As every summer semester, the Chair of Marketing Management (IfM) offered a project seminar in cooperation with a well-known company also in 2023. Together with this year´s partner, DEICHMANN SE, 24 Major Marketing students had the opportunity to participate. Five current and relevant topics around “The Future of Retailing @ Deichmann” invited the students to connect scientific methodologies and marketing-related practical skills in a practice-oriented project.

At the beginning of April, the seminar was initiated with an online kick-off meeting via Zoom. The event began with an opening by Professor Manfred Krafft and an overview of the seminar schedule in the upcoming weeks. Next, Alexander Bellin, a member of the Board of Directors of DEICHMANN SE, presented the company with its mindset principles. After briefly introducing the DEICHMANN brand and its main target groups, the marketing students were familiarized with the diverse practical cases tackling marketing challenges such as possible future in-store services, omnichannel features or digital products. The meeting ended with virtual round tables where the groups had the first get-together with their DEICHMANN mentors to clarify immediate questions and discuss initial thoughts on the assigned topic.

During the project phase, the students regularly scheduled alignment meetings with their respective DEICHMANN mentors and the accompanying Chair of Marketing Management members, Assistant Professor Dr. Victoria Kramer and Dipl.-Kffr. Janina Wiebringhaus. Nearly one month after the kick-off meeting, the students presented a brief update on their concept and an outlook on their project plans. Next, the students had the chance to participate in two Zoom sessions offered by the Chair of Marketing Management and to hand in questions and learn how to research and write a scientific paper.

Everyone was happy to meet at the DEICHMANN SE Headquarter in Essen for the final presentations end of June. After a day of presentations the Chair of Marketing Management and the DEICHMANN advisors appreciated the high quality of all presentations: “All groups created invaluable insights for the company throughout the seminar. It is impressive to see how quickly the students became experts in formerly unknown areas and developed a strong feeling for the needs of our respective target groups. We are very happy to see their high-class analyses and the creative output of the study results”, Alexander Bellin summarized. Closing the final presentation day, a Q&A session with the DEICHMANN HR team was integrated to inform about career opportunities at DEICHMANN SE.

To conclude, this year’s project seminar can be acknowledged as a real success, as motivation and engagement drove the spirit of the seminar. The Master student Mareen Rüter acknowledges: “I learned a lot throughout this practical project seminar and gained interesting insights into a modern company. We were privileged to take on responsibility and to work on highly-driven, exciting current challenges of Europe’s biggest shoe retailer.”

Alexander Bellin, Member of the Board of Directors, fully supported the idea of a first-time cooperation with the Chair of Marketing Management.

All seminar members at the final presentations in Essen.