Portfolio Youlian Tzenkin 222152 (dibm2a814) by Youlian Tzenkin

About me

About me My name is Youlian Tzenkin, I was born on 16th of July, 1984, Sofia, Bulgaria. After I finished high school in 2003, I took BA in Economic Management at New Bulgarian University, Sofia. Later in 2011, I moved to Denmark and completed 5 semesters of International Communication and Multimedia at Aarhus University, Herning. In August 2014 I started my studies in Branding and Marketing Management at VIA Design University Collage, Herning. At this moment, I am finishing my AP degree in Branding and Marketing Management. Therefore, I would like to share my experiences, projects and reflections of all the work which I have been doing during my two years. In this portfolio I would like to emphasis my input and knowledge I gained as a student at VIA University. My portfolio is divided into 4 sections, my work during the first till the fourth semester.

Contact Birk Centerpark 163A, 7400 Herning Tel: +45 50 10 62 88 Email: 222152@via.dk

Introduction 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 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; so competitive â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 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.

1st Semester

Discovery project

Discovery project was the first assignment at VIA College University.

This project was highly challenging for me, due to the fact that I never had proper knowledge about fashion design. The hard part was to keep the working process as a group not as individuals. I realized that this project was as an opportunity that VIA University gave us to understand what is a group work, how to manage all the work together, how important it is not to be individual person but to be part of a group of people who is responsible for each other and how much we can learn from one another.

The assignment was to choose a list of designers in order to analyze and describe their design DNA and to make creative and well prepared presentation with our illustrative findings.

We made a lot of research and analyzed previous collections before choosing our main designer - Alexander McQueen.

Together with the end of this project I realized that the studying environment and methodology differs from what I was used to before and that methods used in this project were helpful in order to achieve our final results. So, this projects served as a great start for my upcoming studies.

Ideation Project My decision to use this project in my portfolio is based on my experience on how much effort people have to put in order to make one simple exhibition stand and line of apparel. The purpose of this project was to create a line of apparel for our chosen nonapparel company. We also had to create marketing plan, logistics and purchasing plans and show all the calculation for the product consumption. In other words, we had to create a report where we showed all the processes we had been going through and afterwards ''sell'' our idea along with creating stand for this product.

We chose the macaroons brand "LadurĂŠe", which symbolize the French luxury code and sweetness combined with the art of French living. LadurĂŠe is French elegance, luxury and history. LadurĂŠe is authentic and sophisticated and that is why we created a lingerie line that we think reflex in the best way all of those things that the brand DNA combine. This project was challenging for me because we had a lot of thing to do in short time, so it demanded proper time planning. Therefore, I learned how to schedule all work in order to finish products on time. Also, I acquire more knowledge from other students within different specialties.

This project was special for me because even though we had a lot of problems by doing this work, I learned a lot and we managed to solve all problems together, and that is why at the end we achieved the best possible results.

Design assignment The design assignment was chosen for this portfolio because I learned a lot and I would like to share my experience from it. In one hand, I was excited about this class because I wanted to learn more about the process which designers are going through and the creative part of this session. On the other hand, it was a big challenge for me because I had to draw, what was very hard for me. 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. In order to create the target group we had to make our mind map and imagine what that person look like, what is his/her job, hobbies, wall drop, activities, etc. Other step was to create mood board and lifestyle board in order to get an idea what kind of lifestyle our targeted market segment prefer to choose. Furthermore, we had to express our findings and ideas by sketching or with Photoshop and Illustrator. Also, we had to make our color card in order to get more information about our target. This process was made to achieve the last part of our assignment which was to create Design Portfolio. The hardest task for me was sketching. As I mentioned before, I am not good at drawing, but the teacher was very nice and helpful. She provided us with very good and useful guidance for sketch and design a collection, but even though I decided to create three billboards and simply use Photoshop to create few style looks based on my target group, trend and colors. All this challenges I had to face and all the new knowledge gained from this assignment gave me understanding how much designers have to work in order to create something beautiful and authentic. Even thought, this assignment was more individual all people in my class became more closely related than before as we were all helping each other, exchanged ideas and work together a lot in class.

2nd Semester

Innovation project The purpose of this project was to work in groups from three to six students on innovative business planning and also prepare us for our first year exam. 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. Their effort are put into assisting the world’s poorest to lead a life in dignity and their aid is given regardless of race, creed, and political or religious affiliation.

Me 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 foodselling brand Urtekram and Dan Church Aid in the form of a new spices tin’s designs, each one representing different continent Asia, Africa and South America. The price of the newly designed tins would be slightly more expensive as this difference would come from the money we wished to get as a profit with charity purpose and this is how the financial contribution would be made. Even thought, we had just three weeks for this project and we had a lot of work, we made a lot of research and creative work in order to make our innovative idea look realistic. It gave me very good practice and knowledge of how to write synopses as well as different models and 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.

Subjects

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. At one of our assignments "Framing" (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=OSE40eqd_aY) we had to choose a piece of music that demonstrates the energy, voice, feeling that our concept should have. In 1st semester I worked with different types of image boards, but in this exercise I had to find and create one picture-a backdrop- that summarizes my group concept. I have significant knowledge in Photoshop and Illustrator, but this task was really challenging and interesting to work with and at the end it enriched my knowledge and skills in visual communication at connecting image and sound in one for creating more emotional and appealing touch point with my audience. Later on, what really captured my attention was the lecture about typography – where I did not expected that this topic can be so interesting and essential for a brander. I have had work, researched and play before in my assignments and projects with fonts, but this time we were introduced a lot deeper at the importance and significance of good font design and typography in any business concept development. All this served as a great knowledge later on when my task in the group was to create logo and make the design of our Brandbook 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. Furthermore, working with our Fabulous Fashionistas assignment for this class where we have to define a target group, analyze and research their triggers, create values and an appealing visual communication and touch points by designing and executing our idea in the best possible way. Here for that purpose Mary our teacher introduces us to the Pain& Gain model which helped us with data for our customer’s problems and needs and what we as product planners need to solve and Brand Identity work sheet to define our brand ID in terms of mission, vision, positioning, mantra, tone of voice etc. Finally, thanks to Mary showing us the www.realtimeboard.com, me and my fellow students find very useful and interactive way to communicate, brainstorm and be active group members even from home. 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.

Marketing Management This subject was from one side about understanding the connection and interaction between a company and a customer, the process by which companies create value for their customers and build strong customer relationships to capture value from customers in return. Second, focus was put on how companies create competitive advantage by analyzing their competitors and strategically position themselves on the market.

By this moment we have been introduced to various theories such as POD and POP (Points of Difference and Points of Parity) , Porter’s four basic positioning strategies, BMC model, SWOT analysis, Marketing Mix (the 4 P’s) and various more methods. To clearly understand and be able to use all the mentioned theories, modes and method our teacher Gitte was using different cases, videos and assignments to work with. Few cases we had were to analyze ASOS and ZARA which showed us how a company can effectively use the POD and POP in its business and build up strong competitive advantages, strong marketing position, customer’s loyalty and values. We also had the Jägermeister group presentation where have to use and implement most of the theories and models already presented to us. Tasks given were to analyze company online and offline marketing tools, POD, define and analyze the company target market, position mapping and marketing mix, company life cycle, SWOT and at the end give recommendations for future marketing strategy based on our conclusions and findings. Having an assignment like that was not only useful for me for understanding and working with the marketing theories and models, but was a great preparation for my future studies and work. Thanks to all exercises I had in class, I become well prepared and more confident how, where and when to use them. For our final exam and written assignment we also had to practice and develop either in class or in our group sessions a Business Module Canvas plan, SWOT analysis, position and a marketing mix strategy for the product/brand we were working within Concept Development. This relationship between both subjects was very helpful for me, because increased my practical and theoretical knowledge and also enlighten me about the thin symbiosis between the marketing and creative design part of each business and how everything works in reality. Finally, I want to empathize that the teacher was totally involved and prepared for each class as she was always sending us emails to read each new chapter and also before each class one or more students had to make an overall description of the last lecture. Thanks to this method I could understand better the correlation between each chapter, and get deeper understanding of the subjects.

Branding Analysis and Strategy As in the first semester I was just introduced with the term and learnt just a few theories about branding, in the second semester I acquired a deeper insight into this subject. This class focus was to provide us with deeper knowledge and skills about brand analysis and development and teach us how to adapt appropriate branding strategies to different cases. Therefore, 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 projects and how everything is working in the real business world. Moreover, in this class we had a lot of examples based on our teacher experiences, various videos, games, exercises and even experiments which I think it was very useful tool for our clear understanding of all branding theories. Further, as I mention above we had been practicing with different branding models and methods by which I learned how to use them and adapt them in future to my either study or later real working assignments. The most significant for me was the CBBE or the Keller's Brand Equity Model. To better understand and be able to use it, Paul gave us a group assignment were we had to use the brand resonance pyramid in relation to Vodka Absolut and how they build their strong brand. This exercise was extremely useful for me in terms of working and learning how to analyze brand’s equity. I find it very relevant to use in my future as a brander and student as the model serves as a great tool that in four steps represents four fundamental questions that your customers will ask about your brand. By applying the framework to any brand it can help you see the customer’s perspective and strengthen it. To conclude, I am really impressed to find out how important branding is as 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 studies and working career.

Study Skills This subject was to improve our skill in studies which is very important for each student because being aware of the problembased learning helped me realize that even if you have a good method to learn (taking notes, doing schemes, reading from more than one source, researching and brainstorming) you should avoid the exterior noise while studying. We had just few classes of this subject, but what and most important I learned was how to correctly create a problem statement. I also gained knowledge and abilities how to carry out credible research using a range of quantitative and qualitative techniques, analyze data and present the results. Moreover we had to handle in a 5 pages written assignment on a topic of our choice. As these days the Company Social Responsibility (CSR) is a buzz topic and H&M is a brand I follow and like as a customer, I decide to investigate their CSR values, activities. I follow all requirements for content, methodology and research methods, include all my references and analyze my findings. This assignment was useful for me not only as a practice for avoiding plagiarism, plan and structure my writing and how to conduct quantitative & qualitative research, but what was most interesting to learn was how CSR works and means, find examles of different company CSR activites and strategies and different chanels of how the companies to communicate its CSR values and why. As and overall, this course introduce me to new knowledge that will enable me to write course and exam assignments, reports, dissertations and plans in a clear and concise manner which I believe is crucial tool for being a good branding and marketing student and later as a company employee.

Macroeconomics 1

This course was really helpful because it gave me an insight into macroeconomics terms that I did not used and investigated before. What I like at those classes is that we were discussing a lot as the teacher were putting a lot of questions and he was usually giving us time to think about everything. I consider this a good way to make the students pay attention at your course and be interested in the topics. Furthermore, he introduce as to a great study website www.khanacademy.org where all the Macroecomincs theories were explained in video lessons which for me was a great way to learn and repeat our lectures at home.

To strengthen our understanding of the theories and to obtain practical knowledge we had to present a final assignement about Greece Crysis, where we had to analyze the situation in the country from a fiscal policy perspective, explain some of the reasons why Greece is in this crisis today and to chose what fiscal or monetary policies should be implement in Greece to help their economy recover. Thanks to this assignement and course, I learnt what macroeconomics means, how it functions and that it deals with: unemployment, inflation, balance of payment and distribution of wealth (the country and government decisions). I consider this course essential as I have the opportunity to learn about economic indicators that can help me make better decisions while working in a company. Having knowledge about this field will make me work much more easier knowing what economic factors to look for and deal with.

Business Economics 1 My reflection of this subjects is that I learned a lot about macro and business economics, and working with Microsoft Excel. During this classes I gained knowledge about economics theories, factors and figures, what is elasticity of demand which measures how the quantity demanded changes given a change in the price. Generally speaking, increases in price lead to a fall in demand, and viceversa. The demand elasticity gives a measure of how much it is likely to change. The more price sensitive consumers are, the more likely they are to stop buying a product if the price increases, and therefore the higher the elasticity. A good example is Coca Cola brand and how brand loyalty's effects on elasticity. The effect of brand loyalty essentially makes goods less easy to substitute. Although there are many substitute drinks for Coke, including other colas, the brand loyalty it holds means that people will still buy it even if it is at a higher price. Therefore, if Coke were to increase their price by 10%, it may suffer a fall in sales, but this would be a lot smaller a fall in sales than an unbranded cola that lacks customer loyalty. In effect, it would be less elastic. For me as a brander was very useful to understand that essentially, the higher the brand loyalty, the less likely an increase in price will lead to a consumer leaving the product because they feel it is harder to substitute. This was a useful knowledge as now I know that as higher the brand equity as higher the elasticity and the other way around. Further, we practiced to calculate financial ratios, read, understand and create supply and demand curves in Excel, we had exercises with marginal utility and demand survey results and curves and last we worked with sales forecast, analyzing the data and put it into chart. Our sales forecasting exercise used past figures to predict short-term increase in annual sales and to recommend longrun marketing strategy for fur Coats Company. It was a tricky job, because so many different factors can affect future sales: change in seasons, changing trends and fashions, industry average and other factors. I learn how to make the right calculations to find the total increase of sales and that without sales forecasts, for a future branding and marketing expert like me will be very difficult to steer any company in the right direction. I wouldn't know that the spring and summer are always the slowest season, so not to invest too much in inventory that would just sit on the shelves. I wouldn't pay attention to industry analysts who predict a robust growth in holiday sales, and I would lose potential customers to the competition, which doubled its holiday sales force and marketing campaigns.

Elective: Writing for Fashion Websites The purpose of this course, was thought us how to write short and catchy texts for fashion & lifestyle websites using a practical approach to the English language. In total we had to write three different articles and get feedback from the teacher and the class for each one. Teacher gave us tips and internet sources in how to write for the Internet. For each article depend on the topic and the media we decide to write for we had to think and research fonts and images that communicates in best with our audience. By the end of the elective I manage to find my own writing voice and learned new techniques such as writing in small chunks, keep the reader interested with the use of humour and metaphors, be specific and follow the words limit and learning how best to combine words and images. My general reflection of this course was that one to be a fashion journalist requires great skill of writing and language vocabulary, a deeper research on topics and knowledge in the various fields. As a branding and marketing student I like and I am interested in all forms of verbal and digital communication strategies, but I don’t see myself writing websites content or create a blog. Even though, the elective was definitely a valuable experience and the knowledge I obtained I can easily use when creating marketing campaigns for creating short, motivational, and catchy or emotional texts.

Elective: Why Design Thinking Why design thinking course aimed to teach us how to provide creative & innovative solutions to difficult problems. Here once again we were introduced and strengthen our knowledge about BMC model, Strategic Design Practice 5F model and various different techniques of for creating innovative design or business concepts. In the beginning of our lectures we were divided by our Belbin profiles and personal characteristic so to form two different groups of mixed experts. The assignment we had to work with was to choose some global or local environmental issue, create problem statement and fabricate solution prototypes. After hot debate and brainstorming we all agreed on a topic and made a problem statement or more specific “How can we innovate the food packaging in supermarkets to make it sustainable without the use of plastic”. The process was long with answering 5 steps question and fundamentals for any design thinking. Quantitative and qualitative research were conducted and then based on our findings we concluded that the solution of the problem lied deeper than we thought so what first had to be done was to change people mind-set by dragging attention to the problem. Therefore we create a shock-awareness campaign and lunched a petition as a first and fundamental step to solve this global issue. This elective was interesting, really fun and educational for me as first I learn new methods of finding solutions to problems that I can apply not only to my projects, but also to my real life. Find customer’s true needs and aspirations was fun as we had to conduct survey and have real conversation with people so that we had very good time, but also get practical knowledge about field research. Finally once again as a branding and marketing student I had to use all my creativity and knowledge to create the most strategic approach, communication and visual campaign to achieve the best results. I was very happy to get really nice and positive feedback from our teacher as he was always very critical and demanding so at the end this really boosted my confidence and ensure me that I have clearly understand the assignment and learned how to use the models and theories he introduced to us.

3rd Semester

Exchange student in Paris At the end of my first year at VIA Design University College, Denmark, I was feeling overwhelmed as I had a priceless experience, but also I was looking forward of going to my exchange and trying a totally new and different culture by traveling to another foreign country. Therefore my expectations from an-other semester abroad, especially from Paris, France was to boost up my knowledge level about high fashion. This was a valuable occasion to discover a different fashion segment, “luxurious fashion”, in France, because it is one of the leading pioneers in the luxury fashion. The reasons stated above, together with my addiction to fashion and desires to work and developed within this in-dustry, leaded me to Mod’ Art International Paris, as well as my ambition to get knowledge and experience in the true heart and the Mecca city of the fashion world. Studying AP Degree in Branding and Marketing, Mod’Art International Paris was the best option I can aspire for, as it offers Fashion Luxury Manage-ment program, which VIA Design UC lacks. This course encouraged me in terms of developing a global vision of Luxurious Fashion trade and management, as well as enhance the techniques and methods of management with respect to undergoing massive changes in the fashion industry. Also, I was able to follow business subjects, but with a noticeable focus on fashion in comparison with VIA. From this exchange, I gain lots of new ideas and study inspirations, new theoretical and practical knowledge, plus I got advices and connections for a broader overview about the world of fashion as a business and professional growth.

Luxury & Fashion Brand Marketing The key task of this subject was to teach us how the luxury and great brands are created. In order to do that we first had to learn how to identify all the brand elements or shortly work with Brand ID. At the beginning I thought it would be simply repetition of what we have already worked in VIA and that will be similar to the Brand DNA, but I was wrong and not entirely. This course just went further in debt with brand research and investigation. We were introduced how to define the Brand Identity by starting with its NAV (Narratives, Aesthetics and Values) or by defining all the key elements of a brand, its 4 P's , images, quotes about the brand, defiles, using Kapferer Brand Iden-tity Model and many others. Our main project was to choose a luxury brand and make a presentation of it with all the brand luxury codes that defines it. I and my partner chose Missoni. It was not easy, but very interesting task as we conducted not only a reading research, but a field one too. After we went through brand history and founding of the brand iconic identity, we had to define the Missoni woman code or who are the women choosing to wear the brand. Therefore we have visited multiple mono brand stores and conducted several interviews with the company employees and customers to finally gather all the information we needed. The investigation included as well analysis of previous collections or how Missoni Artistic Director created value through the Defile, we get through last 30 years marketing campaigns and photo visual and last but not least all Missoni brand extensions, line extension, collaborations and future projects. What this subject gave me was another theoretical, but also more practical approach of how to identify brand codes, how to work with them so in further to be able to design the right campaign, text or anything a brand would require. This happens by making sure that whatever you do, your work will be reflection of the Brand Identity, that you can constantly and consistently implement the brand identity. I learn that as better you get to know a brand values, codes, NAV, history and all that makes the brand great, as easy it would be for me as a Brand Marketing person to create the right tools to support them.

History of Fashion Without second thoughts the most interesting subject at my exchange semester was History of Fashion. The teacher Xavier Chaumette was a person with great knowledge and practical experience of the fashion industry. He took us on an exploration trip of decades and timelines in the history where great designers were born, new fashion movements were created and revolutions were started. At this subject there were nothing theoretical as models or books to read, but we simply followed the life cycle and the evolution of fashion. Main focus took 19th and 20th century with the start of the indus-trial and textile revolution, going through the history of French Hauth Couture and introducing us to the last century and generation of fashion designers and artistic directors. With focusing on 19th century we got to know when was the first department store build, first sewing machine invented, the start of pattern making, the use of fashion as a social status and reflection of wealth and stability, the beginning of ready to wear and fashion commerce. Following a history line we enter 20th century with the beginning of the lingerie, new accessories lines, first flat shoes, first per-fumes in Haute Couture, etc. We studied the life and work of great designers such as Paul Poiret, Cha-nel, Jean Patou and more who started and worked before and after WWI as this is the period when we simplified our wall drop with the beginning of the tailoring suit for women, trouser, sports clothes, and exceptional clothes. It can be characterized as a time of progress and emancipation -> revolution and when the Western fashion became a model of world fashion -> Globalization. The last lessons fol-lowed the world of Fashion after WWII and the beginning of the consumer society. We took overview of the life and work of other great designer such as Dior, YSL, Courage , P. Cardin, St. Lauren and more. We followed the foundation of the fashion industry as we know it right now with the creation of the first Trend Office in 1966 and first fashion show in 1972, first fashion mall, etc. Apart from the history incitement about the fashion world with this course I also learn how and why fashion influence the society and how simple things as the everyday garments could have significant impacts in our life. How trends were created, how trends have affected and will affect our life and most important as a brander I learned that I must always look back in history for knowledge and inspi-ration so I can forge the new lines of a company future.

Distribution in Ready to wear and Luxury Accessories The scope of this subject was to teach us about luxury retail, wholesale, franchising and licencing distribution and how to identify luxury distribution in various fields and being able to develop and manage it. We learned how the brands are distributed, but also what are the Advantages and Dis-advantages of Retail. Wholesale, Franchising and Licensing. The new knowledge we practised with various assignments and field research such as going in groups to investigate a brand type of distribution by analysing general informations about the brand (history, philosophy, collaborations, projects), products (type of products, price, merchan-dising). Main focus in our work was on the type of distribution, but further on the brand position-ing, competitors, type of clients, indicate the list of brands carried in the store (if more than one), location, products selection, weak and strong points of the stores, evaluate the stores: is it a good POS for the brand and finally analyse the reason(s) of the success or failure of the brand. We learned how to develop a distribution and what type to choose for a brand. From this course I further learned for how to plan a business trip for a new POS or collaboration partner, how and why a brand should organize such a trip, what could be possible outcomes, eventual problems, how I can I deal with issues in a brand distribution, and how to make short summary from a business trip.

4th Semester

Macroeconomics II Being introduced with the macroeconomic topic in the second semester, the course from the fourth semester was more like a resume from all the theories and terms learnt before. Practically, the lectures were focused on providing us a deeper understanding of macroeconomics but also the course was focus on strengthening our existing knowledge such as working in more deep with the PEST model. This course also provided me with knowledge about how to analyse a market before starting to operate there and how to forecast economic situations. We were exercising with cases from to-day, which were dealing with economic problems and finding the start point of what influenced these problems. For example in one of the classes we had to find 5 cases of economic issues and how they are influencing the world as an impact. My finding was an article about the elections in USA and how that could and is influencing the world Economy. In general this subject thought us to look more globally even if we act locally, as very often even if something happens outside the borders of the country you do business, many global issue might have huge impact maybe not directly on you, but on your partners, currency rates, import taxes, etc. by which logically to lead in problems in the way ones are running their company business.

Business Economic II I find this course very beneficial as it strengthened my existing knowledge about economics and also it put into practice some theories learnt from the other semesters. More over this subjects was about understanding the theory and methods and about how the future development and survival of companies depends on their business economic decisions. At this course we learned how to read a Financial Statement and how to find the Equity and Total Liabilities of a company. Further we were introduced to and worked in class with four methods of evaluation for making capital investment decisions -> Accounting rate of return (ARR), Payback pe-riod (PP), Net present value (NPV) and Internal rate of return (IRR). We discussed in class the na-ture and importance of investment decision making and we used all the methods in practice to reach a decision on a particular example of investment opportunity. From this subject I learned what an investment decision should seek to achieve when we are mak-ing capital Investments and that investment decisions must be consistent with the objective of the particular organisation. For example for a private-sector business, maximising the wealth of the owners (shareholders) is normally assumed to be the key financial objective.

Campaigns I consider this course very important as a brander as we were learning how a good campaign is cre-ated, what things should be taken into account while developing a campaign, and how to com-municate our message to the target audience in the best way possible. Furthermore, the course was highly useful because we had theoretical part which we were able to adapt during our exercis-es and by that we covered the process of planning the development and evaluation of a campaign. Creating a campaign can take a lot of time and money, and at the end the result is not necessarily the expected one. In order to be able to develop a successful campaign, there are some things that have to be considered. For example: what strategies will fit the company, how are the cus-tomers in that specific market reacting to our existing or new products, what is the demand, and so on. During class we had to choose a musical band and to analyse their current branding and marketing strategy, make visual analysis and later develop better brand image and story campaign. On one hand, this course is crucial as it is generating insights about how to research and under-stand both the market and consumers, and on the other hand also it is serving as a strategic foun-dation for the creation of successful and effective campaigns.

E-Strategy

I find this course a practical and entertaining subject as we were learning how to analyse and ar-ticulate a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digital marketing strategy in an integrative way to the overall marketing strat-egy. The teacher was trying to develop our imagination by actually making us experience how e-strategy affects a business. He was doing it by giving us to work with various cases from the book eMarketing so at these classes I gained knowledge how to systemize the relevant data, internally and externally, in order to use it to understand the company's current digital marketing strategy. I gained knowledge in planning, managing and measuring outreach campaigns and how to measure and improve online channel sales through integrative operations. E-strategy is not just for running Internet Businesses. An e-strategy is essential to any organisation conducting business over the Internet. It defines both your short-term and long-term e-business goals and involves careful and skilled planning, therefore with attending this course I feel confident that in future I will be able to develop effective E-strategy as a part of any company corporate strategy and business plan, and also be able to interconnect it with their other plans including their marketing, organisational and IT strategic plans.

Management & Leadership During this course I learned how important is to develop a holistic approach to management and control, how to create the best working environment for employees in order to motivate them, but above all, how to apply all this knowledge in order to motivate the employees and fulfil the objectives of the company. Taking into account how the working environment impact the effec-tiveness of employees, creating the best working conditions will not only facilitate the realization of the company’s goals but also it will motivate employees to work with joy and give the best per-formance. I consider this subject very beneficial because it made me realize how important is to try and un-derstand your co-workers or classmates and not push and judge them. Due to the fact that our teacher Rikke has an amazing approach by not only introduce the theoretical part of the course , but also of creating friendly environment and place for greater debate and discussion, this course helped me to motivate myself to become more patient, listen more when people talk and improve my working attitudes. During our dialogues and sessions I also learned a lot more about my class-mates and their personal skills. To evaluate our knowledge from class, we had a small essay assignment which served me as great I had to get back through all the definitions and models we were introduced to and present it in writing by reviewing what leadership and management is. Moreover, thanks to this course I real-ized how a good working atmosphere can influence and motivate employees to give a better per-formance and also how this “this atmosphere” affects the company’s capacity.

Overall reflections, goals and ambitions Coming to VIA Design was spontaneous decision as before the first year my desire originally was to move to Copenhagen and study and work there. I changed my plans due to the fact that after carefully assessing my working and living opportunities in the capital and compared universities I came to the conclusion that VIA Design is offering better diversity of knowledge, comes with great heritage and great network of people from all kind of specialities and nationalities. I already had friends who had given my positive feedback and I was sure that I will like it here, but what was also most important was the fact that I had my job and financial stability in Herning. The difference be-tween me and most of the students is my age and the fact that I have to support myself and canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t count on the support of my family. I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t deny that sometimes it is hard to combine my job with my studies, but that only made me more organized and thought me how better to structure and prioritize my time and efforts and strengthen my skills in multitasking. Right now when I look back throughout the last two years, I find motivation and a sense of accom-plishment when working on branding and marketing subjects. If I would look into courses more closely, as my focal comfort areas I would acknowledge branding and e-strategy, concept devel-opment and the campaigns subject as the strongest points of my education so far. I find these sub-jects interesting and in a way inspiring, because by attending them I not only gain new knowledge, but I had a feeling that I can't wait to practice all I have learned into a real life projects. I believe that finding and paying attention to the details is a key factor in achieving success as a student in branding and marketing and later for to develop myself as a professional. I consider myself well organized, self-motivate, ambitious and goal driven person due to the fact that, as my background states, in any situation and environment, either work or university, I always aim to set the bar higher by encouraging myself that I can do much more each time I attain my tar-gets. Furthermore, my ambition and goal, together with several VIA Design students is to establish our own fashion brand. Therefore, besides all my new connections and potential business part-ners, my exchange abroad I am and always will be looking forward for any new knowledge or pro-ject that will give me more insights about the fashion industry.

Appendix

Branding & Marketing Management DIbm2a814

VIA Design University College 31