MSC MARKETING SCIENCE

A Day in the Life of a Regional Media Strategist at Grab

If his parents had their way, Rohan Raman would be a scientist right now – not a newly-minted marketing professional. Mum and Dad were MSc graduates with science-related careers, and they had hoped their son would follow suit.

“I was fairly good at science back in high school, but it never really appealed to me,” Rohan admits. Instead, he gravitated towards the world of commerce. “It came as a shock to everyone in the family,” he recalls. “But for me, it was an absolute no-brainer.”

We sat down for a chat with Rohan at a pivotal moment of his working life: a few weeks away from concluding a Master’s Degree in Marketing Science (MMS) at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU)’s Nanyang Business School (NBS). With a successful internship at Grab almost behind him, this is, as Rohan puts it, “the time of my life”.

A day in the life of a Grab intern

Southeast Asia’s leading super-app is arguably the best place to kick off a promising career in marketing. Rohan is finishing up his internship at GrabAds – the “discovery and growth engine for brands,” he explains.

This KPI-driven internship requires him to communicate with various in-house teams and external clients from Grab’s key markets in Southeast Asia. GrabAds internships are cross-functional, saddling interns with multiple responsibilities from editing presentation decks to tracking regional campaigns, encouraging them to learn, build, and execute.

“There’s so much to learn, not just internally, but also from the clients,” Rohan tells us. “I’m not just working with people inside GrabAds, but also with GrabMart, GrabPay, Merchants, Commercial, Business Development, Measurement, and Agency Partner teams.

The internship has given Rohan a front-row seat at the epicentre of a billion-dollar company operating throughout Southeast Asia

“A lot of my responsibilities include staying in touch with operations in different countries, not just in Singapore,” Rohan explains.

“You’re trying to figure out what the country teams have been up to, and how we can help from a regional perspective.”

On the third day of his internship, Rohan jumped into what he calls a “massive two-day workshop with one of the biggest toy companies in the world,” including dozens of people from Grab and the client.

“It’s amazing – you get to interact with top management and leaders from your client brands,” Rohan recalls. “It was exactly what I needed to get an insight into how GrabAds works.”

Grab’s stimulating work environment

Grab interns like Rohan are treated like fulltime colleagues. “Samba, my gem of a boss, introduces me as an associate everywhere – my responsibilities are not that of an intern for sure,” Rohan tells us. “The entire team acknowledges it, because they know the work you’re putting in is more than what you’re supposed to be doing.”

And like Grab’s fulltime associates, interns are expected to think fast on their feet and act accordingly. “There is a massive learning curve regarding how fast things move in Grab,” Rohan tells us. “You must always be in the loop; if you miss anything, you’re already behind everyone else.”

Grab’s communicative company culture has helped Rohan stay ahead of the curve. “The only way to get stuff done is to understand it, and the only way to understand it is by asking,” Rohan says. In practice, this means he can lean on almost anyone in the organisation for help. “I can text anybody at any time, irrespective of how high up they are,” Rohan reveals. “They’re always willing to help.”

After hours, the work environment allows Grab colleagues to blow off steam through casual get-togethers, giving Rohan the room to explore his musical side. During a launch party for a new Grab service, Rohan allowed himself and a colleague to be dragged up on stage to perform for attendees.

“There was a guitarist and me, and we just kept it really simple – playing crowd-pleasers like Imagine Dragons’ Radioactive, Creep by Radiohead, and She Will be Loved by Maroon Five,” Rohan recalls.

Cross-pollination of ideas

His stint at Grab may have been predestined. Grab had been the subject of a project Rohan tackled in his MSc Marketing Science (MMS) programme at NTU’s Nanyang Business School (NBS). In fact, the project’s moderator ended up as Rohan’s hiring manager in Grab.

“I already knew what the company did before my internship, because I put in so much research,” Rohan recalls. “The stuff we did in the internship’s first three weeks, I had done two months prior because of that project.”

NBS’s (new approach) experiential learning approach appealed to his strengths as a marketer. “We had so many case studies, presentations, and real-world projects involving real brands,” Rohan recalls. His class cohort – filled with similarly intelligent marketing professionals-to-be – also helped Rohan internalise the programme’s content.

“We were always learning new perspectives, meeting new people from different countries,” Rohan tells us.

The multitude of opinions and free-flowing discussions led to a healthy cross-pollination of ideas that bore fruit by the third semester.

“You assume less about the markets, because you hear people talking about their own markets and countries,” Rohan tells us. “In the end, there are fewer assumptions, more experience-based insights, and more people to whom you can now reach out if you have questions about their market.”

Rohan’s post-MMS potential

Once he graduates from the MMS programme by January 2023, Rohan feels he’ll be ready to apply his creative and analytical skills to the real world.

Goal One is to find a career that marries his creative and analytical sides. “I believe that Rohan is divided into marketing and music. There’s nothing else,” he explains.

“It would be a dream to work in the music industry as a marketer, because I’ll be able to bring a lot more to the table from both aspects.”

Rohan offers a few tips for success for potential MMS students following in his footsteps. First, MMS students should know exactly what they’re getting into – “not just in terms of the curriculum, but in terms of what your career plans are, the countries you want to work in, the markets that you want to find jobs in,” Rohan says. “The MMS course shows you where the doors are. A lot of doors! But you’ve got to open those doors yourself.”

Finally, Rohan advises MMS students to respect the post-graduation effort and hustle. “I’m not taking anything away from NTU – fantastic university, fantastic course. The reason I’m at Grab is NTU. But the rest is hard work.”

As Rohan prepares to graduate from the MMS programme, he surveys his own options – the path forward is clear. “There’s nothing set in stone, but the plan remains the same. Marketing. Marketing. Marketing.”

Find out more about the MSc Marketing Science programme here.

Download MSc Marketing Science Brochure

MSC MARKETING SCIENCE

A Day in the Life of an MSc Marketing Science Alumnus: On the Cutting Edge of E-Commerce at Lazada

Lazada needs no introduction. The e-commerce giant has captured the hearts (and wallets) of millions of Southeast Asian consumers, and its 11.11 sales extravaganza smashes records annually. What is the science behind its success? A team of marketers with data and analytics tools diving deep into customers’ minds to determine what makes them click.

This possibility of getting inside consumers’ minds fascinated Richard Lee, a Nanyang Business School (NBS) alumnus and current User Growth Associate at Lazada Malaysia. Six years ago, Richard had opted to pursue event management for his bachelor’s degree. But when he took up a marketing internship at a Malaysian SME after graduation, he fell in love with the data-driven side of marketing.

“I was mesmerised by the way we can understand how consumers think and perceive,” he recalls. “Marketing is no longer just about what the company says about its products; we can delve into how consumers react and use those insights to communicate better.”

This newfound passion launched him on a dynamic career path, beginning with a Specialised Master’s in Marketing Science offered by NBS at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU),culminating in an exciting new role in Lazada’s User Growth team.

Driving growth at Lazada

E-commerce in Southeast Asia is a fast-paced game, with double-digit mega-sales like 11.11 now popping up nearly every month. As a Senior Associate in User Engagement at Lazada Malaysia, Richard is in the thick of the action. “On a day-to-day basis, we’re always preparing for campaigns,” he shares. “Competition is fierce in Southeast Asia; we’re always thinking about how to draw more market share and capture more awareness.”

On any given day, Richard might spend 60% of his time managing day-to-day operations for LazCoins – Lazada’s customer reward system. The other 40% goes toward a strategy for upcoming campaigns.

He describes his role as a “bridge” between sellers and buyers on the platform. “We drive awareness among sellers about how they can use LazCoins to promote discounts and build customer loyalty. At the same time, we develop mechanics to engage buyers through LazCoins and get them to spend,” he explains. “I also help control the issuing of LazCoins – a bit like the bank of a country.”

Every day calls for different mechanics and vouchers, and his work ramps up as campaign day approaches. This includes creating gamification to boost buyer interaction and formulating unique mechanics to drive conversions. “For the upcoming 11.11 campaign, for instance, we’ll run 11% coin discounts for our sellers.”

Accelerated learning in a flat culture

Having joined Lazada just three months ago, Richard has had to negotiate a steep learning curve – one that this keen go-getter has thoroughly enjoyed.

“We have a saying that one year of working at Lazada equals three years working elsewhere,” he laughs. “You can learn a lot and progress fast.”

For his first-ever project at Lazada, Richard was tasked to optimise the standard operating procedures (SOPs) governing LazCoin assets. This was no mean feat, given that he had to get buy-in from many internal departments to create and execute new processes. Yet thanks to his colleagues’ guidance, this project quickly became his most memorable to date.

“I got to interact with multiple stakeholders, which gave me a well-rounded perspective into the whole company,” he shares. “Beyond the project itself, I was able to understand the deeper logic behind what I create.”

This project gave Richard his first taste of Lazada’s flat culture – where leaders and newbies alike have opportunities to interact freely. While it’s common for tech startups to adopt a flat structure, he says, Lazada takes this to “a whole different level”. “It’s a hotdesking environment, so the C-suite bosses are sitting next to you. I appreciate being able to easily ask them questions and get advice.”

Laying the groundwork for adaptability

As e-commerce evolves at lightning speed, marketing teams face the challenge of moving faster than the competition. Richard credits his ability to stay nimble to his experience in NBS’s MSc Marketing Science (MMS) programme.

“In today’s market, you can’t just be a specialist – you have to be agile,” he emphasises. “At Lazada for instance, we still do traditional marketing like magazine advertising. But at the same time, we do digital marketing and even deal with AI and robotics.”

At NBS, MMS students can tap into a wide range of courses – from traditional modules like branding to advanced technical courses on data analytics, neuromarketing, ethnography, and more. For Richard, this well-rounded training has proven invaluable. “It’s prepared me well for the working reality, where I need to be adaptable in every situation,” he says.

The NBS experience has equipped him for a fast-paced e-commerce career in more ways than one.

“In my experiences working at JD.com and Lazada, the reality is that I might have only a couple of minutes to prepare ideas and grab my bosses’ attention,” he reveals. “Back then, I was always nervous about presentations in my classes, but NBS pushed me to practise and present most efficiently.”

Excelling in a multicultural landscape

In the melting pot that is Asia, marketers cannot do without a solid understanding of the cultural differences that shape consumer behaviour. With a diverse class makeup of around 10 nationalities on average, the MMS programme offered Richard the cultural insight needed to excel at regional e-commerce giants like JD.com and Lazada.

“Before Lazada, I was working in regional product operations at JD.com,” he shares. “My key focus was on the Thailand and Indonesia markets, which have vast differences in consumer behaviour.” Having had opportunities to work with classmates from these countries at NBS, he had the proper grounding to engage effectively with different markets.

The cultural agility that students can absorb at NBS, Richard believes, plays no small role in future success.

“It’s critical for e-commerce, where you must react quickly to changes in consumer behaviour. NBS provided a diverse environment that incubated a reactive and adaptive attitude for me.”

Preparing to lead the future of marketing

Richard sums up one key piece of advice for anyone keen to join the fast-moving marketing world: be ready 24/7. “I appreciate how NBS has prepared me mentally and academically for the working world. That’s not easy to find,” he shares. “It’s not just about the grades – if you’re ready to learn from those around you, you’ll have opportunities to get different perspectives and try out many different things.”

Join the next generation of marketing leaders at NBS’s MSc Marketing Science – a one-year programme designed to empower students with holistic marketing competencies. With a range of innovative modules, the MMS delivers cutting-edge know-how for graduates like Richard to become marketing leaders in a digital future.

Download MSc Marketing Science Brochure