Brand Strategy Intern

About us

VSA Partners was founded 40 years ago with the purpose to design for a better human experience, using design as not only a craft but also a tool for achieving business goals and behavior change. As design thinkers, we approach business challenges holistically and break down silos between branding, digital, marketing and advertising in order to reimagine and elevate each person's experience - in our culture, with our clients, and across the world. Everyday, you can expect us to live our Behaviors to their fullest: Chase the big stuff; Sweat the small stuff; Play like a champion-of others; Fight for it; and Make it fun. 

A little bit about the VSA Summer Internship Program: 

Our interns work on "real work," with real meetings, deadlines, and business challenges from our brands and clients. This is the education you won't get in a classroom. Consider it career practice, with the freedom to learn, make mistakes, refine, question and tag along. You'll work with an individual manager and a group of mentors in an outstanding cross-disciplinary environment focused on brand, communications, marketing, and digital. Through the larger program, you'll take part in intern meetings, team outings and activities (can you say networking?). And yes, it's paid, with an hourly rate for 40 hours/week. It starts June 5th. 

VSA's Strategy Practice acts as the leading edge of our effort to invent and reinvent brands for a better human experience. With seriously robust analytical expertise, an uncompromising focus on powerful human truths, and a commitment to actionable strategy frameworks-we've built a combination few can match and deliver breakthrough work because of it (creative, experiential, and more!). 

The Brand Strategy Intern is inquisitive, imaginative and smart-ready to build strategy skills in a fast-paced environment. You love finding the 'golden nuggets' of ideas, insights and brand potential that grow from exploratory research, brainstorms and intuition. You elevate those around you, always ready to dive in, experiment and take a pass. VSA Partners is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive, equitable environment for all employees. All employment decisions are made based on qualifications, merit, and business need.

 Responsibilities: What makes a great Brand Strategy Intern

• Grower who's hungry, who loves working both independently and collaboratively to understand a client's business and brand in the context of their sector, customer dynamics, and market.
• Simplifier & metaphor creator who loves going deep into brands, visual identities, tone of voice and/or industries to uncover themes, trends, white space and ideas for a brand's opportunity. Translates audits into a story for teams to get the big picture with key evidence and takeaways.
• Data-driven & resourceful team player, who participates in qualitative and quantitative research programs, supporting the development of a research brief, questionnaires and review of information as well as the findings reports/
• Focused multi-tasker who lends a hand at each phase of a project, just as happy mining the data for one more stat or great quote as they are proofing each headline for the greatest impact. 
• Brand enthusiast, who understands the field in which VSA works, stays updated with projects and deadlines for all projects, and brings proactive thinking as new responsibilities arise.

Qualifications

• Enrolled in or recent graduate of an accredited University studying business, marketing, or related field (e.g. psychology, english, philosophy, and more!). Pursuing an MBA or a Master's Degree in a related field is a plus.Accumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.
• Strong professional communication and collaboration skills across different backgrounds, enjoys sharing work, presenting with peers and thinking on their feet
• Ability to thrive in a right-brain/left-brain work environment - can think analytically, critically, and creatively to develop simple solutions to sophisticated problems.
• A passion for learning and an entrepreneurial spirit.
• Adept at preemptively identifying problems and devising solutions. 
• Ability to be versatile and balance multiple projects and re-prioritizations.
• Ability to maintain self-motivation and to work independently in team environments.
• Familiarity and/or experience within a marketing-communications, branding agency, or within a management consultancy is a plus. Knowledge of and/or experience with B2B brands, digital experience and/or media is a plus.