Travel and luggage, luggage and travel: the two belong inseparably together. The Italian company Roncato adds a large portion of Italian design and lifestyle and produces bag and suitcase collections that are both elegant and durable.
To optimize online marketing in Germany, the Italian family-owned company had already worked with students from the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences during the previous semester. After very positive experiences, Roncato continued its cooperation, including students from two Macromedia campuses Munich and Berlin.
Owing to the pandemic: Instead of drive-to-store, drive-to-shopThe Berlin students' task was to develop a marketing concept for the introduction of Roncato in offline stores or department stores. The concept should initially focus on drive-to-store marketing with the goals of awareness, sales, and willingness to recommend Roncato. After the pandemic-related lockdown in the summer semester of 2020, the supervising clients extended the task to a drive-to-shop objective.
The students were able to choose their own focus. The subtasks included:
- Creation of a secondary analysis
- Formulating hypotheses and answering the research questions derived from them
- Development of a brand positioning
- Development of marketing recommendations based on personas and customer journeys
The work of the Berlin student teams culminated in an internal pitch, in which
Francesca Revelant and
Monica Baron participated on the client side as well as
Prof. Dr. Brigitte Kleinselbeck and
Prof. Dr. Mo Badr from Macromedia University.
Campus Berlin: Pop-up store "Little Italy" convinces the juryThe winner was the "Little Italy" concept by students
Dominik Liebeke,
Annabelle Lehnert and
Lena Sebastian, which scored highly with a pop-up store concept and new technologies. "Little Italy hit right to the heart of our Italian brand," said
Prof. Dr. Brigitte Kleinselbeck. "The idea that everyone should take their piece of Italy with them on their journey and experience it at the POS was simply well received.
The concepts for improving the online presence were also praised - especially a newly developed bonus program and a 'Feel the Travel' Amazon Marketplace presence with accompanying online campaign.
"I am very satisfied with my students," says Kleinselbeck. "They accepted the lockdown as a challenge and showed how to build customer relationships even in times of travel and exit restrictions. Well done!"
++++
The students on the
Munich campus had to master the following tasks - and with great success:
The
strategic repositioning on the German market with the main objectives
- Strengthening of competitiveness
- Increase in sales and
- Consolidation of reliability and consistency as a key player in the baggage market, especially with regard to the challenges posed by COVID-19
The main focus of the project work was:
- Identification of the target audience
- Analysis of the survey and research results of Berlin students and related personas / target groups
- Definition of communication goals
- Development of the campaign concept
- Development of the right communication channels/instruments and media plan
At the Munich campus, 9 teams with a total of 45 students presented their final projects. On the part of the client,
Francesca Revelant (Head of Marketing) and
Monica Baron (Head of International Sales) as well as
Prof. Dr. Mo Badr, Nathalia Valencia and
Theo Grassl as project managers from Macromedia University were the jury.
The winners were all.
Due to the diversity of the concepts presented, all of which had their own charm and different orientations, the jury decided not to choose one winner.
Nevertheless, there was one concept that particularly impressed Francesca Revelant and Monica Baron: a Creative Design Week, developed by the students O
liver Porwol, Daria Marsic, Angelina Jäger, Teresa-Elena Stanglmayr and
Lena Bertelshofer.
Members of Roncato's design team and/or creative minds will spend a week in selected stores of retailers. During the Design Week there will be different workshops accompanied by brand ambassadors (to gain brand awareness online), loyal customers or window shoppers.
Customers can then create their own suitcase together with the designers on site.
Even though this approach requires some organizational effort, the uniqueness of the approach convinced the company to face the current challenges.
All in all, despite the adverse circumstances of the semester, which was conducted exclusively online, all students at the two locations in Berlin and Munich were enthusiastic about the creativity, stringency and above all teamwork.
And we can all be proud of this together.
Statement Practice Partner"I am very proud to be working with macromedia university for the second time. After a very successful project in the winter semester 2019 with the Munich campus, our second joint project started in the summer semester 2020 with many challenges and unplanned changes.
Especially the travel restrictions due to the lock down hit Roncato's core business very hard, so we had to realign our planned campaign shortly after the start of the semester. Nevertheless, it was a great opportunity for Valigeria Roncato to develop new strategies and innovative business concepts together with the students of macromedia university.
Cristiano RoncatoCEO of Valigeria Roncato
