Transfer of expertise.

The groups use various tools to develop their own naming routes. At the end of the process, a joint decision is made on the final name, which leads to exciting discussions.

The ‘Value Proposition Map’ is used as a central tool for developing the company’s own value proposition. It structures the characteristics of a business model. The entire value proposition is differentiated into products and services, problem solvers and profit generators.

In this step, students work on their own brand positioning. They can choose from four different positioning approaches and apply them specifically to their brand case:

Attribute-orientated: The focus is on a specific, usually functional product characteristic

Value-based: The brand confirms the consumer’s self-image or acts as an extension of the ego

Motive-based: The brand satisfies unconscious, individual motives

Archetype-based: The brand uses cross-cultural archetypes to position itself as a role model

In this step, the students are asked to summarise their previous key brand strategy statements once again. This lays the strategic foundation for developing the basic visual elements of the brand identity. In the groups, they can give free rein to their creative ideas to develop various logos, typography, colour schemes and a meaningful visual language. The use of available AI assistants is explicitly permitted.

The basic assumption for the students is that, as a start-up, they have a limited budget available to build their own brand image. In order to achieve maximum impact with the limited resources, a long-term influencer relations strategy should be developed that enables long-term collaboration with a digital opinion leader. The declared goal: to build up a brand fanbase, increase brand awareness and ultimately boost sales. The groups discuss their own strategy and identify potential influencers that fit their own brand case. In the final selection of the desired influencer, the strategic brand elements developed so far are always at the centre of the decision criteria in order to enable a maximum fit between the company’s own brand and that of the influencer as a brand ambassador.

The seminar concludes with the design of a scientific poster. All elements of the strategic brand process that has been completed will be visible at a glance: the components of the brand identity, the selected brand design and the parameters of the influencer relations strategy. The results are presented in the plenary session and then critically discussed.