For the last two years I have been studying Branding & Marketing AP studies at VIA Design. By now I have realised that I feel strong with my knowledge within this specialty, but by continuing my studies at KEA University I could gain so much more experience and insight into the business world, which for me would represent a huge opportunity. Therefore, I know that there are still a lot of things that I need to learn before entering the fashion business world. I believe that the knowledge that I will gain from your courses within the brand design will provide me with the needed tools and ability to innovate and rethink already existing strategies in the branding and management world. When considering the content of the overall branding and marketing along with management fields – it is a very complex world; where all bits and pieces are equally important. If I personally would look into branding and marketing and consider my knowledge in the field, I believe this has been my comfort area throughout the last two years. I enjoy, find motivation and a sense of accomplishment when working with branding and marketing subjects. If I would look closer into the courses, I would acknowledge brand strategies and marketing, e-strategy, concept development and the building of campaigns subjects as the strongest points of my education so far. I find these subjects interesting and in a way inspiring, because by attending them I did not only gained new knowledge, but I have the feeling that I cannot wait to put to good use all I have learned within real life projects. I believe that finding and paying attention to details is a key factor in achieving success as a student in brand management and in my further development as a professional man. As a student at VIA Design I am familiar with the existing format of studies in Denmark. Therefore, If I am granted a place in KEA University, I am prepared to maintain the level of efforts which are needed for me to achieve the knowledge in designing strong brands, as well as implementing already gained knowledge throughout my AP degree, and reach out to my professional success in the future within this field. Furthermore, my ambition and goal, together with several VIA Design students is to establish our own fashion brand in Copenhagen. Therefore, my ambition now is to continue my studies in the capital, because besides all the new connections and potential business partners that I will have the chance to acquire at KEA, I am looking forward for any new knowledge or projects with local fashion brands that will give me more insight about the fashion industry in Denmark. I believe that as a student at the ‘Brand Design’ specialisation, I have the potential to become successful by following this path at KEA University. I believe that as long as I will be able to use my knowledge as tools, I am capable of achieving great student and professional competences. In the meantime, thank you for any time and effort you take in reviewing my application. Yours sincerely, Youlian Tzenkin
Outgoing, enthusiastic, motivated and social person with desire and ability to work in a team, and determinate to gain knowledge. My theoretical and business background gave me relevant experience within brand management and analysis, also working with customer service. My strongest skills are visionary competence for long-term development of brands, products, and services, finding and meeting the client’s needs in the best possible way, so to ensure profit for the company. Furthermore, I am a positive, creative and complex person with a broad range of interests which include traveling, communication, trend research, business innovation and many others. The motivation for these interests serves the desire for knowledge and eager for personal and professional growth.
Education:
2014 - /now Studying for AP degree in Branding and Marketing Management VIA Design & Business University College 2011 - 2013 Studied BA in International Communication and Multimedia Aarhus University, Institute of Business and Technology, Herning, Denmark 2003 - 2007 Studied BA in Economic Management New Bulgarian University; Sofia, Bulgaria
Professional experience:
June 2015 – September 2015 Internship at Book a Student, Herning, Denmark Description – creating customer data base, help with the development of a Crowdfunding campaign, creating visuals, updating and customizing of the company website. 2012 - /now STOF A/S, Herning, Denmark Description – Warehouse logistic and customer service. 2010 - 2011 Customer Service, Mobiltel, Sofia, Bulgaria Description - Customer relationship and care service. 2007 - 2010 Reservation executive, Royal Palm Holidays, Sofia, Bulgaria Description - Making reservation, preparation, making and processing of offers. Also responsible for the company account (payments and control over the incomes and outcomes). 2005 - 2006 Freelance in PR and advertising, Schenker Logistic, Sofia, Bulgaria Description - Inputting data in the database, updating the company website, assistant at organization of PR events and commercial activities.
Skills:
Computer: MS Office (Excel, Word, Outlook, Power Point), Adobe Creative Suit (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign), Social Media, Website development and customization. Social: Team spirit, flexibility and good ability to adapt to multicultural environments gained through my study and work experience abroad, good communication skills developed during my experience as a reservation executive agent, customer service person and public relations assistant. Organizational: Strong organizational skills, experience in project and team management, selfmotivation, analytical skills with strong attention to detail.
Every once in a while we have doubts about ourselves. About how we are perceived, what others think about us and especially about what is being said when we are not in the room. May it be, because we want people to like us or appreciate our work, we ultimately seek to build relationships, friendships and true bonds. It is not surprising that this is exactly the same for most major companies. Their ultimate aim is to successfully build strong and rewarding relationships with their customers. The brand around a company and their products is not only their knowledge, their outstanding quality or their extraordinary service. It needs all those small components of the puzzle to tell a coherent story to the customers and make a person wish to be connected to the brand. If you tell an intriguing story people call for an experience with you. In this modern – so competitive – industry this cannot be left happen by chance. The strategic approach to build Brand Equity and analytical methods needed to measure the impact is part of my studies at VIA Design. With the following pages of my portfolio I would like to emphasis my input and knowledge I gained as a student at VIA University.
Design Portfolio assignment The design assignment was chosen for this portfolio because I learned about the process which designers are going through and I acquired new skills which later I found useful when developing a brand identity. Our assignment for this class was to choose a target group, describe it and then, to create a collection for it or a billboard as a communication tool. Therefore, I learned how to make a mind map and create a persona, mood and lifestyle board. This process was made to achieve the last part of our assignment which was to create Design Portfolio. I decided to create two billboards and used and practice with Photoshop to create few style looks based on my target group, trend and colours. - https://issuu.com/julio813/docs/design-project
Innovation project The purpose of this project was to develop a concept, product, campaign to raise money for charity and create awareness towards worldwide suffering areas. The foundation this task was mend for was Dan Church. I and my group mates truly believed that innovation, commitment and passion could make a change in the world and that is why we developed an approach that would accomplish our goal. Our idea was a charity campaign called “Feed the world”, based on mutual collaboration between the Danish organic food-selling brand Urtekram and Dan Church Aid. My part was to create new spices tin’s
designs, each one representing different continent Asia, Africa and South America plus a webpage to support the campaign purpose. From this project I learned how to develop my creative work in order to make an innovative idea look realistic. It gave me very good practice and knowledge of how to write appealing slogans as well as practical use of models and all the steps throughout developing idea from start to an end. Last but not least I gained more experience by learning and using different branding theories and strategies.
Concept Development This subject was based on understanding about the components of a successful development over an idea, strategically design and development company‘s product concepts and visual identity. During this subject we had a lot of creative work which I enjoyed and lots of different assignments which helped us to start think more visual about details, and how best to express and implement our ideas and feelings as a concept development. With the use of Photoshop and Illustrator, our tasks were really challenging and interesting to work with and at the end it enriched my knowledge and skills in visual communication at connecting image and text in one for creating more emotional and appealing touch point with my audience. All this served as a great knowledge later on when my task in the group assignment was to create logo and make the design of our Brandbook Manual as the font and design I had to choose was supposed to reflect our brand values and DNA, therefore I had to research and practice a lot which only broaden my skill and knowledge in that field of work. - https://issuu.com/julio813/docs/brand_book_rcm To summarize, because of the new creative and practical knowledge obtained throughout this course I find it much easier to develop my ideas and product concept and therefore to be pleased with my work results.
Branding Analysis and Strategy This is one of the main subjects of the Branding & Marketing Management course at VIA Design. The lectures were based on the Strategic Brand Management by K.L.Keller and aligned all activities on building, growing and sustaining brand equity. With contemporary approaches and references to additional reading such as J.N.Kapferer I was provided with a broad array of perspectives. Furthermore, the lectures considered the historical development of brands and the impact of economic events on their development. Thoughts and theories from the sociologic field as well insights of cultural & ethical studies provided new considerations and topics for discussion on given tasks and real life cases. By this moment I learned different branding strategies and models such the use of celebrities, Guerrilla marketing, viral marketing, shocking advertising etc. , David Aaker’s brand equity model, Strategic Design Practice – 5F model, CBBE model and how to use them in different tasks or projects. Brands not just appear after night, you need to analyse a lot, to think not just about the product, but also about the customers, about the way you want your brand to be perceived. Therefore, I feel that I have gained a lot of knowledge while attending to this course, and I am really looking forward to see the results further in my BA studies or working career.
First-Year Exam For this exam we had group and individual work to do. As an assignment we were given to work with a Youth Mode case and implement it into already existing brand or develop a new one. With my group we created a new company called Bike’n’Roll for customized bikes in a workshop place in the hearth of Copenhagen. Our Bike’n’Roll shop was aiming to turn-on people’s Youth Mode and create awareness to our business concept, unique own designed bikes and new biking experience. This kind of awareness I was able to create by connecting with people of all ages using inspiring visuals, triggering their need and desire for creativity and differentiation. This motivated me to develop our mission and vision, catchy slogans, posters and flyers (https://issuu.com/julio813/docs/images) and a Brand Lookbook (https://issuu.com/julio813/docs/bikenroll) that to be used as a tools for our visual communication strategy. To be able to design visual communication tools, which are motivational and should create attention/awareness, I firstly developed and used Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism (https://issuu.com/julio813/docs/identity_prism) as a foundation and inspirational source for choosing text, images, colours and structure.
Luxury Marketing Luxury is entirely different proposition and require a very specific approach. That is why this course is very important. During this course we were introduced to essence of luxury, explained luxury management and difference between regular marketing methods and strategies and the ones used in luxury. During this course we had to work on one assignment step by step, while learning about luxury. Each group had to analyse one luxury brand and its marketing strategies. My group chose the luxury brand Missoni and analysed the brand identity using the NAV method, advertisement strategy, press coverage and define the Missoni woman code. To support our analysis, we visited multiple mono brand stores and conducted several interviews with the company employees and several customers. The investigation also included analysis of previous collections or how Missoni Artistic Director created value through the Defiles. From this course I gained knowledge about Luxury Market and Luxury Marketing Strategies. Also, I developed an understanding on the critical importance of brand image and it's communication in Luxury world. Missoni Presentation: https://issuu.com/julio813/docs/missoni_modart_youlian_tzenkin___al
Sustainability Project This interdisciplinary project of the 4th semester has been especially meaningful to me as I have done extensive research on sustainability within the fashion industry. This project and the lectures that were put in place to support the development of sustainable business solution as the aim of the 3 week project have been giving insights into issues that are relating to sustainability and the environmental impact especially within the fashion industry. Within a group of 5 students from speciality covering Design, Purchasing, Branding & Marketing and Retail Management we set out to determine an existing problem of a business in order to apply our understanding and skills to introduce sustainable approaches as a possible solution. Having conducted research concerning questionable behaviour in regards to sustainability within the fashion industry we have decided to create new brand concept based on the idea of re-designing second hand clothes from used garments, and boost consumer consciousness towards the pollution we generate while producing new materials and new garments. Also, the awareness towards unfair production, the short usage of fast fashion and waste. This kind of awareness can be created by connecting with people of all ages using inspiring visuals, triggering their need and desire for creativity and differentiation together with the extended value of doing good for the mother Earth. Thus motivated me to develop a brand identity in terms of company description, mission, vision, catchy slogans, posters, flyers and other nudging technics that were used as a tools for our visual communication strategy. - https://issuu.com/julio813/docs/sustainability_project_visuals
Copenhagen is world famous for its biking culture and now officially the first Bike City in the World. It was also voted the ‘Best city for cyclists’ and the ‘World’s most liveable city’. The Danes are well known for their love of cycling and cities all around the world are now looking at ways to copy this phenomenon. Even though you’re not required to use a helmet in Denmark, it’s always a good idea to cycle with one, especially if you are on a cycling holiday with your friends or children. Though Denmark is one of the safest places to cycle in, the last thing you want is to finish your holiday with a concussion or worse. Therefore, thousands of Danes are wearing helmets every day, but still the country represent a great market potential for building a brand specialized on selling helmets and promoting a cycling safety experience as based on statistics of the Cycling embassy of Denmark in bigger cities only 27% of all cyclists wear a helmet. Nevertheless, a big disadvantage represents the majority of competitors and the big diversity of existing product options. On the other hand the biggest advantage is the vast amount of bicycle users, therefore if a brand develop attractive helmet products with competitive advantage on the unique design it will be possible to overcome the mentioned disadvantages and create strong brand equity by making its products memorable, easily recognizable and superior in terms of customer’s value and uniqueness. That’s why my idea is to stimulate the use of helmets by creating a workshop for customized and personalised helmets for even more joyful and stylish cycling experience. The workshop shop will be opened in the crowded streets of Copenhagen. From the outside, people will be amazed by the creative, colourful and innovative activity happening looking through the store windows: where creative, happy people are designing a simple helmets with new original patterns for creative mind owners. By getting inside the store, people will perceive a creative atmosphere that will be turning on the freedom to express themselves. They can come with their own helmet, their own idea and exit the store with original and unique style. If they have an idea for their helmet, but not the talent to do it themselves, shop personnel can help them, so thus will make no one of being afraid to come along with their helmet so to be customized. The shop will come with promise that the design people pick for their helmet will not be used again, their unique design and idea will leave the store together with them. If they don’t have a helmet, there will be plenty of already customized helmets to choose from in the store and also, numerous of other accessories. If customers decide on their design, but like the store they will be feel free to stay and enjoy the customer’s lounge part! The shop will have a sitting area with cool music playing, where customers can relax, connect with new people, while enjoying some snacks and drinks from the shop vending machines.
Mind Map Sketch:
Inspirational video as part of my research and idea generation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLDDC2AD5FBB888D72&v=ZgxvbXajqdM Facts about cycling in Denmark: http://www.cycling-embassy.dk/
17% of adult males and 36% of adult females use a bicycle to get to and from a work or education site. 45% of all Danish children bike to school. 17,500 cyclists are treated at the hospital each year from cycle-related injuries. 33 cyclists were killed in 2013. 70% of the accidents involving cyclists are single-cyclist accidents. In bigger cities 27% of all cyclists wear a helmet 2 out of 3 children under age 11 use helmets.
The Copenhagen Post reported in November, 2009 that a failed attempt to pass a Danish law requiring helmets for those under 12 was being revived after evidence surfaced that the proportion of Danish cyclists arriving at emergency rooms with head injuries was declining as helmet use there has increased to about one in six cyclists. Short Research: http://www.cyklistforbundet.dk/Alt-om-cykling/Cykling/Sikkerhed/Hvorfor-koere-med-hjelm There are many arguments for and against the helmet. Cyclists' Federation is opposed to an injunction, but they recommend that you as a cyclist use a helmet. Danish Cyclist Federation recommends the use of a helmet. They think it is common sense to ride with a helmet. Their base include the AAIB recommendation and various international studies that a helmet protects your head: "Bicycle helmets can reduce head injuries and in some cases mean the difference between life and death." This is the conclusion from the Danish Accident Investigation Board on the basis of a study of bicycle accidents. Each year ends about 1,600 cyclists in the emergency room because they have turned heads. Drove all with helmets could half the damage will be avoided, and every year would 5-10 killed cyclists still be alive if everyone ran with helmet. More and more are using a helmet, and it can be seen in the statistics. Read more at http://www.sikkertrafik.dk/raad-og-viden/paa-cykel/cykelhjelm#Pm1uYbigVHv3jziT.99
To support my idea generation a quiestionare was conducted to analyse customers behaviour or what is the reason if people are not wearing helmets, what is most important if should buy one and thus the idea of uniquely designed helmets could serve as a motivation for increasing the use of helmets while cycling. The survey was handle trough www.surveymonkey.com and reached the maximum of 100 responses 1 Q. Do you use a bicycle helmet? 8% answered Yes and 92% answered No 2 Q. If you were to buy a helmet what will you focus on? Almost 50% pointed Design as main focus 3 Q. If you don't use a helmet the reason would be? 37% said not stylish and 34% said not comfortable 4 Q. If you could customize your helmet, would you use one or use it more often? 38% of people would buy one and 22% of people who have one said they will then use it more often 5 Q. What is your age? Here 70% of the people answered are of age between 15 and 25 years old Analysis: Based on those stats it is clear that this market holds huge potential and the main focus for engaging and inspiring people to wear helmets more often and increase the purchase of them should be on the design as well on comfort. - https://issuu.com/julio813/docs/survey_helmets_use_denmark Trends analysis: How many wear helmets in urban traffic in Denmark (2015):
Under 11 years: 80%
From 11 to 15 years: 43%
From 16 to 25 years: 17%
From 26 to 60 years: 31%
Over 60 years: 24%
Source: http://www.sikkertrafik.dk/raad-og-viden/paa-cykel/cykelhjelm#hzeXHePvGoD4xFIw.99 Based on the survey and the official Danish statistic above for a helmet’s brand again can be clear that there is marketing niche and the target audience is mainly the population between 16 to 25 years old and those from 26 and up. Analyse of Danish cycle culture: Copenhagen is a big place. It’s packing a population of over 580,000 people just in Copenhagen proper, with an overall population in the urban and metropolitan area of just below 2 million. In other words, there are a lot of people there. So, exactly how many of them are cyclists?
55% of the (applicable) citizens cycle to work or school. For the record, that means there are more people cycling to work/school in JUST Copenhagen than there are people doing that in the entire USA. That’s right, this one city has more bicycle commuters than a country with a population 160 times bigger.
36% of all trips to work or school are taken on a bicycle. Out of all the times people in Copenhagen have gone to school or gone to work, 36% of those times, they did so on a bike.
58% of school-aged children cycle to school, meaning that cycling, which is already a huge part of Copenhagen’s society, is going to continue to grow as cycling becomes a part of people’s lives from a very early age.
63% of the members of Parliament cycle to their job daily.
Recently there has been an emotional advertising campaign in Denmark to promote helmet wearing. Bicycle advocates claim that the use of bicycles has declined by 5% as a result. The website Copenhagenize.com includes an article entitled Helmets or health? Which is very critical of the pro-helmet campaign, saying that bicycle helmets "should be a private matter and a personal choice" - and that helmet promotion and legislation "are the greatest threats to bicycle culture since the dawn of the automobile age." Therefore enforcing people to wear helmets represents a threat that could not only lead to the decline of bicycle users, but also to a rebellion of more people to stop using helmets at all. Going after the idea that wearing a helmet should be a private matter and personal choice thus this represents an opportunity for a brand concept that will not focus to promote the necessity of using a helmet, but simply create awareness on the possibility to make your own unique design and personalised helmets. That type of product can change the bicycle user’s mind-set and create greater customer value and motivate more people to wear their pretty bike armour, therefore have new cooler cycling adventures. Future opportunity for to acquire and engage more people to wear helmets can be the creation of capsule and limited edition collections in collaboration with local tattoo or graffiti artists. Furthermore, there is a lot of cool places and a lot of events happening in Denmark. Copenhagen is a big city with a lot of shops and festivals, but still is not the only community where everything is happening. Therefore, after establish a good brand equity in the capital some pop ups could be open all over the country during different events to let everyone know about the shop and brand concept. Competitors: On the central map of Copenhagen there are 27 bike shops, just few of them offer designer bikes, some them are supermarkets that have a large selection of bikes and accessories, the rest are working bike shops for repairs and sales. Some are small shops that concentrate on repairs, some are larger with a bigger selection of bikes to buy, but none of them have any designed helmets or personalized product solutions for helmets. The only direct competitor shop is Yakkay (http://www.yakkay.com/). Their concept is similar as they use simple coloured helmets and offer people the possibility to cover them with fashionable hats and transform them into more chic design as a solution for cycling. If we can look into their concept for helmets as a point of parity, it still limits the creativity for the customer. Therefore, a competitive advantage and point of difference is that my brand concept is focused on developing and creating your own product with drawing and handcraft techniques, with the possibility of help from the workshop personnel. Another solution is to purchase from the pre customized helmets from the shop, but no matter the case, all with the guarantee and promise that your helmet and unique design won’t be used and found elsewhere.
When building a new brand identity one of the first steps is always to choose a cool name. What's in a name? A lot, when it comes to your business success. The right name can make your company the talk of the town. The wrong one can doom it to obscurity and failure. Ideally, your name should convey the expertise, value and uniqueness of the product or service you have developed. It should reinforce the key elements of your business. Your work in developing a niche and a mission statement will help you pinpoint the elements you want to emphasize in your name. This is how ‘Doodly Bike Hat’ workshop shop was born! Based on the previous analysis, statistic and findings I created a brand name that is catchy and playful, company intro, mission and vision that are inspirational, motivational and correspond to the needs and preferences of the defined target group of people between the age of 15 and 25 years old, for more hip and beautifully designed helmets. Intro: We created ‘Doodly Bike Hat’. It’s a helmets customization workshop-shop where all the magic is happening. We took this step to turn on your hip spirit and give life to your ideas and explore your creativity. In our shop you will discover a friendly and artistic atmosphere, where you’ll be able to find everything you need for your custom helmet project including pre-customised helmets, drawing and handcrafting materials, and also specially helmet patterns collection for your new biking experience. WE SIMPLY WANT TO HELP YOU CREATE MAGIC WITH YOUR HANDS Vision: We want to turn on your creative spirit and empower you with crafted designed products and the right materials for to create unique helmets and increase the pleasure of your riding experience. Mission: ‘Doodly Bike Hat’ have been born out of the idea to give individuals more freedom trough new cycling experience. We have made it our mission to turn on the Danes Creative Mode, we believe that there is an artist in each one of you. Being different isn’t always a lonely journey; it can be a group activity. Therefore at ‘Doodly Bike Hat’ we are all as family and you are always welcome to join us. With your help we want to put a smile on people’s faces by filling the streets with creative art, unique design, happiness and zest. We want you to be the artist and our workshop to be your canvas! Choose the design of your helmet, ride around the city and fill your journey with some colour and joy! Communication channels: Further step for ‘Doodly Bike Hat’ is to create awareness, acquire and engage customers by connecting with them at the right media platforms. A report on Danes' media use in 2014 shows that streaming services are quickly growing and younger people are using Facebook less and other social media platforms more (http://www.thelocal.dk/). Nevertheless, ‘The Local’ says Denmark is still a nation of Facebook lovers, but Snapchat and Instagram are beginning to catch up. When it comes to social media, Facebook is still by far the king with 3.5 million monthly users. The number of Danes using Facebook daily has grown from 55 percent in 2013 to 59 percent in 2014, but the growth is primarily down to users over the age of 30. Younger users’ were on Facebook a bit less in 2014 than the year before but are not leaving the service altogether. Instead, they are using Facebook less frequently than before while using other social media more often. Snapchat is particularly popular among young Danes, being used daily by half of all 12 to 19-year-olds and a fourth of all 20 to 29-year-olds. Across all age groups, 890,000 Danes now use Snapchat – a whopping 77 percent increase over 2013. Instagram has also experienced rapid growth. Some 770,000 Danes were monthly users of the photo-sharing service last year, representing a 55 percent increase over 2013.
As a workshop show ‘Doodly Bike Hat’ wants to create more human traffic and more people to come stay, spend time in the shop and actively post photos on Instagram or Snapchat. Therefore at this stage the brand won’t have a website, but only a Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat accounts. Facebook will mainly represent the customer relationship touch point, where people can ask question and share and discuss their helmets design ideas. In Facebook the brand can post newly design helmets photos and share info about events, sales, promotions, games, competitions or other news and interesting facts. Instagram account will be as a product gallery used so to create more awareness for the brand and its unique concept and services. Moreover a hashtag #mydoodlybikehat will be made, so when people share and upload photos of their own doodly bike helmets designs on Instagram, will create even stronger brand equity. Last but not least a Snapchat account will be done in order to create stronger connection with the customers by daily sharing photos or videos from the workshop.
Logo Design:
Flyer Design: