been a limitation on each student which I also faced although
they were not severe. The hours invested into the project were quite productive however,
it took much longer than I expected.
 CHAPTER-2
COMPANY PROFILE
 CHAPTER-2

INDUSTRY PROFILE

Software Industry:

The software industry primarily includes businesses for development, maintenance and
publication of software that are using different business models, mainly either
license/maintenance based or Cloud based. The industry also includes software services, such as
training, documentation, consulting and data recovery.

The software industry has been subject to a high degree of consolidation over the past couple of
decades. Between 1995 and 2018 around 37,039 mergers and acquisitions have been announced
with a total known value of $1,166 billion. The highest number and value of deals was set in
2000 during the high times of the dot-com bubble with 2,674 transactions valued at $105 billion.
In 2017, 2,547 deals were announced valued at $111 billion. Approaches to successfully acquire
and integrate software companies are available.

When Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) brought a relatively low-priced microcomputer to

market, it brought computing within the reach of many more companies and universities
worldwide, and it spawned great innovation in terms of new, powerful programming languages
and methodologies. New software was built for microcomputers, so other manufacturers
including IBM, followed DEC's example quickly, resulting in the IBM AS/400 amongst others.

The industry expanded greatly with the rise of the personal computer in the mid-1970s, which
brought desktop computing to the office worker for the first time. In the following years, it also
created a growing market for games, applications, and utilities. DOS, Microsoft's first operating
system product, was the dominant operating system at the time.

According to industry analyst Gartner, the size of the worldwide software industry in 2019 was
US$407.3 billion, an increase of 4.8% over 2018. As in past years, the largest four software
vendors were Microsoft, Oracle Corporation, IBM, and SAP respectively.

11
World’s largest Software Companies:

The top 11 companies in terms of market capitalization in the 2019 Forbes list for the "Software
& Programming" industry are listed in the following table:

Rank Organization Sales Financial Market Headquarters

(B$) Year Capitalization (B$)
1. Microsoft 118.2 2019 946.5 Redmond, WA, US
2. Oracle 39.6 2019 186.3 Redwood City, CA, US
3. SAP 29.1 2019 134.9 Waldorf, Germany
4. ADP 14.5 2019 52.0 New York city, NY, US
5. Adobe Inc. 9.5 2019 132 San Jose, CA, US
6. Salesforce 13.3 2019 120.9 San Francisco, CA, US
7. VMware 9.0 2019 77.2 Palo Alto, CA, US
8. Intuit 6.4 2019 66.8 Palo Alto, CA, US
9. ServiceNow 2.6 2019 42.9 Santa Clara, CA, US
10. Workday 2.8 2019 41.7 Pleasanton, CA, US
11. Dassault Systémes 4.1 2019 39.2 Véilizy-Villacoublay,
France

About Inception Wave:

Inception Wave is an Indian software company, currently working on developing a social media
platform to bring together like minded individuals and help them improve their productivity by
collaborating and achieving common goals and milestones. Inception Wave was founded in
December '18 and got incorporated in February '19. Currently, 10 exceptionally motivated
individuals are working day and night to bring the company's vision to reality.

Projects undertaken by Inception Wave:

1. SRMpedia
College is the beginning of a new chapter in our lives. We step out of our homes, our
cocoons into this entirely new world, were we try to find a place for ourselves. New place,
 new faces and a new language can often be intimidating. SRMIST being a place with a
huge student population and a vast campus in the city of Chennai provides you with a
plethora of activities you could indulge in but also leaves the students feeling
overwhelmed and confused. Struggling to find the way is very common among the
students and in addition, the language being new makes things harder. We bring you
SRMpedia, an app or rather your own personal guide which will be an answer to all your
problems.

2. Grapido
Ever find yourself stuck in a situation where you don’t really know how to proceed in life
to follow your passion? Ever wondered where you can find yourself a good mentor whom
you can look upto? Or have you ever thought of finding people like you to help you do
wonders! Grapido is India’s very first spatially optimised growth-oriented social media
platform to help you connect with like-minded individuals around you, work together to
nurture your skills and follow your passion to achieve common goals and milestones. It is
a platform where you can showcase your talent and learn from others at the same time.

3. Swift Care
Inception Wave aim to automate the medical out patient cycle by removing waiting
queues for the patients needing medical attention and/or to get victim's medical
information like allergies, blood group in case of an accident or any other emergency.
This application provides an interface between the doctor and a patient and keeps record
of patients' medical history making it convenient for doctors to keep track and store
transfers and transaction history. This app also finds patterns among the diseases along
with location data and plots using heatmap if a disease is spreading violently and notifies
users in those locations suggesting the precautions to take.

Services provided by Inception Wave include:

i. Web development:
ii. Application development:
iii. Marketing and business solutions:
Inception Wave took the initiative to bring like-minded people together and provide them a
common platform to help them learn from each other and grow as an individual. It started with 5
communities for Artists, Writers, Photographers etc. and now has more than 5000 people in 36
communities combined.
 CHAPTER-3
LEARNINGS FROM THE TRAINING
 CHAPTER-3 LEARNINGS FROM THE TRAINING

Why research and marketing?

As mentioned earlier, I took up research and marketing because till date, I had only heard about
the relevance of this particular concept through textbooks. This internship with Inception Wave
not only allowed me to explore a new area of interest but gave me real insights as to how this
concept has practical application in a real-world operating organization.

My internship began in the month of June and went on till August. Upon getting my acceptance
via a confirmation mail, I was introduced to Inception Wave. The whole internship was online
under the prevailing circumstances of Covid-19. We were each assigned a mentor in the form of
a HR head.

The first day began with basic introduction of each intern and HR head. Soon after this, we were
assigned our first task. Throughout the course of the internship, we were assigned such tasks via
WhatsApp, each of which carried very short deadlines. The first task was that of Social Media
Marketing.

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to connect with the audience to build
a brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. This involves publishing great content on social
media profiles, listening to and engaging the brand’s followers, analyzing your results, and
running social media advertisements.

The major social media platforms (at the moment) are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn,
Pinterest, YouTube, and Snapchat. Facebook’s casual, friendly environment requires an
active social media marketing strategy. Start by creating a Facebook Business Fan Page. Brands
need to pay careful attention to layout, as the visual component is a key aspect of the Facebook
experience. Google+ entered the scene as a Facebook competitor, but it now serves a more niche
audience. It won't work for everybody, but some communities are very active on Google+.

On Google+ brands can upload and share photos, videos, links, and view all your +1s. Also,
brands can take advantage of Google+ circles, which allow them to segment their followers into
smaller groups, enabling them to share information with some followers while barring others.
For example,
them might try creating a “super-fan” circle, and share special discounts and exclusive offers
only with that group.

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media marketing trends. Pinterest’s image-centered
platform is ideal for retail, but anyone can benefit from using Pinterest for social media purposes
or sales-driving ads. Pinterest allows businesses to showcase their product offerings while also
developing brand personality with eye-catching, unique pinboards. Twitter is the social media
marketing tool that lets brands broadcast their updates across the web. Following tweeters in
their industry or related fields would help them gain a steady stream of followers in return.
Mixing up brands’ official tweets about specials, discounts, and news with fun, brand-building
tweets is a good way to start building an audience on Twitter. Startups and established
companies alike have to be sure to retweet when a customer has something nice to say about
them, and don’t forget to answer people’s questions when possible. Using Twitter as a social
media marketing tool revolves around dialog and communication

LinkedIn is one of the more professional social media marketing sites. LinkedIn Groups is a
great venue for entering into a professional dialog with people in similar industries and provides
a place to share content with like-minded individuals. It's also great for posting jobs and general
employee networking. YouTube is the number one place for creating and sharing video content,
and it can also be an incredibly powerful social media marketing tool. Many businesses try to
create video content with the aim of having their video “go viral,” but in reality, those chances
are pretty slim. Instead, focus on creating useful, instructive “how-to” videos. These how-to
videos also have the added benefit of ranking on the video search results of Google.

Social media platforms like Yelp and FourSquare are great for brick and mortar businesses
looking to implement marketing on social media. Register on these sites to claim their location
spot, and then consider extra incentives such as check-in rewards or special discounts.
Remember, these visitors will have their phones in hand, so they will be able to write and post
reviews. A lot of good reviews can significantly help sway prospective visitors to come in and
build a business. There are also a range of social media management tools that help businesses to
get the most out of the social media platforms listed above. For example, Buffer is a platform of
social media management tools,
which can help brands achieve success with their social media marketing. Social media
marketing requires both strategy and creativity.

TASK I

This task was related to being innovative. We were given a scenario where we were told that we
were handling the official Instagram page of a college club or a student chapter of our college.
We were sked to come up with ideas for the various types of content that can posted on
Instagram. We were asked to look over various such pages and come up with a final report. We
were also provided with a few reference links to get an abstract idea.

My report is attached below:

REPORT ON SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TASKS

1. College clubs: Depending upon the motive or the type of club, we can categorize daily
post or story ideas.
a) If the club primarily functions as an educational or knowledge-oriented
one, we can start by having 5 news headlines under the title “Daily
Report” which will keep the students up to date with the current affairs.
The news headlines will not be detailed, rather, they would just highlight
the essence of the news in one or two sentences because most students
would not be interested in reading long news articles.
b) Additionally, we can have an “FAQ or a Did you know?” segment which
will have unique content which is less known by students. For instance,
the different logos that Google had before developing the final one.
c) There are certain days that students neglect because it doesn’t impact them
or simply is not of significance to them. Making use of this opportunity,
you can have a post on such days like ‘World Yoga Day’ and have a
poster making contest for the same.
d) As a weekly task, quote influential people on your social media handles
which students can relate to. There are innumerable inspirational quotes
on the internet and it wouldn’t be hard to quote them once a week.
 e) Last but not the least, to engage students, you can organise games like
emoji-game or guess the gibberish, the answers of which will be
informative.

2. Companies:
a) Organise games like spot the difference, identify the flag, photo of the
week or a true or false quiz.
b) Have a behind the scenes collage or multiple posts in one post showing the
stages of production or idea generation of a product.
c) Have a company’s bingo with a matrix. Each box of the matrix will have a
question or thing that employees intentionally or unintentionally do. (e.g.
stolen stationery). If the employee has done it, they will mark that
particular box like in a game of bingo. Once they have marked each box
that applies to them in the bingo, they can then post them on their stories
tagging the company’s social media handle so that the company can repost
it on its story.
d) Organise contests like ‘ad-selfie’ where you assign a product to the
participant and ask the audience to come up with an advertisement for that
product in a selfie with a caption as their taglines. You can then collect the
best entries and post it on your social media posts.
e) To keep employees happy, you can try to have best performer of the week
posts or ask the employees to show their talents, if any and post them on
your social media handles.
f) Share customer reviews from happy customers as posts.
g) A ‘Give away’ is a great way to retain customers. It will ensure long term
association. The posts can have hampers and vouchers which customers
shall avail provided they complete few tasks like commenting on the post
and tagging their friends and share the post on their stories.
h) Conduct a poll on your social media handle. The poll can be done to
finalise a topic for webinar which you can then conduct once the polling
results are declared.
 i) If the company works for a good cause apart form their operational
service, they can develop a content on that as well. Using the caption of
‘Spread the smile’, the company can post an initiative taken by them or
post a photograph of the cause they are supporting with a good caption.
j) Partner with an influencer or a successful personality and go live. This
will not only draw traffic to your social media handle but also make it
TASK II interactive and alive (making it less virtual).

Our second task was related to Grapido - an application developed by Inception Wave. Grapido
is India’s very first spatially optimised growth-oriented social media platform to help you
connect with like-minded individuals around you, work together to nurture your skills and follow
your passion to achieve common goals and milestones. It is a platform where you can showcase
your talent and learn from others at the same time.

Using Grapido, you can send and acknowledge connection requests and start up a conversation
with any individual who you feel you might be able to partner up with, or want to learn from.
Grapido's easy-to-use chat section efficiently organizes all your chats. You can talk to a number
of people at once, just like any other well-functioning social media application.

In the Projects section of the application, you will find a list of projects that require partnership.
All the details of the project, like a picture, a description, the number of vacancies and the
category of the project will be provided there itself.

Users can also search through the application for projects suiting their field of interest. Grapido
allows users to share any kind of pictures they want, with corresponding captions. Reminiscent
of applications like Instagram, users can post anything appropriate, be it pictures of food, nature,
or their pets. This feature gives a personal touch to the application.

Grapido enables the users to create and publicize any event they may be planning in the future.
Users can also search for events that they might be interested in. Grapido also provides the users
the feature of creating and joining groups based on their interests. Joining and interacting with
other group members helps the user to connect to people easily and form partnerships.
In this task, we basically had to market Grapido among peers and get downloads and signups by
users. All interns were asked to create a profile on Grapido and were instructed to convince
others to do the same. This task was initially difficult to execute as the application had bugs and
was facing technical glitches, although, by the end of a week, we could successfully complete the
task assigned.

TASK III

For our next task, we were asked to prepare s research report. In it, we were asked to share our
views on the topic-‘Work from Home vs Work from Office’. The Covid-19 pandemic has had an
effect on the normal day-to-day work routine of employees in all segments, owing to mandatory
lock downs. Forced to suddenly work within the four walls of their home, employees are facing
multiple challenges - starting from lack of office infrastructure to constant distractions. Though
remote work is not a new concept for a few, many find it challenging.

Especially because of the sudden nature of lockdowns being declared, many employees were
unprepared for readily working from home. Starting from the furniture to broadband
connections- a lot has to be done to continue working. There could be some employees who face
issues in dealing with isolation, since they generally were otherwise a social butterfly. Since one-
on-one meetings and facetime has been removed from the communication mode, employees need
to overtly depend on other means.

The benefits of remote work are far-reaching and pretty profound. Studies show remote workers
(who work outside the office some, but not all, of the time) on average are more productive,
more innovative and more engaged. Companies who have remote work policies experience less
turnover and are more attractive to employees—and young workers in particular. Organizations
are able to spend less on real estate to seat people and the environment benefits from a break in
their daily commute.

All positives considered, it’s no surprise that remote work is on the rise. Pervasive technology
has made virtual communication simpler and more achievable than ever before. In the future, the
mark of an agile organization will be one that can keep up with this shift in how and where work
is done.

Still, several large organizations have insisted that employees return to the office. In
2013, Yahoo and Best Buy reversed their flexible work policies and Hewlett-Packard limited its
use. In 2014, Reddit closed two offices, requiring employees to commute to a farther office or
find a new job. And just this February, IBM began implementing a “move or leave” program to
reunite employees in six strategic locations.

In nearly every case, leadership cited a need for “all hands on the deck” and better collaboration
in order to improve the business. Out of collaboration, collision and collective energy comes
innovation. With the pace of business change as quick as it is, companies are laser-focused on
creating continuous innovation. In the workplace, we typically have greater access to technology,
more impromptu interactions and a stronger cultural connection—all of which make
collaboration easier and move the business forward.

The reason many people work remotely is because that space meets a need the office does not.
When working with clients, we often hear “I work from home on Fridays to tackle things I can’t
get done in the office—either because people drop by, my schedule gets out of control or it’s too
noisy.”

At home or in a third place, employees can work uninterrupted and experience a greater sense of
work-life balance. When you have the option to skip the commute and customize their workday,
their mind is free of added stress. Many people tend to work longer hours outside the office,
because firstly, they’re not distracted and second, they’re in charge. For employees, focus is
mandatory and autonomy is highly engaging.

From all of this back and forth, we find that neither extreme is best. Gallup surveys show that
fully remote workers are among the least engaged of any worker, but so are employees who
always come in. Just 30% of employees in both groups are engaged.

The general consensus from numerous remote work studies is that working remotely two to three
days a week allows for a balance of collaboration (at work) and concentration (at home). This
underscores the fact that our needs are never one-size-fits-all. The ideal space varies with
employees’ task, mood and even their role. People who have a private office at work may take it
for granted. A closed door doesn’t necessarily equal concentration.

Likewise, working from home is hailed as the ultimate distraction-free zone, but whether they’re
distracted by their kids, their freedom or their refrigerator is a separate struggle. Herein lies the
problem with the remote vs. in-office debate: The question is not where we’re more productive,
it’s about which space provides more focus. What we should be considering—and what
employees want—is how to provide an engaging experience without sacrificing concentration.

Focus is almost always the biggest problem in corporate offices because it’s difficult to
disappear. When you’re physically present, there’s a greater chance of interruption. It could be a
space problem (you have nowhere else to go) or a culture problem (you’re uncomfortable
actually going).

Our individual preferences have to be met—comfort, collaboration and the ability to concentrate.
If we can get those needs met elsewhere, why brave the commute to come in? In the future, if
attendance is down and performance is lacking, a knee-jerk policy may not be enough to
jumpstart engagement.

The office of the future is morphing into something more organic, less structured and more
focused on employee wellbeing. It gives people space to get away, to concentrate, collaborate,
meet and socialize. It provides a welcoming, enjoyable, more productive experience, but
attendance is optional. Digital drive will continue to distribute the workforce, enabling people to
work anywhere they want. More workers will join the contingent workforce, launching
“portfolio” careers working for multiple companies. We’ll shift to a liquid gig economy, as
younger workers demand more and more flexibility.

Every office goer, at some point in time, has complained about the great ordeal of commuting to
and from office. Or the monotony of office cubicles, and the many unnecessary round-table
meetings. These factors at times also result in lower employee productivity and a lack of
motivation. For employers, keeping their employees productive and motivated is paramount.
With the radical advancement of communication technology and the Internet boom, we have
seen a rise in the work-from-home trend.

This was a boon for many employees for whom travelling 5-6 days a week was a genuine ordeal.
For employers, it also meant lower overheads. However, despite the benefits, work from home
didn’t really gain a strong impetus. But it all changed with the COVID-19 crisis. Even
companies who never thought work-from-home was possible for them, had to make the shift.
The lockdowns that followed the pandemic saw offices, both big and small, shutting their doors,
and it pushed a big part of the global as well as the Indian workforce to work from home.
Many people find that working from home is like solitary confinement. We all crave human
interactions and sometimes video conferences and phone calls won’t satisfy this need. Even
though you can get in touch with their office, you no longer have the constant support of their
colleagues and supervisors.

Sure, when everything works – it is fantastic, but if their Internet cuts out or they lose access to
their company’s intranet, they may be unable to do their job. Most companies have tech support
designed to handle off-site employees, but they will never receive the same level of support as
they would in an office setting. It is very easy to switch to surfing the web or home chores that
need to be done. When they work from home, they may actually find it harder to focus and get
their work done.

When they work from home their work day never ends. Since it starts and stops in the same
place they may find themselves working later into the evening not realizing what time it is. Some
people find that when they work from home that their jobs starts to bleed into their personal life.
That while they assumed working from home would give them more freedom that it in fact has
caused them to work longer hours and sometimes on the weekends. You may find that 5 o’clock
rolled around and you are still in their pajamas. With no reason to get dressed in the morning,
you may actually forget to.

When you work in an office environment, you have supervision and restrictions, but you also
have knowledge and support from their bosses and colleagues. Being around intelligent people
might motivate you. A competitive environment might encourage you to perform better, helping
you to excel in their field and ultimately their place in the company.

If you are in an office and you have a question – you can stand up and walk over to someone’s
desk and ask them. You can bring them to their desk to show them something on their computer
screen. They can have a meeting that doesn’t involve videoconferencing. They can collaborate
with their colleagues on a project without a digital whiteboard, they can use an actual
whiteboard.

They may find that they benefit personally from being in an office. Having a social life is very
important and for many their coworkers are their social network. Having lunch with their
coworkers, catching up with one another, going out for happy hour, these are all positive and
rewarding activities. Again, when you are happy and satisfied you are a more productive
employee.
Below is my report on the said topic:

Work from Home v/s Work from Office

Owing to the Corona virus pandemic, both employers and employees have been restrained to
work from homes. While some employees are highly satisfied with this change, some are still
struggling as they are used to living a corporate life. Let us compare both these organizational
working structures and try to derive a conclusion.

1. Transportation:
Nobody can argue that all employees spend a considerable proportion of their income on
travelling alone. Be it metro, cab, auto-rickshaw or own conveyance, they all are not as
affordable as they used to be with the hike in fuel rates. This is perhaps one reason
employees prefer work from home over work from office.

2. Convenience and pliability:

Convenience and pliability here mean flexibility in operations. In a corporate
environment, employees have fixed time schedules, be it regarding breaks or working
hours. On the contrary, work from home employees are free to choose their working
hours as long as they complete the day’s work. So, the rigidity of 9-5 is eliminated here.

3. Working environment:
It is rightly said that ‘There’s no place like home!’. While working in an office gives you
an environment with certain norms laid down by the company, your home environment
doesn’t have any set of such rules to be abided by. Sure, an office environment provides
more interactions but this is not compromised by the working from home. Thanks to the
internet, today people can be comfortable at their homes and still be connected to their
office.

4. Human Resource Management:

The whole scenario of WFH has put HR Managers in a new dilemma as they embark a
completely new territory. An office enables managers to have daily check-ins with
 employees, have demonstrative meetings and give instructions from time to time. Now,
managers have to use their leadership skills wisely and get things done smoothly.

5. Communication:
A key component in the smooth running of any business depends upon how well
information is communicated along the chain of command. It is a known fact that face to
face communications is the most effective form of communication as it enables the
listener to grasp hidden aspects of the message expressed through facial expressions. If it
were not for video-conferencing and other forms of group meetings, many work from
home situations would have escalated for the worse.

Conclusion:

Taking all of the above points into consideration, we can say that both type of operations are
great options provided there is no compromise on the productivity. At the end of the day, what
makes an organization flourish is how efficiently employees work in any situation. The
restrictions like that of inadequate equipment or network connectivity are one of the few reasons
why work from home is not preferable in the long run. Thus, the choice lies on how well
managers can coordinate and maintain productivity. If this is possible, then work from home is
feasible, else work from office is viable.

TASK IV

Our next task was also related to Grapido. It is designed as a multitudinous platform for various
activities, events and competitions, one of the first priorities which is essential to Grapido is
‘Events’. Our job was to curate a few upcoming events in the next couple months or as many as
you possible, and update them on the app. To maintain the integrity of the events and ensure that
the posted events are authentic every event the interns posted went go through a verification
phase.

Queries raised while executing the task and further instructions given by our respective HR heads
are mentioned below:

i. What exactly the task is?

  You have to find the events going to be conducted, it can be online as there's lockdown
and then update it on the event section of the app
ii. What type of events?
 It can be any webinar, workshop, competition or some fest.
iii. What is the duration of which we are supposed to upload events?
 It's written that the events being updated should be from next 2 months
iv. Can you give a demo? Or a step by step guide of how to upload?
 Shared later via a WhatsApp video
v. What about the IOS user?
 They have to collect the details make a excel file and submit it to you.
vi. If interns are unable to gather 10 events?
 They can do up to 6 events, 10 is the best count.

We then submitted an excel document with details required to complete the task.

TASK V

The next task was a research oriented one. We had to prepare a report comparing digital
marketing with other marketing techniques, explaining how digital marketing can help a startup
to grow.

Digital marketing is a valuable asset to your business’s growth and helps you establish an
authoritative online presence. In fact, 89% marketers say methods, like search engine
optimization (SEO), are successful. Additionally, methods like pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
increase brand awareness as much as 80%.

With the growth of the Internet, more people are spending their time online. Over 7.7 billion
people use the Internet across the globe. It’s become an integral part of everyday life to conduct
searches, check social media, and purchase products online.

Your customers are online, which highlights the importance of digital marketing. They’re
browsing the web looking for your products or services. If they can’t find them because you
don’t have an online presence, you risk losing those leads to your competitors.

To drive the best results for your business, you need to build your online presence. You will
reach more leads that want your products or services. Many of your competitors have already
taken
advantage of all digital marketing has to offer. They’ve created social profiles, adapted their
website for SEO, and run paid advertisements to reach new leads.

This reason in itself is one of the reasons why you should use digital marketing. If you want your
business to compete with others, you have to do what your competitors are doing and more. By
neglecting digital marketing, you’re already falling behind your competition.

Your competitors are gaining traffic that could be yours because you’re not investing in digital
marketing. They won’t know that your business is an option and will automatically choose a
competitor. You must invest in digital marketing to put your hat in the ring and get leads to
consider your business as an option.

To keep up with your competitors, you must invest in digital marketing. Competition is the
hardest part of running a business. When you’re in a market with bigger corporations, like
Walmart, Target, and Amazon, it’s hard to compete with them. They have a big name for
themselves, which automatically draws people to trust those corporations.

You have a fighting chance against bigger corporations, which is why digital marketing is
important to your business. Your business can reach interested leads with the same methods as a
larger corporation. Methods like SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising level the playing field.

With SEO, your site ranks in the search results based on relevancy. A corporation can’t buy their
way to the top of the ranks. They have to optimize their pages just the same as a small mom-and-
pop shop.

When you use PPC, Google ranks ads based on relevancy, too. Even if a corporation bids twice
as much as you per click for the same keyword as your business, it doesn’t guarantee them the
top spot. They can’t buy a top-ranking ad spot because, again, the rank is based on the relevancy
of your ad.

This creates the opportunity for smaller to mid-size businesses to compete with bigger
corporations. If you can create content that is more relevant to the selected keywords than your
corporate competitors, no amount of money will enable them to outrank you.
Digital marketing is a great opportunity for businesses to compete with bigger companies to
obtain more relevant leads. The ability to target your audience better is one of the most obvious
reasons why digital marketing is important.

Imagine being able to market directly to people who have an interest in your products or
services. With digital marketing, you have the capability to directly reach leads interested in your
business. You don’t have to hope that people will see your traditional marketing efforts and
contact your business.

With digital marketing, you can target your audience more precisely than traditional methods.
You can input important information about your audience and use that information to shape your
digital marketing campaigns. It makes it easy for you to reach the right people.

Let’s say your ideal customers are African-American men between 23-35 years old who are
single and make at least $35,000 a year. You’re trying to reach this ideal customer on social
media to get them to follow your business.

If you wanted to precisely target those characteristics, you could easily set those perimeters for
your social media ad campaign. This would ensure that only the relevant people specified would
see your ad.

Businesses can segment their audience, too. Let’s say you also wanted to target African-
American women with the same characteristics. You could segment these two groups to deliver a
customized ad experience that is relevant to them.

When you can better target people in your audience, you drive better results with your campaign.
You’ll reach more leads that are interested in your products or services. The importance of
digital marketing is that you can easily track and monitor your campaigns. When you invest time
and money into your campaigns, you want to know that they are working. Digital marketing
makes it easy for you to track your campaigns, which allows you to adapt and drive better
results.

When you use traditional methods, it’s challenging to know the results of your campaign. If you
run a TV ad, you may have to ask every person that comes into the store about what brought
them to your business. It would be a very time-consuming effort that could annoy people who
visit your business.
With digital marketing, you don’t need to worry about bothering your audience. Every campaign
you run is trackable. You can easily track a campaign’s ROI and other indicators to see if it is
driving valuable results for your business.

You can see metrics such as impressions, clicks, likes, shares, comments, conversions, and more.
The type of metrics will depend upon the medium and what you want to measure. You can easily
set up your tracking system to monitor specific metrics for your campaigns.

When you can track your campaign’s performance, it’s easier to fix it and adapt to changes.
Whenever you run a traditional advertising campaign, you typically can’t make changes until the
campaign is over. It only benefits the next campaign you run, which can feel like you wasted
money on the previous campaign.

With digital marketing, you monitor your campaigns as you go. You can see if they are
successful or need improvement. If your campaigns need improvement, you can make immediate
changes and implement them at any point during your campaign.

You save money when you can make immediate changes. It allows you to get more out of your
campaign and spend your budget more wisely. Online marketing strategies have an awesome
return on investment (ROI). When you invest in these methods, you’ll get more out of them.

Email marketing has one of the highest ROIs out of all methods. For every $1 spent, you have
the potential to earn up to $44 in return — an ROI of 4400%. This is a great opportunity for you
to grow and earn a profit from your marketing efforts.

It is very cost-effective to use online marketing methods. This leaves room for a great ROI
because you don’t have to spend much money to run a campaign. It doesn’t cost much to run a
PPC campaign or social media ad campaign, compared to some traditional methods, which
allows your business to have an opportunity to grow.

Each company will have different specific goals in mind, but most are trying to achieve growth
by reaching more consumers and convincing them to purchase. To do this effectively, you have
to take advantage of all the most valuable marketing resources and technologies, and in the
modern world, the internet tops that list. This makes every business in need of digital marketing.
It’s necessary you understand the benefits of digital marketing for businesses
Digital marketing is considerably less expensive than other marketing methods. Specific prices
vary based on what you’re doing but ad spend tends to be lower than other forms of marketing.
You may not know this but 77 percent of American adults own a smartphone and are likely to
use that smartphone or another mobile device for news, social networking, and countless other
activities. Digital marketing helps you reach them while they’re doing this. With remarketing
ads, email and text marketing, and social media – you can be in front of your audience while they
use many different apps on their mobile phones.

There are many forms and uses of high quality digital marketing, including banner ads, email
marketing, content marketing, and social media posts. Thus, by learning how to creatively
market yourself digitally, you open up a wide range of possibilities for future publicity strategies.
With digital marketing, you also have the flexibility of testing and stopping poorly performing
campaigns in real time.

Many consumers do almost all of their shopping online. Digital marketing lets you appeal to
these people and thus expand the reach of your company. Between Google Shopping Ads and
brand awareness campaigns, you can expand your brand recognition and boost sales.

Customers tend to engage more with marketing materials that combine multiple types of content,
including photos, video clips, and audio. It is far easier to incorporate all these content types into
digital marketing than any other type of publicity – and it is very important.

Digital marketing lets you communicate directly with the customers who see your content,
notably through website comments, messages, reviews, and social media posts. This shows those
customers that you care about what they say and think, leading them to feel respected and part of
the community you’re building. It also allows you to gather invaluable information on
customers’ reactions and preferences.

Besides communicating with customers, digital marketing lets you track their activities. You can
monitor which ads and types of content they have seen shortly before they make a purchase. This
tells you which marketing methods are most effective, allowing you to refine and improve your
strategy.

Digital marketing makes it easy to comment on issues and controversies that relate to your
product or your industry. In this way, you can establish yourself as an authority on such topics,
leading
readers to trust you, come back for more information, and eventually make a purchase. Digital
marketing allows you to come off as the industry expert that you are and will instill trust in your
business.

Many of the most influential figures in modern culture promote themselves online or through
social media. Digital marketing allows you to engage with these influencers and gain their
respect. If you play your cards right, you can get them to endorse you, leading their followers to
become customers and spread brand awareness.

Digital marketing lets you expand on your print marketing efforts. By writing online content that
explains claims you make in your print ads, you can go into greater detail, maximizing the
effectiveness of all forms of publicity and integrating your campaigns.

TASK VI

Our next task was also research oriented. We had to study at least 5 social media applications
and analyze the revenue schemes used by those companies. Once we were done with our
analysis, we had to submit an article regarding the same highlighting our own examples of how
we can use those revenue schemes for the development of a startup.

There are more money-making opportunities on social media than you might realize. Social
media, in fact, can be quite lucrative. Many experts say that social media is for connecting with
people, and not for selling, but at some point, you're going to want to leverage the connections
you create. If you've built up enough trust with your followers, they'll be more inclined to check
out your recommendations and the links you share.

No matter what industry you're in, you can find great products to promote on ClickBank. And if
that doesn't quite jive with you, you can also become an Amazon Associate, promote products of
your choosing and earn commissions on them - Amazon has no shortage of products.

Next, instead of spamming links on Twitter and hoping for the best, keep in mind that the most
honest and effective way of promoting affiliate products is through reviews. If you personally
use a product and like it, and know that your followers serve to benefit from it, then write a long-
form review on your blog, and share why you like the product.
If you already have a blog, and you've demonstrated your expertise on a specific subject over a
period of time, there may be an opportunity to create an ebook, audio program or video course
and sell it to your audience. Social media is the perfect place to promote such a product.

Platforms like Gumroad, Sellfy and Amazon's KDP program make it easy for you to publish and
sell your PDF, MP3 or video file at a price of your choosing - keeping in mind that all platforms
do take a cut, even if it's small. There are many opportunities for you to share sponsored posts
that promote the products and services of other businesses. This is a very direct way of earning
money from social media.

But, if you don't have a sizable following, this may not be much of an opportunity. You also
have to beware of over-promoting products for want of money, because if your followers see that
you're constantly tweeting about one product or another, not only will they not click on the links,
they will also un-follow you.

It's important to mix things up. It's wise to take the time to craft a proper social media posting
schedule, to make sure you're adding value to your followers while promoting products. Calls to
action should definitely be a part of your social media strategy, but every post can't be a call to
action. Social media is a great place to generate leads for your consulting business. Whether
you're a guitar teacher or a life coach, if you have demonstrated expertise in a specific area, you
can create more interest for your services by connecting with your target customer on social
media.

Coaching sessions can be conducted over Skype, so this is definitely an opportunity to make
money without leaving home. Consulting can be lucrative, so remember not to undercut yourself
- charge a fair price for your time and effort.This strategy can also work in unison with selling
information products, as those who want your advice are more likely to be interested in the
ebooks and courses you've created. It's important to remember that making money on social
media isn't necessarily easy.

It’s estimated that all the social media networks have a combined total of 3 billion active users.
Social media is an indispensable part of many people’s lives. Social media networks are instant
communication tools. People use these networks to share photos, receive news and weather alerts

32
and as avenues for online marketing.

33
Most social media accounts post random thoughts and information that doesn’t target any
specific demographic. If you intend to earn money through social media, however, it is important
to focus on a single subject of expertise or pick a specific area to concentrate on. You should
then tailor all your posts to fit into the niche you have settled on.

For example, if you love electronic gadgets, create a social media account which provides
reviews and information on the latest gadgets showing where to buy them. Your account will,
therefore, is then known as a reliable source of information on electronics. Typically, this brings
in lots of followers interested in this particular subject.A dormant social media account is only
good for snooping on other people’s lives and keeping tabs on your ex. When it comes to making
money, being inactive will not do you any favors, regardless of how many followers you have.

Continually posting updates on your timeline makes your account seem more trustworthy and
also prove to your followers that you’re real (not a bot). This doesn’t mean you should be posting
lots of nonsense to keep your account active. You should always strive to provide relevant
content that is useful to your followers. Social media trends continually shift. Something hip
today ends up sounding old-fashioned tomorrow. To ensure that you stay relevant on social
media, you will have to stay informed on the latest trends. Once you’ve done all of these, you
can start making moves.

Most businesses nowadays expand their operations into the online world. You can now buy or
sell almost anything online with the click of a button. The growth of Internet-based commerce
has led to the emergence of a new marketing technique called affiliate marketing. Affiliate
marketing is merely a marketing strategy that involves directing potential clients to an online
vendor (affiliate) and getting paid a commission each time someone led by you proceeds to
purchase on the affiliate website.

Previously, affiliate programs only allowed marketers who had their own sites, but nowadays it
can be done easily using a social media account. To earn money as an affiliate marketer, sign up
for an affiliate program. Several affiliate programs exist. The affiliate website will pay you a
commission if any of your followers buy anything from them after being redirected from your
social media account.
Given below is my report:

Analysis on the Revenue Schemes of 5 Social Media Applications

As per an article in the newspaper ‘The Hindu”, on an average, every Indian with a smartphone
spends about 2.4 hours of their day on social media applications. But have you ever wondered
how we use these applications and avail such services free of cost? Not just that, how do these
companies offer us their services free of cost and still report huge profits? Following report has a
detailed analysis, at the end of which, most of your queries will be answered.

I. Facebook
As of April 2020, Facebook has 2.6 billion active users making it the biggest social
network worldwide. Facebook earns its revenue through the following sources:
 Targeted advertisements:
These include serving a highly targeted consumer base who see curated
content. Facebook takes a fraction of a second from our attention span and
shows us advertisements relevant to our tastes and search queries.
 Jibbigo and Atlas:
By making its platform user friendly and accessible, Facebook connects
people all around the globe using Jibbigo, a language translating app. Not
just that it acquired Atlas from Microsoft, enabling it to let businesses
monitor their social media outreach programs.
 Revenue from WhatsApp and Instagram.

II. WhatsApp
 Initially, WhatsApp founders were planning on launching the product for
free for one year and then add a 1$ subscription fee, which may sound
minimal but it’s the opposite when backed by a 200 Million user base.
 In some countries, it offered paid downloads whereas it was free in others. In
later years however it decided to make it completely free so as to support the
viewership of other apps.

34
  After the acquisition from Facebook, the parent company takes the
behavioural aspect of our texts, that is unless the user has denied Facebook
this access and therefore, when a user is on Facebook, it tailors its
suggestions accordingly.
III. Instagram
 Sponsored Stories and posts:
Approximately 2 million companies reach their customers through the stories
which come across 500 million daily active users’ feed under the “Sponsored”
title.
 Instagram business Accounts:
Many businesses have a certified account for their businesses which have to
pay in return to Instagram to avail benefits of having sucha an account.
Through these business accounts, people can directly place order by clicking
on the post and the details just pop up!
IV. Pinterest
For those who are not familiar with Pinterest, it is an online social network that lets
users bookmark images by pinning them on their boards. It has 265 million monthly
users as per CNBC, the majority of whom are women. Its sources of income are:
 Advertisements:
Pinterest sells promoted pins to advertisers, making 3$/user. Advertisers pay
for an ad to surface in their desired audience’s home feed or at the top of
search results.
 Retail partners:
Pinterest also has hundreds of retail partners. Shopping ads invite users to
click- to-buy and can appear in users.
V. Twitter
 Data licensing:
Twitter sells its public data under the name of ‘Firehose’. Companies utilize
this data to analyze consumer trends and generate insights about brands and
companies.
 Native Marketing:
 Twitter changes its advertisers according to the amount of interaction their
content generates. It has a bidding system where advertisers compete among
themselves to have their content appear in a particular space.

How can startups benefit from social media applications?

Startups usually don’t have big budgets for promoting themselves. However, there are certain
things which the above-mentioned platforms provide which benefit startups:

1. FB Start:
It is Facebook’s global program to empower entrepreneurs, developers and startups to
build products. There are different services which are provided by Facebook under the
program as given below:
 Tools and Resources (Facebook Ad credits, Amazon Web services, Adobe,
Dropbox)
 Direct technical support and Startup Community
2. Pinterest’s ad product:
It is a major competitor to Google Ad-words for E-commerce businesses which are
digitally focused
3. Twitter’s organic discoverability:
Twitter offers a huge abundance of organic discoverability with hash tags. This way a
larger audience finds the startup and may end up collaborating.

TASK VII

The next task was perhaps the most interesting one that we had throughout the course of the
internship. It gave each intern, a chance to shine and step up to show their oratory skills. This
was a debate competition organized by Inception Wave as a team-building activity. This activity
was conducted to enhance the interaction amongst the team members. Widens our ambit of
corporate knowledge and helps in formation/supporting a stern opinion. Boosts confidence and
enhances our public speaking/diplomatic presentation skills.

Topic: The house believes Multinational Companies do more harm than good. Each group was
divided in 2 teams having equal number of participants, one presenting views in favor of the
motion and other, against the motion. This division and assignment of topic will be done by us.
All of us were given a justifiable amount of time to prepare the topic thoroughly. For the speech
round, we all were required to keep our videos on, so that the moderator could evaluate the way
of presentation and expression along with the authenticity of our speech.

Flow of the event:

a. 09:00am-09:45am: Link of the meeting was shared

b. 09:50am-10:00am - Join the meeting

Phase I

 10:00am onwards Commencement of the event

 10:00am-10:10 am Introduction

Phase II

 Speech round for the participants in the ‘Favor of the motion’.

 Speech Round for the participants ‘Against the motion’.

Phase III

 Rebuttal Round

Phase IV

 Closing Statements

Event Description

 The link of the meeting was shared with the participants through their respective
WhatsApp groups well before 9:30 am on the day of the event.
 10:00am-10:10am: Introduction of participants.
 Speech Round: Here the participants presented their opinions, for and against the motion.
The team speaking in the favour of the motion presented their views first followed by the
team speaking against the motion. It was mandatory for everyone to present their speech.
 Maximum time limit was 3 minutes for each participant.
 Rebuttal Round: The participants will counter their previous speaker with relevant points
and sum up to their concluding statements. Here the candidates of the opposite team will
have an opportunity to counter by raising questions based on the speech delivered. We
 were asked to simply jot down the name and points which you felt were not convincing
enough or could be argued upon sensibly. Each participant had only 60 seconds to present
his/her argument
 Closing Statements/conclusion: Here, each participant will have a maximum of 1 minute
to sum up and conclude their argument.
 The participants were assessed based on the following yardsticks or criteria:
 Content - Information, structuring, and the intensity of the content. Words, quotes,
and sentence structuring. How presentable/professional/effective was the
participant’s speech.
 Delivery - Diction, intonation, pronunciation, fluency, expressions, modulation,
pace, and clarity in speech. Whether the participant spoke effectively and with
control and confidence.

A few points from the opposing team’s speech are given below:

Multi-national companies are taking a great pace towards spreading their roots all over the globe.
But they have many cons that outweigh their pros.

First of all, Multinational companies lead to formation of an oligopoly. If an advanced and

powerful MNC enters an underdeveloped market, they can control and manipulate the whole
market and will allow only a limited amount of businesses to enter and compete with them. This
leads to the unequal distribution of the power.

We can take an example here of De Beeers’ which had almost 90% share in the diamond market
in 1980s because of which they had the freedom to freely adjust the price of the diamonds
without any close competitors. Second, Multi-national companies abuse human rights. MNCs
have also been criticized for using "slave labour." In order to cut down their costs and earn high
profits they go to countries where cheap labour and resources are available. They find it as the
golden treasure so that they can earn huge amounts. They do not give the labour proper wages,
benefits, facilities and exploit them to the full extent.

MNCs do not provide with the fixed working hours. They overburden the employees with huge
responsibilities and in return employees have to overwork which affect their mental and physical
health. I will cite one example here, some time back a 31 year old Niraj Manek had all that it
took
to be considered as a high flyer- a management degree from a renowned institute in London, a
high profile job with a leading Mumbai based wealth management team and a hefty package of
15 lakhs.

Yet he decided to shut this amazing career to settle for a relatively quieter job with a consultancy
firm, the reason being stress which is the silent killer. There are so many people like Niraj who
have reported to have excessive pressure at work. There is a Towers Watson survey conducted
which identified conflicting jobs (37% respondents), poor team working environment (30%), and
low pay (30%) as contributing factors apart from work pressure. Moreover, there is less job
security and less benefits which further makes an employee more vulnerable towards anxiety and
stress.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, multinational corporations are, in a large part, responsible
for the destruction of the environment. MNCs are literal threats to the air we breathe, aquatic life
and land because of the large waste they generate. This destroys habitats and slowly kills the
planet.

So, these are the points which really prove and showcase that MNCs do more harm than

good. CONCLUSION

I want to conclude that not every MNC is evil or inherently bad. There are actually a lot of good
things that MNCs do, like create jobs, lower prices of certain items, and advance technology.
However, the price of allowing MNCs to operate as they currently do is not worth the
consequences. Multinational corporations are dangerous in a political, economic, environmental,
and moral sense. Overall dominating the market, exploiting the employees and destructing the
environment are among the other harms that MNCs cause.

A copy of my script from the speech is attached below:

Ever since the LPG policy/ the New Economic Policy came into effect in 1991, the Indian
economy has undergone so many changes, one of which was making India an open economy.
Being a country full of possibilities and resources, India became a home to many multinational
companies headquartered internationally. While this move may have alarmed economists, it is
wrong to say that globalization has worsened the situation that India was in two decades ago.
Now to prove my point, I would like to highlight some of the most common and relevant benefits
that MNCs have given our economy.

I. Employment: It is a fact that ever since our economy welcomed MNCs, we have seen a
spur in the employment rate which in turn increased the per capita and disposable income
of the people enabling them to get a better standard of living.

II. Technology: An MNC does not enter into a country without preparation. After
conducting research on a potential market like ours, it comes up with the shortcomings
and then finds a solution. One such major advantage that our country has had is the
increase in technological advancements. Now this goes hand in hand with regional
development.

III. Consumer Choice: Anyone familiar with the concept of marketing knows that the
consumer is the king and that to prosper in a new environment, you're going to have to
come up with come up with something that will excite the target audience and ultimately
result in them actually buying your product. Throughout this process, MNCs compete
with already established domestic producers to survive in the market and try to better
themselves. This in turn gives the consumer a greater choice to choose from so that they
no longer feel the need to settle for something.

IV. Investment: The amount of investment involved in setting up an MNC in a foreign

country is huge and thus for the host country, it alone generates a huge inflow of cash.
Not just monetary investment, we're talking about infrastructure, trade and global
relations. When you invest into a country, you tend to communicate with all the
stakeholders to keep up good connections with countries leading to less domination and
more cooperative co- existence.

V. Competition: you may wonder why I pointed out competition as a pro of MNC. Let me
put it this way. When you compete with someone, you give your best to beat the person
and somewhere in that process, you are outdoing your current self or pushing your limits.
This gives efficiency and a sense of achievement and objectivity among companies. A
certain
 amount of healthy competition is necessary to ensure that companies thrive to be better
than they were before. This takes me to the next point of

VI. Innovation: The more companies brainstorm, the more they work on being better, the
more they will come up with unique and innovative solutions to a consumer's need.
Needless to say, when one company finds a way to do this, others follow and are
incentivized to come up with a more innovative approach.

To conclude my points, I would say that there are two sides to every coin and we should not
draw up conclusions without considering both of them.

After my round, my team mates also put up the following arguments which had a more practical
approach to it. All of us are attending this video call from a smartphone / laptop or PC. I would
like you all to take a minute and check the company / brand of the device you are using and find
its place of manufacturing. More than 90% times, it won't be "Made in India"

If MNCs come to India and set up manufacturing plants, set up their offices they won’t just
provide employment to the vast unemployed and the resourceful youth but bring up required
technology too. Being able to produce goods in India, the companies can avoid high import
duties and taxes and the goods can be made available for cheap.

We often hear/say that iPhones are cheaper in US than India, now Apple has set up
manufacturing plant in India and started producing iphone XI which not only provides
employment, FDI, increase imports and also promote access to technology at a lower price. This
would promote the Digital India goals and Make in India campaign. So, we should view this with
a wider approach than a myopic sight.

To my despair, the opposing team successfully won the competition as they convinced the jury
better by proving their points with better examples and delivering exceptionally in the rebuttal
round. However, this competition brought in me, the much-needed drive and confidence that I
possessed but couldn’t exhibit due to lack of opportunities.
TASK VIII

The next task was a standard research based one. We needed to share our views on "What
changes will be observed after the lockdown ends". We had to prepare a report after researching
and analyzing life before lockdown and after lockdown by providing some statistical figures,
mentioning businesses affected by lockdown and business not affected by it.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, businesses have been turned upside down in almost
all aspects. Most have been forced to send a big part of their staff home and others not
considered essential service providers have closed down. Besides worrying about keeping their
employees, customers and suppliers healthy, they also have to deal with stalled supply chains
and declining sales among other operational and financial challenges. It is now dawning on
everyone including those that were well prepared for crisis management that this is not just a
crisis and might be here with us in the unforeseeable future. It is no doubt that businesses will not
be the same after the pandemic; the following are the changes we will see.

COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated gender disparities and their implications for women at work,
especially for mothers, female senior leaders, and Black women across America. In addition to
being laid off and furloughed at higher rates than their male counterparts during the pandemic,
women are—notably, for the first time in our research on the topic—considering downshifting
their careers or leaving the workforce altogether at staggering rates.

The exodus might include as many as two million women. That would raise a significant barrier
to achieving gender parity in leadership roles in years to come. People are thinking about leaving
the workforce for a variety of reasons (exhibit). While many organizations are providing
additional resources related to remote working and employee well-being, there is more to be
done to meet employees’ needs for sustainable, flexible, and empathic work environments,
especially for parents and caregivers.

An area where companies have already adjusted well is using technology to address changing
work environments and to stay competitive. New global surveys find that organizations that are
successfully responding to the crisis have deployed more advanced technologies, digital
products, and tech talent to speed up innovation—and they expect most of these changes to
outlast the pandemic.
Researches shed light on two important issues facing healthcare providers. First, similarities in
flu and COVID-19 symptoms could lead to a threefold spike in demand for COVID-19 testing as
flu season in the Northern Hemisphere approaches. Maintaining sufficient capacity for testing
and contact tracing will be critical in curbing further outbreaks and protecting high-risk groups.
Second, the crisis has also led to a surgical backlog for elective procedures because of lack of
hospital capacity, workforce shortages, and new safety protocols. Health systems will need to
optimize current clinical operations to address the discrepancies in supply and demand.

Social distancing is among the measures recommended to slow the spread of the virus. With that,
many businesses have had to adapt to remote working. Employers are making efforts to enable
their teams work in sync and are training them how to use collaborative tools to ensure that no
one falls through the cracks. While remote working has been there for a long time, not many had
embraced it. It has now become mainstream, those who viewed it as sluggish are now getting
comfortable with it. They are even learning that there is increased productivity when people
work with flexible schedules. Employees have also realized that they do not have to be in the
office to have work done. What will happen after the pandemic is that remote working will be
the norm in many industries, the hours will be flexible and workers may even demand reduced
working days in a week.

Regional shutdowns have largely affected the demand and supply chain. Businesses that had
centralized their operations in such regions have since had to deal with lack of important supplies
for their business and declined sales. This is a learning period for many businesses, and as they
begin to reopen, there will be a need to improve operational agility. There will be a need to
diversify their dependency from one region to having a global presence. Those brands that held
back in establishing themselves in foreign markets for fear of legal implications will be more
open to the idea. Thanks to employment solution bodies such as International PEO, companies
can hire employees from anywhere in the world.

The good thing about hiring employees through International PEO is that a company doesn’t
have to establish a legal entity in that foreign country. The organization takes care of dealing
with the state requirements and employee management while the company finds a footing in that
foreign country.
With most people working remotely and telecommuting, the physical office is likely to be a thing
of the past. This will have an impact in the real estate industries as most buildings will be forced
to turn to residential buildings. There is also the likelihood of major shifting of people after
realizing that they can actually work from anywhere. Major cities will experience an explosion
of square footage for residential buildings and that will significantly reduce the cost of renting.

With companies having to continue operations with as few people as possible, they are being
forced to find alternative ways to achieve this. In that length, the use of automation processes and
algorithms are rapidly accelerating. The world is at a place that futurists had warned that jobs
would be replaced by automation. Businesses are now working towards automating repetitive
jobs such as administrative tasks and robots are taking over manufacturing. Whether or not this
will cause unemployment is yet to be seen, but there will be a massive need for retraining and
learning new skills once the pandemic is over.

With many people working from home, managers have been forced to be hands-on in tracking
productivity progress and the general wellness of their employees. There is a sudden need to
make employees feel valued in order to help them stay mentally fit. There is increase in empathy
and trust and the need to hold each other’s hand through projects. This is likely to remain after
the pandemic is over. How businesses will be managed will play a big role in the productivity of
employees. There will be improved leadership by influence and cultures that surround job
satisfaction will be adopted.

As the world prepares to emerge from the lockdown imposed to combat the COVID-19
pandemic, businesses are still struggling to recover from its after-effects. The lockdown led to a
massive economic disruption with hundreds of businesses forced to shut shop, and the continued
safety measures have made remote working and digital operations the new normal. As a result,
businesses will now have to make a rapid transition from offline to online, which requires a
completely new approach to business strategy. In the post-pandemic world, services that relied
heavily or entirely on customer mobility have been the worst-hit. Transportation services like
Uber, fitness centres, and the tourism industry, for instance, have taken heavy losses and – in
many cases – have permanently closed operations. Other businesses have been compelled to
reduce their workforce, give up their physical office addresses and restrict client interactions to
digital conversations.
The need to make real-time decisions and manage both external and internal operations online is
pressuring C-suite executives to quickly amp up their systems resilience. In many cases, this
calls for a complete overhaul of the IT infrastructure. Customer expectations have now
drastically changed, both in terms of buying patterns as well as interactions with a brand.
Companies that wish to satisfy these new expectations have to ramp up their digital commerce in
new ways, such as by working with shipping partners to provide “contactless” delivery and curb-
side pick-up options. They may also need to modify their product lines to cater to more essential
needs.

Supply chains have undergone a paradigm shift as shipping and distribution facilities have been
either shut down or severely restricted. This means that businesses can now cater to only a
fraction of customer demand, and must quickly adapt to new channels – particularly ecommerce
– if they wish to survive. Both team members and executives are struggling to adjust to virtual
work while coping with the uncertainties of the present and the future. As businesses struggle to
meet demand, employees have additional worries about whether they will face pay cuts or even
job losses.

As a business evaluates its plans for delivering services optimally in a post-pandemic world, it
needs to find the answers to questions about whether the markets and geographies it has been
serving remain profitable, which core technology and business practices need to be modified and
how the team can be best enabled to keep delivering in the new normal.

This requires detailed research on online business best practices and how customers would like
to be best served in the new reality. The research itself, moreover, has to be completely online as
in- person interactions become the exception rather than the rule – while remaining as
authoritative, unbiased and goal-oriented as before.

The need for digital transformation is not just an outcome of COVID-19. Mckinsey Global
Institute predicted in 2017 that up to 375 million workers would need to update their skills by
2030 to adapt to the new wave of automation and artificial intelligence. Another recent survey
revealed that 87 percent of executives were already experiencing skill gaps or would do so in the
next few years. For a business, the move to digital is not merely about setting up a website and
running social media campaigns. It has to figure out optimal ways for the team to stay connected
and continue business-as-usual while working from home, while also staying in touch with
consumer needs and expectations.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced organizations across the globe into a balancing act –
protecting the health and safety of their employees while simultaneously continuing their
operations. Like all essential businesses, Dell Technologies is working through this challenge to
implement the most effective approach for protecting as many stakeholders as possible. And, it’s
critical that we partner with customers to put their business continuity, remote working and
digital services into practice.

As company's return to site strategy, it becomes clear that the workplace impact would not be a
temporary one, and organizations that seize this opportunity to change how they work will
outpace their peers. This concept compelled us to create a formal Customer Playbook that serves
as reassurance that our plan – and business – are strong, as well as providing guidance on how to
leverage these strategies to strengthen their own businesses.

Market research companies are providing businesses with several solutions in this regard,
including a DIY qualitative solution and in-depth data collection assistance. These tools can be
set up by any business and can operate on its own. Compatible across devices, the tool is
designed for focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with customers. Another online
solution allows businesses to connect with online communities of customers, whom they can
categorize according to interest groups and generate loyalty through a rewards program.

Now more than ever, businesses need to be ready to adjust rapidly to changes. This calls for a
complete removal of rigid structures and a shift towards a data-driven, technology-powered
enterprise that consists of empowered team members and strong leadership. Supply chains need
to be reshaped and processes need to be automated wherever feasible. Companies should also be
agile with their financial planning so that they have enough liquidity to respond to unexpected
needs.

It is critical now for leaders to display solidarity with their teams and support them emotionally
as well as professionally. Keeping team members informed about strategic decisions and
providing them with a platform to voice concerns and suggestions will help them feel included.
The COVID- 19 lockdown was a situation no one could have predicted. Now, more than ever, it
is time for businesses to be at their most agile and to adapt intelligently and optimally to a
mostly-online way
of working. This requires the active support of the team and an extensive understanding of how
markets are likely to work now and in the foreseeable future.

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rein havoc on our lives, we still hope that somehow
things will get back to how they were before. However, no matter how much we yearn for that
normalcy, some business aspects will change forever. Businesses should understand this and start
working on adaptability to the new normal.

Given that governments at local and federal levels start to lift restrictions and ask employees to
“return to work,” we must remember: we are already at work. Our team members who are
required to be in a facility or in the field are steadfast in their support of our customers.
Meanwhile, the remaining 90% of our workforce continues to be productive working remotely.

We know coming out of this crisis that many of our team members won’t need to return to
corporate sites, at least not on a full-time basis. While every industry and every business is
different, it’s critical that organizations reinvent and redefine “work” in the new world. We must
change how we think about spaces, cybersecurity, meetings, travel, events and policies, and we
mustn’t forget the ways employees find balance through their family, volunteer work, hobbies
and more. We need to evolve the dated mindset that being in an office full-time is an actual
business imperative.

As we rethink where business is done, it creates the opportunity for organizations of all sizes to
advance and achieve their goals and experience a more flexible culture, reduce their carbon
footprint, enhance diverse talent recruitment and make new investments in innovation.
Businesses should start with an honest accounting of how a reduced on-site workforce with more
flexible workplace conditions can help the business execute on its strategy. We’ve aligned our
business objectives with our evolving workforce in the following ways:

Use our values to develop new ways of working, with high levels of engagement and
productivity. Creating a stronger customer and team member experience by investing time and
money on the things that matter most.

Start from the top, with a leadership team and ethos culturally committed to increasing our work-
from-home footprint and team member flexibility and choice.
Be a leader in workplace flexibility with a goal of 50% (or greater in countries with the right
infrastructure) of our team members in flexible work arrangements.

Advance progress against our 2030 Moonshot goals by reducing our carbon footprint and
opening new opportunities to bring in diverse talent.

Although this is specific to our own approach and goals established before the pandemic arrived,
we’re confident it’s a strong framework for customers to consider as they adapt their own goals,
along with the right technology to accelerate innovation and growth.

Of course, to achieve these goals, we must prioritize the safety and wellbeing of our team
members at every step. This includes planning our return to site in a way that prioritizes
flexibility and will require fine-tuning as we learn through the process. The way we’re
approaching our strategy is focused on health first, through graduated return to site for different
functions based on need and flexible schedules.

This strategy takes a conservative approach and relies strongly on data and science to determine
safety and readiness, align to local government regulations and follow health and hygiene
guidance. It also ensures we support our customers and partners, focus on teams who need to be
on-site for enhanced productivity, and enables employees to return to the office while taking into
consideration the future state of work.

Once the conditions are right, organizations should focus on four key pillars to ensure a smooth
transition of team members back onsite while cementing the conditions for greater innovation
and flexibility:

Return to site risk assessment – Evaluate the infection rates, active cases, recovery and scaled
increase trends of the country/specific location to determine how safe it is for team members to
return to site.

Pre-opening readiness – Assess and prepare for team members to return to site while ensuring
hygiene, social distancing, and infrastructure all support team member health and productivity.

Phased return to site – Start with those team members who are physically required to be onsite,
and gradually move to those functions and people who prefer to come to their place of work; as
well as accommodating those who don’t feel comfortable to return.
Communication – Develop transparent and frequent communications, with a feedback loop, to
team members and communities.

We’re rarely afforded the opportunity to make such dramatic changes to our businesses in such a
short period of time – even rarer still is the ability to do so in a way that will better prepare our
teams for the changing digital landscape while helping us achieve organizational goals around
sustainability, diversity and innovation. Although it’s not a change that anyone asked for, it’s the
change that will help us create more flexible, sustainable businesses that put people first.

Governments around the world have pumped trillions into their economies directly and
have also cut interest rates and applied other forms of monetary stimulus. As governments
step up to serve, or save, the private sector, the means they choose will differ. Some will
outright nationalize, some will take equity stakes, some will provide loans, and others will
choose to regulate. How much, how fast, and in what ways governments eventually reduce
their economic role will be some of the most important questions of the next decade.

With many businesses likely to be operating to some extent with public money, the public
will expect - indeed, demand - that their money be used for the benefit of society at large.
Of course, this was already happening: In August, 181 American CEOs vowed to “promote
an economy that serves all Americans” in a statement of the Business Roundtable. But with
citizens potentially facing higher taxes or fewer services (or both) to pay for the stimulus,
this pressure will likely not be eased.

This raises complicated questions. What does it mean for businesses to do right by their
employees and customers? If a financial institution accepts a bailout, how should it think about
calling in loans? And as the coronavirus pandemic reveals or heightens awareness of social
fractures, business will be expected to be part of finding long-term solutions. The world will see
the rise of a contact-free economy. In three areas in particular—digital commerce, telemedicine,
and automation—the COVID-19 pandemic could prove to be a decisive turning point.

In terms of e-commerce, the pandemic has accelerated a change in shopping habits that was
already well established. In Europe, 13% of consumers said that they were considering
online retailers for the first time in April, and in just Italy, e-commerce transactions rose 81% in
March.

As for automation, the robots were coming well before COVID-19. In late 2017, the
McKinsey Global Institute estimated that automation could affect from 400 million to 800
million jobs by 2030. These trends could accelerate: Over the three recessions that have
occurred in the past 30 years, the pace of automation increased during each, according to
a National Bureau of Economic Research paper cited by the Brookings Institution.

In effect, it is becoming possible to imagine a world of business—from the factory to the shop
floor—in which human contact is minimized. But not eliminated: Getting back to normal will
include popping into stores again, and many patients will st ill want to chat with their doctors in
person. Still, the trends are unmistakable. Businesses may need to reallocate investment—for
example, hospitals might offer both telemedicine and clinic visit options— and rethink their
strategic plans to take them into account.

And finally, companies will need to reconsider how they can establish more resilience. The
pandemic could end up rivaling, or even exceeding, the 2008 financial crisis in economic
damage. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office has projected that in the second quarter,
GDP could fall 12%, and that unemployment could stick at double digits into 2021 —a level
never reached during the financial crisis.

The implication is that companies will have to rethink, not tweak, their business models.
For example, supply chains built on just-in-time inventory and distributed component
sourcing may well have to be reconsidered, given the way many have been disrupted.
Instead, companies will have to build, or strengthen, backup and safety plans, be it deeper
layers of succession planning or significantly expanding work-at-home capabilities for
more employees. Investors are likely to take note and to devise ways to incorporate new
resiliency metrics into their valuation, as they have begun to do with climate-related risks.
Many companies will need to rebalance their priorities, making additional resiliency
measures as important to their strategic thinking as cost and efficiency.
Because necessity is often the mother of invention, the pandemic could bring some positive
outcomes. Individuals, communities, businesses, and governments are all learning new
ways to connect. And businesses are finding faster, cheaper ways to operate. In -person
conferences have gone virtual. Remote working has soared. These changes could make for
better management and more flexible workforces. Nurturing a next normal that will be
better than what it replaced will be a long-term test for all institutions, global and local,
public and private. For all of us, instead of looking to the past, it will be critical to
reconstruct for the future.

The way we worked may never be the same again. The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally
changed every aspect of our professional life — from our daily commute to office travel to our
work environment to how we interact with our colleagues and peers.

Of course, business is not running as usual. While a large proportion of employers are struggling
to adjust to remote work, some say maintaining employee morale has been a challenge, and the
rest are facing challenges to do with company culture. While this draws a vague picture, it also
presents a chance to reshape and reinvent the workplace for a post-COVID-19 reality. For the
last couple of months, most of us have worked from home, done countless video calls, juggled
work and family duties, and have tried to maintain calm in the face of uncertainty. How will jobs
change in the future? While some changes may be temporary until there is a vaccine for this,
other changes may become permanent.

With employees working remotely we have realized the power of virtual collaborative platforms
and how they can replace in-person meetings. Gradually, people have also understood that daily
to-do’s can be discussed and addressed online, rather than one having to be physically present.
With the lockdown extension due to the ongoing pandemic, companies are not in any hurry to
ask their staff to get back to the office as the work from home model seems to be delivering
positive results. The workforce is adapting to this new work model with technology at the core of
making all of this possible. Today, there are workplace collaboration and communication
platforms that offer an all-in-one suite with access to email, calendar, to-do's, voice notes, video
conferencing and more. Video conferencing has emerged as a powerful tool to drive team
collaboration at several leading brands worldwide.
Twitter was the first company to move to telework in March as a result of the world health crisis
and it recently announced that it will continue that policy indefinitely as part of a move towards a
"distributed workforce." The past few months have proven a lot of the businesses who were
earlier unsure about remote working that works from home is do-able. So, if employees are in a
role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so
forever, organizations will make it happen. Also, if organizations do decide to get back to the
office, it won’t be a snap back to the way it was before.

Working from home is going to stay, even when the economy eventually reopens. Productivity is
often measured by seeing an employee stuck at their desk or over ringing phones, and
achievement is signified by an employee arriving early before the rest of his/her colleagues and
leaving late. So, what happens when many leaders don’t have access to these visual checks?
They’re at a loss on how to measure productivity. Managers should instead focus on the final
results, such as deliverables and reports. This will let employees to prove their productivity, with
or without local supervision.

The “new normal” isn’t necessarily a business world without working in an office, it’s just a
world where we focus on work rather than office space. As offices and teams adopt new ways of
working via virtual workplaces, asynchronous communication, and results-based tracking, we’ll
be able to focus much less on where we’re working, and instead on the immense contributions
that we’re making to our companies and industries.

Working from home is going to stay, even when the economy eventually reopens. Productivity is
often measured by seeing an employee stuck at their desk or over ringing phones, and

achievement is signified by an employee arriving early before the rest of his/her colleagues and
leaving late. So what happens when many leaders don’t have access to these visual checks?
They’re at a loss on how to measure productivity. Managers should instead focus on the final
results, such as deliverables and reports. This will let employees to prove their productivity, with
or without local supervision.

The “new normal” isn’t necessarily a business world without working in an office, it’s just a
world where we focus on work rather than office space. As offices and teams adopt new ways of
working
via virtual workplaces, asynchronous communication, and results-based tracking, we’ll be able to
focus much less on where we’re working, and instead on the immense contributions that we’re
making to our companies and industries.

We are staying at home more than ever, and this demands us to balance our work and home lives
all in the same place. Recently, many employers have relaxed rules about workers starting and
ending their days at a set time. The new norm is about having respect for and trust in your
employees. To maintain that structure, managers could set expectations for when they need their
teams in the office for important internal events and conferences or online for meetings and other
team activities. Additionally, if one wants to create a balance between work time and
personal/family time, employees and managers will have to work closely together (than ever
before) to ensure that no one is feeling pressured to respond to emails and messages at all hours
of the day.

My report on the said topic is given below:

THE LOCKDOWN AFTERMATH

Since 25th March, 2020, we’ve been under lockdown and even today as we are slowly getting
back to ‘unlocking’ ourselves, we are uncertain as to whether things will ever go back to the way
they used to be. This isn’t just the case about an individual, this is the situation that the whole
nation and its economy is facing. Let us try to get an idea of what and what not to expect after
Covid-19 comes under control.

What to expect?

Fear of densely populated subways, metros and trains in particular, and the need for a safer, more
private surroundings may attract people toward the suburbs and rural areas. Families with
children and the old-aged may trade their city apartments for a house with a backyard.

As far as ambitious young people are concerned, they will continue to find their way back to the
cities in search of personal and professional opportunities. Artists and musicians may be drawn
back by lower rents, thanks to the economic fallout from the virus.
Urban transportation will have to be more personal for reasons of social distancing. Travel
expenses will diminish everywhere, and international travel will become a luxury. Working from
home will turn out to be the most sought out option, supported by teleconferencing and cloud-
based sharing including in government administration.

What not to expect?

Huge crowds in a country like ours was something to be assured of in every nook and corner.
However, owing to Covid-19, cities will get less crowded and slow down their pace. Rapid
migration may also slow down as opposed to the previous scenario.

No more pollution. The polluted urban life will be transformed at the end of this pandemic as
less vehicles are in use. The urban air will be much cleaner, and urban life less expensive. People
may even start reconsidering agriculture as opposed to chasing white-collar jobs.

The biggest gainers during Covid-19:

1. Academics/Education:
The education sector has blooming as the lockdown restrains students and educators all
around the globe. Taking advantage of this, multiple platforms are offering courses at
discounted rates and with limited period offers to get maximum enrollments.
2. E-commerce:
With social-distancing norms lurking around our necks like an albatross, it has made
consumer life really dull by taking away the joy of indulging in retail-therapy. Not just
that, even for groceries and supplies, people have turned to E-coms.
3. Pharmaceuticals:
People are adapting to new methods of maintaining their hygiene and this has instilled a
new behavior among the public. This pandemic has therefore boosted the pharma and
medical sector and even after the pandemic seizes to exist as people start taking
precautionary measures.
4. Information Technology:
Developing the core IT infrastructure and new-age capabilities, has become a priority for
IT companies as speed, skill, and agility becomes the need of the hour. As the digital
 world continues to gain its strength, this sector proves to be one of the most promising
ones in the economy.

Sectors Covid-19 took a toll on:

1. Aviation and Tourism:

The first steps taken by the government to stop the spread of the viral disease was to
restrict air travel. Airlines all over the world have suffered severely. Even though some
domestic flights have restarted now and international air travel is also expected to
resume, the turbulence will remain for a while.
2. Retail Business:
Retailers have been heavily affected by the shutdown of malls and shops while the
influence on essential goods remains to be minimal. this situation will continue to prevail
until the economy is reopened phase-wise, giving maximum benefit to E-coms.
3. Automobile:
Being a sector, which was already trying to overcome challenges like price increase due
to BSVI transition and inventory correction by OEM’s, the outbreak of COVID-19 is no
less than a curse.

Conclusion

As we step into a post-Covid era, one of the many things to be certain of is work from home. The
ability to stay connected and remain productive at comfort of one’s home is the biggest perks
that work from home offers us.

However, while this trend may come in handy for companies like JP Morgan, it is going to hurt
industries like real estate where people become hesitant in making long-term commitments while
maintaining social distancing norms as they no longer need to rent offices and buildings.

While the future remains uncertain as to whether the situation will turn out for the better or for
worse, the economy and the stakeholders need to take charge and be prepared for whatever may
come next.
CHAPTER-4
CONCLUSION
 CHAPTER-4 CONCLUSION

While I wish the situation was different at the time I took up this internship, I did not regret
the fact that it happened in the first place. The pandemic in itself has given us students a
much needed insight and perspective on how unpredictable life can be and taught lessons
of being grateful and not taking opportunities for granted.

That being said, I would now like to draw up my conclusions from the research I did. As
mentioned in the beginning of the report, I had only learnt about the theoretical aspect of
relevance of research and marketing. This pandemic has set a great example by showing
how significant it is to continuously work toward research and find niches and room for
improvements. Businesses continually evolve in order to keep up with the changing
technology but circumstances like Covid bring about a transformation in ways that a
student does not learn about in textbooks.

For instance, I was the most surprised to see how the Fast-food industry would bounce back
when people and restaurants were locked down. From innovative advertisements to newly
adopted methods of sanitation, the changes incorporated by big companies like Swiggy and
Zomato have set an example as to how innovative entrepreneurs can be and how being
aware is the need of the hour.

Covid has resulted in many people losing their jobs. Undoubtedly, the economy was hit
hard for a few months and now it is back on its track for a revival. However, what is also
noticeable here is the new trend of operations prevailing. With social distancing norms,
some employees are flourishing while others are barely coping up with it. Factors like
productivity and work life balance have taken a 360 o revolution. Pervasive technology has
made virtual communication simpler and more achievable than ever before. In the future, the
mark of an agile organization will be one that can keep up with this shift in how and where work
is done.

Throughout the internship, we were given topics to research on and needless to say, each time I
learnt something previously undiscovered. Marketing tools like digital marketing,
affiliate marketing have been something I had been familiar with although I had no in - depth
knowledge about these.

Startups are the future of the business world and hence, some of our research-based task were
relating to it. Startups usually don’t have big budgets for promoting themselves. While working
on them I realized how much a business benefits from various marketing avenues and how much
potential it has in the market if carefully observed.

For the longest time, I used to be of the opinion that marketing was just about selling a product.
After reading and observing at the changes undergone, I no longer hold that view. The scope of
marketing is so broad and vast that it would be foolish to conclude that marketing relates to just
being able to convince people to buy your product.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books:

Kotler, P., Keller, K.L, (15th Ed., 2015), Marketing Management, Pearson Education

Deepak Chawla & Neena Sondi, (2nd Ed, 2016), Vikas Publishing House

Websites:

Inception Wave, October 15, 2020, Uttar Pradesh, About Inception Wave

Investopedia, October 15, 2020, How Facebook, Twitter, Social Media make money from You,
October 15, 2020, Greg Mcfarlane

All Things Talent, October 15, 2020, Work-from-Home vs Work-from-Office: A Perspective

Beyond COVID-19

Times of India, October 15, 2020, Lifestyle changes during Covid-19, Pratigyan Das

Management Study Guide, October 15, 2020, Are Multinational Companies a Boon or a Bane?,
Prachi Juneja

Forbes India, October 15, 2020, Innovative Marketing in times of Covid-19

AdWeek, October 15, 2020, How Social Media Can Help Your Startup Grow, Mary C. Long

IMS Marketing, October 15, 2020, Why is Market Research so Important?

Scribbr, October 15, 2020, The main types of Research, Shona McCombas

Wikipedia, October 15, 2020, Software industry

VI