CEU UCH has hosted the validation phase for this pioneering online educational platform, co-funded by the European Commission and produced together with ten other universities from the Dukenet international network.
Students from the Marketing degree and the Specialization Diploma in Fashion Communication will start using the platform next year.
BrandY is ready. Last week, the CEU Cardenal Herrera University hosted the validation phase of this pioneering platform, which enables students to participate in a simulation of the launch of a fashion brand. This online learning platform, co-funded by the European Commssion, has been designed by CEU UCH in conjunction with ten other universities from the Dukenet network, which has also just celebrated its 25th anniversary. Students from the Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and the Specialization Diploma in Fashion Communication will use the programme from next year.
The latest Intensive Programme event was the sixth to take place over the last three years for the launch of this ambitious project, led by the University of Economics in Katowice (Poland) and in which the CEU Cardenal Herrera University, the Universidad de León (Spain), Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Germany), Budapest Business School (Hungary), Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale (Switzerland), Howest University of Applied Sciences (Belgium), Università di Trento (Italy), University of Bucharest (Romania) and Université Savoie Mont Blanc (France) have also taken part.
At the validation event at CEU, 55 students from ten Dukenet universities were divided into multinational teams to put this interactive brand management software through its paces, working through the different stages of the process (segmentation, positioning, brand narrative, customer journey mapping, communication, brand loyalty and the internationalization plan). The students then submitted reports to their lecturers.
Top marks
The experience has been a great success, CEU UCH lecturer Paco Suay, told us. “BrandY has shown that it’s a great resource, enabling students to put into practice what they know about fashion branding. The students receive constant and rigorous feedback during the simulation from the software’s own algorithm, from the lecturers, and even from real consumers during different phases of the simulation,” said Dr Suay, who is also the current Dukenet president. José Martínez, another CEU UCH lecturer, believes that “in addition to learning about the practicalities of fashion brand management, students also develop their soft skills, which are so important for our students’ futures. These skills include teamwork, leadership, decision-making and intercultural communication.”
This view was also shared by students who took part in the validation phase for BrandY. Carolina Nepomuceno Sobieski, is a Journalism student who is also studying for the Specialization Diploma in Fashion Communication at the CEU Cardenal Herrera University.
‘I was really interested in the project’s international character, as it gave us the chance to come into contact with different cultures, in both the social and business dimensions.’
Carolina Nepomuceno Sobieski, is studying for a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and the Specialization Diploma in Fashion Communication at CEU UCH.
Carolina is very satisfied with her experience of the validation process for BrandY. “The programme was very practical: we had ten to twenty minutes’ introduction for each stage and then we’d spend around three hours working on specific parts of the process, with our lecturers on hand to help us,” she said, while also highlighting the importance of learning how to leverage the knowledge gained in lectures and apply it to the lifelike situations seen in this simulation.
For Carolina, the experience has given her the opportunity to learn how project teams really work: “I’m a Journalism student, so I didn’t know so much about the business world and over the week I learnt a lot about that and how to create a brand. On the other hand, with regard to communication and positioning, that was an area where I had a lot to bring to the table for my team.”
She also appreciates how useful the activity is in preparing her for the future: “I was really interested in the project’s international character, as it gave us the chance to come into contact with different cultures, both in the social and business dimensions.”
