Tiffany, Francesca and Owen: Learning to Fly
A brand that follows you throughout your journey, from the day when you book your flight to the arrival, and beyond. A digital campaign, several opportunities to interact with the brand and some "oasis" inside the retail space where customers can relax. It's the project that earned the Talaria team members and Marketing Management students Francesca Fabris, Tiffany James, and Owen Wang the chance to fly to Paris and take part to the international finals of Brandstorm L'Oréal, on Thursday, June 18. They will be judged by teachers of partner universities and by L'Oréal top management, including the CEO Jean-Paul Agone. First prize: € 10,000 in travel vouchers. A Bocconi team reaches the final stage of the contest for the third year in a row.
The competition, that started back in 1992, involves students coming from 360 universities scattered in 45 different countries around the world. Only the best were admitted to the finals. Last November, students from three Marketing Management classes, divided into 37 groups of three members each, took up the challenge launched by L'Oréal: act like an international marketing director and imagine a strategy for the Lancôme brand to attract new consumers in the travel retail channel (airports, railway stations, duty-free shops).
Students analyzed the market, the channel, the brand, the key opportunities. L'Oréal has selected the two best teams who have continued to develop their project backed by a communications agency. In April, during the national finals, the two Bocconi teams have competed with rivals from other Italian universities. The Talaria team was chosen by a jury chaired by the L'Oréal Italy CEO, Cristina Scocchia.
"Usually the task is to create a tangible product. This year we had to address an entire channel and it wasn't easy at all because it's such an open task. Presenting your idea in 15 minutes is hard as well. I'm Canadian, Francesca is Italian, Owen has a Chinese background: we're the perfect team for an international contest about travel retail. Much time and effort was brought into the project: very little sleep and a lot of coffee. But every time we took it to the next step, we traded coffee for wine. Whether or not we'll win in Paris, Brandstorm allowed us to better know how far we can push ourselves".
Cristian Chizzoli, the Marketing Management professor who has tutored the Bocconi students, illustrates the added value of the contest using the image of a guy who learns how to swim. "The contest is a way to throw students into the water. They work on a project since day one, they understand that attending a Master of Science means having first hand experiences, they become acquainted with their future business activity". Analytical skills and ability to do a public presentation are required. "Teamwork is important. Students didn't know each other because Marketing Management is a course of the first semester of the first year. They had to learn to value their diversity".