Weidmuller
Blending design and marketing to bring industrial products to life
Visual design
Marketing
Internship • 5 min read
Role
Marketing Intern
Timeline
May - August 2023
Tools
Photoshop, Illustrator, HTML, CSS
Overview
About Weidmüller
"...Connectivity is the key, whether it involves power, signals and data, demands and solutions or theory and practice. Industrial Connectivity needs connections. And that’s precisely what we stand for."
Weidmüller is a manufacturing and electronics company headquartered in Germany. Their products support customers worldwide in industrial power environments, emphasizing connectivity across power, signals, and data
During my time at Weidmüller, I:
Improved overall user engagement through successfully coordinated marketing campaigns.
Executed 5+ marketing campaigns from ideation to completion.
What I did
My Role
I joined the Marketing team at Weidmüller's Canada office as a Marketing Intern. I worked alongside the Marketing Coordinator and Web and Graphic Designer to support campaigns, research, and design intiatives.
Responsibilities
Researched web and industry marketing materials to provide actionable insights.
Supported integrated marketing campaigns from design to execution.
Contributed creative input for digital, print, and physical marketing products.
Assisted with marketing events, including webinars and trade shows.
Design Work
With my experience and skills in design, one of my main tasks consisted of designing a variety of products for different marketing campaigns. This included custom emails coded using HTML, digital and print graphics, and designs for physical promotional products. For these physical products, I also designed 3D mockups to get a better visualization of how the final product would look. Check them out below!
Research
I also assisted in performing research in a variety of areas, including current design trends, competitor analysis, and lead management. This research was done to find areas where we could potentially improve and keep up-to-date with current trends to better market Weidmüller's products.
Impact
Social Media & Marketing Campaigns
My contributions helped increase social media interactions, enhance brand visibility, and educate team members on social media best practices.
During my time at Weidmüller, the social media campaigns and brand marketing I led, aided in increasing overall interactions!
A custom marketing email template I designed in HTML and CSS
A LinkedIn post I created for a "PROtop" marketing campaign
Presentation
In the middle of the term, employees all over Canada flew in to our main office for a mid-year kickoff where teams hosted different workshops and I was given the opportunity to help organize my own part in the marketing workshop. As my experience in social media developed throughout the term, I was tasked with preparing a "Dos and Don'ts of Social Media" presentation to explain proper social media etiquette and how to correctly share the company's social media posts.
By preparing this presentation, I ensured that all employees are on track with the company guidelines for social media etiquette and understand the importance of social media to further spread brand awareness.
What I learned
Challenges
🏢 Unfamiliar Office Culture and Picking It Up Quickly
Going from a co-op term to the next and going to different companies, means relearning the company's culture and technology. With this being my first term back in-person, I had to learn how to adjust to it as I was more used to working remote. This included not only getting used to commuting, but also learning how to start conversations with my co-workers and adapting to the overall culture of the workplace.
❓ Asking for Feedback and Questions
At the beginning of the work term, I sometimes struggled with asking for feedback and questions, especially with my designs. However, one thing I found is that since the term was in-person, it was easy to get feedback at anytime. This was a great opportunity for me to connect with more people at the office and try to grow outside my comfort zone, so I can build my confidence!
Key Takeaways
👥 Management Shadowing
Throughout my projects, I learned how to leverage and apply design thinking principles to solve user problems. By keeping the HCD approach in mind, I ensured that all of my design decisions were rooted in user needs and business values, resulting in intuitive outcomes.
🔗 Connecting Digital Marketing to UX Design
Although my work term was solely focused on marketing, I was able to apply my design skills in certain aspects. An important step of the marketing process was doing research and understanding the target audience we're marketing to, similar to UX design where empathizing with the user is an important step. Marketing aims more at making products desirable so that customers will purchase them, but I found myself applying my design skills and defining my design process, while exploring other fields.
💬 Communication is Key, Always Ask for Feedback!
For a lot of the designs I worked on, review was always needed, especially in making sure that any technical product information was right or that the design aligns with brand identity and marketing guidelines. When collaborating on projects as well, I learned that it's always important to ask why and when a project needs to be done, and always follow up with your teammates, so that everyone is on the same page.
In the beginning I was also shy to ask for feedback on my designs and it would take me time to build up the confidence to do so. Eventually I learned that feedback is always about the design itself and not the designer, so I shouldn't be nervous about receiving any critiques or asking "dumb" questions. Things shouldn't be assumed. Co-op is a learning experience after all, so being able to receive feedback is an important aspect as it contributes to my growth as a working professional and designer. Being able to make conversations with anyone at anytime also helped to build my confidence in communicating professionally.
Personal reflection
The Weidmuller Ontario team!
For my first co-op term in-person, I'm really thankful for this experience and a huge thank you to Ashish and Amika for guiding me throughout the term. I was provided with so many great experiences to learn and grow in the professional field, as well as develop my design process further and skills as a designer.
