Company Visits & A Weekend in Amsterdam

Hello everyone!

Last weekend, I travelled to Amsterdam for The Marketing Academy Semi-Annual Conference. We spent 4 days visiting companies and touring around the city.

This year, one of the members involved in planning the trip found a great Airbnb rental, located in a central neighbourhood. After we dropped our bags off, we had time to get a quick lunch, before heading to our first company visit at Burokoos, an interesting service design agency.

When we arrived a Burokoos, we were graciously welcomed by the staff. We started off by splitting into two teams, and doing a few icebreakers that Burokoos actually uses to get to know their clients. We then had an interactive 2 hour information session what Service Design actually meant, and how Burokoos does business. After, we went to Bier Fabrik for an after work with the Burokoos Team.

After we said our goodbyes, we then went to The Heineken Experience, to learn about the brand and its history. One of our members had organized a company visit with Heineken on Monday, so we thought it would be a good idea to know a little something about the company. All in all, the experience was fun, and as future marketers, it was an interesting event. Everything is dedicated to the Heineken Experience here. We learned the different ingredients used in making the beer and how Heineken is brewed. Then we had a short beer tasting session before heading to dinner at Nam Kee a local Chinese restaurant. The service and atmosphere were amazing, and they prepared a random selection of their favourite dishes for us!

On Saturday we went to the Van Gogh Museum and followed a highlights audio tour. After the Museum, we split into a few smaller groups and toured the city, we went to the Flower Market, walked along the canals, had a “Fika” in a great Cafe and enjoyed some Stroopwafels, a favourite Dutch treat. After, we walked to the Royal Palace and did another guided audio tour. We returned to the boat, and prepared for a traditional Dutch dinner at Tomaz Restaurant. They prepared a great dinner for us which included traditional pea soup, mashed potatoes and red cabbage, sauerkraut with ham, and several different types of meat including beef, duck and pork. All in all, it was a great day!

Sunday was dedicated to studying and catching up on coursework since most of us had presentations due in Service Marketing the day we returned. We also had a group conference talking about recruitment of new members, and some of the upcoming Internal and External Social Events. After we finished our work, we went to a Greek Tapas restaurant called Oresti’s Taverna for a final group dinner. This was the best meal we had in my opinion! The atmosphere was great and we had out own private dining area. The servers were friendly and entertaining and provided us with a great range of Greek dishes! Since one of our members is half Greek, she was able to assure us that it was an authentic experience.

On our last day, we had a company visit and lunch with Heineken. We were invited for an overview of one of their brands called Radler, a 0.0% refreshing beverage of beer and lemonade. While this beverage is also available with alcohol, our visit was dedicated to the alcohol free option. Following this overview, the Radler team invited us to get involved in a brainstorming session and gave us some time to prepare before we made our short presentations in small groups. This was a fun experience and we were able to present our ideas for some of the product managers.

After the company visit, it was time to collect our bags and head to the airport for our flight home. We all stocked up on the delicious Stroopwafels, some Dutch Cheese and a few souvenirs to send back to friends and families! After a great trip, the current members of the Marketing Academy have become a closer team, and hope to share that spirit with our new members for the Spring of 2015.

Until next time!

Gaining Practical Experience While Studying

One significant difference I have noticed during my first two courses here at SBS is the focus that lecturers place on theoretical learning in comparison to a North American practical or case based approach to learning. While this is a generalization of sorts, Master level studies at many Universities are very theoretical starting off. It is very important to understand the theory behind the concepts put into practice in the real world, but it is also important to see how theories are used in the day-to-day business environment.

Finding creative and interesting ways to gain practical knowledge as an international student, living in a new city where the language barrier may limit your options, can be difficult. However at SBS, there are many options available to you. For instance, Frank-Paul discussed the KPMG International Case Competition. This is not the only avenue available at SBS, but it is certainly a top-level case study to get involved in. Other options include The Marketing Academy and other external case competitions. Students accepted into The Marketing Academy have the option to join certain teams within the extra curricular group. These teams include: The Buisness World Committee, Social Events Committee, Branding Committee, Education Committee and the Treasury. The Business World Committee spends the first half of the semester contacting companies in Stockholm and abroad should they wish and work to secure a series of real world cases that companies hire the Marketing Academy to complete. Each case is an eight week long commitment and cases are generally done in teams of four people. Case teams work in direct contact with the companies involved and present conclusions at the company offices at the end of the eight week period. I personally started my case this week and am thrilled about my team and the first steps we have taken. This exercise is extremely valuable to students as it allows us to explore opportunities to apply our classroom knowledge and previous experiences to real life situations.

In regards to the other external case competitions, I have also joined the L’Oreal Brandstorm case competition that will start in the next few weeks. Participants are challenged with the task of creating an innovative Travel Retail Experience for the L’Oreal Brand. Finalists will have the opportunity to travel to Paris and present their ideas to a panel of judges. These case competitions are published regularly and in order to find them, you can search on google for local case competitions in many subject areas. At the beginning of the semester, there was another competition called Venture Cup. This particular competition is more focused on entrepreneurial concepts but partners with internationally recognized companies.

There is also the opportunity to search for a part-time job. One excellent resource that I have seen is Multimind. Multimind publishes both part-time and full-time opportunities for Swedish and Non-Swedish speakers. Working part-time in addition to your studies can be a challenge, but working part-time also allows you to supplement your student budget with some additional income.

SBS offers great resources and activities, and while I have named a few, there are many more opportunities available within the different faculties. These opportunities range from volunteer positions and student mentors to joining a professional mentorship program. While I definitely have a busy schedule with my current extra-curricular activities, I am always on the lookout for new opportunities to help build my CV. Taking the opportunity to get involved at school is a huge benefit. Not only do you get to add practical experience to your resume, you will also meet some extremely interesting like-minded individuals who accept your skills and knowledge but also challenge you on a daily basis!

These opportunities are especially important to participate in if you are hoping to remain in the local market for an internship or after graduation as it exposes you to different companies and allows you to begin to network in a new city. It is important to build your resume while you are studying, as it will set you apart from the crowd at graduation time when you enter the job market.

Happy Friday! I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend.

Until next time!

Erin

Getting involved in the International Student Life…

Tjenare! Välkommen till SBS bloggen!

[Hey! Welcome to the SBS blog!]

My name is Erin and I am a 24 year old Canadian masters student at the Stockholm Business School where I am studying Consumer and Business Marketing. As some of my fellow bloggers have already mentioned, there are five of us who will be sharing our experiences with you for the foreseeable future. I am very excited about this and hope that you will enjoy hearing from us!

Stockholm University is a great environment for international students. I have had the pleasure of meeting classmates from the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, the USA, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Portugal and England to name just a few. There is something for everyone here, and between the language cafes, culture and art groups and intramural sports it has been so easy to meet new people. The orientation day features a fair where clubs, societies, language departments and intramural sports representatives introduce themselves and help you sign up for activities. The Student Union, also organized trips to Ikea, a guided bus tour, different cruises and other fun activities to facilitate meeting other new students.

I moved to Stockholm almost two months ago, and it has been an easy transition so far. At first, I was wondering how to get involved with the university and other students at a masters level as, typically, many masters students work in parallel to their studies. In the Business School there are some student run extracurricular societies such as The Marketing Academy, where students who are accepted to the society have the opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge in a more practical environment. Read more on the Marketing Academy as one example of how to potentially get involved with fellow like minded students.

I am also participating in the free Swedish courses here at Stockholm University that Frank-Paul mentioned and have successfully completed level one. I begin level two this week! I have made some excellent friends in the Swedish courses, and we bond over our general nervousness of using this classroom Swedish in the real world. We take turns ordering at restaurants, as practice, which usually leads to a fun evening full of laughter and kind, patient waiters, waitresses and bartenders who join in on the fun teaching us international students new phrases and offering useful tips.

It is a big decision to study abroad, but the experiences you gain while away will add something unique to your personal credentials and CV. In today’s professional work environment, it is extremely important to differentiate yourself from other students, and what better way to do that than immersing yourself in a new country, culture, language and international university?

As a non-EU citizen, the application process is slightly longer than the process for EU citizens, but it is all laid out very clearly on the Stockholm University website and University Admissions Sweden. For those of you requiring a Residence Permit, don’t be nervous. The Swedish system is extremely organized, and offers technical support during the process.

Stay tuned to the SBS blog and let us know your thoughts, as we will have more updates for you weekly!

Talk soon,

Erin

A day in a marketing student’s life

Just to get a feeling of what a day in a marketing student’s life can look like, I will now tell you about my jolly fun Thursday 🙂

Copywriting lecture, Marknadsakademien
The beautiful and sunny day started off with a Marknadsakademien (Marketing Academy) lecture in copywriting, with the copywriter and strategy consultant Mario Nilsson. It was a great lecture, where we had the chance to get an insight in how advertising agencies works and what it takes to be a good copywriter, both in terms of team player but also as a craftsman. As part of the education committee I have the awesome responsibility to arrange these lectures and make sure that the association members is prepared for the upcoming working life in the industry.

Mario Nilsson, Copywriting lecture, Marknadsakademien

Branding lecture, Master’s programme
After a lunch on the go, it was time for a lecture in the Consumer Culture Theory course, where we discussed branding, identity, meaning and what postmodernity means within advertising. It’s important with participation during the lectures, and you are expected to discuss the issues. It’s a good chance to dissect and dig deeper into the subject if you are well prepared 😉 But which marketer doesn’t love branding?!

As an example, we discussed what the actual story is in this commercials. Can you tell?

Mingle at a scholarship awards banquet, PrimeLab
Directly after the lecture it was time to join an awards banquet with a friend of mine, who participated in a scholarship contest arranged by one of Sweden’s largest PR agencies, Prime PR (PrimeLab). We had a great time with trend seminars and mingling, both with Prime-people, other marketing students and the jury. It’s good to take every opportunity to go to these events, both since it’s fun to socialize with people that shares the same interest as you, but also good for networking and personal/professional development since you always learn something new about the industry!

Jury: Prime representatives and Fredrik Lange from Handelshögskolan

Concert with Khoma at Debaser Slussen
Since I really like to go to concerts, I directly after the awards went to the nearest club, Debaser Slussen, and saw one of Sweden’s coolest progressive/alternative metal bands, Khoma (with members from Cult of Luna, The Perishers and The Deportees). One thing, among others, which is really good about Stockholm is the music scene. Sweden has great music within a lot of genres and you can see good concerts with artists from the entire world almost every day. Compared to clubbing, it’s pretty cheap (the entrance to a club can cost you between 120kr to 250kr, and a concert ticket is about the same if it’s not an arena concert).

Khoma at Debaser Sussen

Great end on a great day as a marketing student at Stockholm University School of Business 🙂

What a week!

I’ve just finished one of the most uncertain, but in the same time one of the most interesting, courses so far in my masters, and in the same week, the activities in Marknadsakademien (Marketing Academy) have started for real, with meetings, lectures, social events, etc. It’s been a fun adventure in high speed!

In the course Technology Marketing, me and my group of six ambitious and eager students were supposed to choose a company for a case study that would be the ground of our research. It’s great when the courses gives us chances to broaden our network and get an insight in the world outside the university, and an opportunity to be creative! We chose to study another school called Hyper Island, which is a private school with a very interesting methodology. Lucky for us, Hyper Island let us into their organization, from CEO to students, so we could investigate their whole network and the role of technology within it. We are so grateful! It’s been a lot of laughters, insights, confusion, almost blood, sweat and tears, but it was all worth it. On Monday, we had a presentation for our teacher and on Thursday we were even invited to present the result to Hyper Island themselves, which felt like a big award in itself. Hopefully we can keep on doing interesting and fun collaborations!

In the Marketing Academy student association we have started with all the fun and interesting lectures and company visits for this term. As the chairwoman of the education committee, I have the exiting mission of being responsible of these activities. First out was Magnus Jonsson, also from Hyper Island, that taught us how to work with InDesign (very useful!!!) and the next day we visited one of Sweden’s largest and best advertising agencies, Forsman&Bodenfors. It’s great to get the opportunity to meet the companies “in person” to broaden the network and gain understanding for how they work. Emelie from F&B were very inspiring, and maybe we have a few future planners among us in the association now 🙂 Read more about our activities here!

To get the chance to relax a bit before next week starts, with a new course, new meetings and “social events”, I did my usual meditation from the back of my horse on Sunday. I’m lucky it only takes me 30 minutes to the family farm from my tiny apartment in central Stockholm. It gives me the freedom to get some fresh air for fresh thoughts.

To Warsaw with the Marketing Academy Student Association!

This fall I started my studies in consumer and business marketing. During the first week I came in contact with something called Marknadsakademien (The Marketing Academy). It got my attention right away with its promises of business networking and specialization in creative problem solving within practical marketing.  This weekend, I went on a trip to Warsaw as a member of the student association’s new board. Our mission was to get to know each other better and to plan the spring semester’s amazing activities!

To say the least – mission accomplished! The Marketing Academy Student Association is a team of fantastic and engaged individuals with a great vision and ideas. And to all the applying students that will join us for this semester – you can expect a lot of great networking and exiting, educational activities and experiences!

And what Warsaw concerns, it’s a great city that gave us a lot of surprises, both very positive and… “interesting” 😉 It can offer its visitors a big amount of culture, food (such as carp in jelly for those who dare) and also great night life with lots of different concept clubs and pubs! If you have the chance, do not hesitate do go there. You will get a lot of great experiences for almost no money at all.

Photo: Cecilia Gavatin

Photo: Caroline Ljöstad

Photo: Cecilia Gavatin

If you want to know more about the Marketing Academy Student Association, you can visit our website on www.marknadsakademien.com!