It’s marketing - rebranding insights in the classroom
Lee Thawley (centre-right) with second year marketing communications students. Tue, 29 Nov 2016 10:14:00 GMT
Second year marketing communications students were treated to an engaging and interactive guest lecture last week at the Business School, delivered by Lee Thawley, freelance marketing consultant for ITS Marketing and part of the development team behind AO’s (appliances online) successful rebranding operation.
With over 20 years' experience in the world of marketing, branding and marketing communications, Lee provided the students with some key insights and experiences from industry. Discussing her ideas on branding, both old and new, Lee set the scene for the emerging marketing landscape. Given advances in the technological environment, and the major shift in customer expectations in terms of how consumers now expect to engage with, and be fully engaged by their favourite brands, we now operate in an extremely dynamic environment.
Lee has worked with major brands over her lifetime, including Bank of Scotland, Mercedes and Durex, however, it was the story of her rebranding experience of AO which provided a lot of insight for the students present. Lee emphasised the importance of a happy working environment, happy employees and internal marketing, something which we teach at the University, but something which can be lost on students as it can be difficult to emphasise the importance of this in the class room. Furthermore, Lee offered insights into potential future student experiences by outlining the graduate employment scheme offered by AO.
Lee used real life examples from Carlsberg, Coca Cola and Government to explain key ideas and issues to the students. It is important that, while giving the students a theoretical framework, we also allow students the opportunity to meet the people who are pushing the boundaries in industry, and to see how theory applies in practice. Dr Claire McCamley, the module leader, had only positive words to say regarding the presentation. "I was very impressed by what Lee had to say. She not only offered the students some key insights into the world of marketing communications, she also exposed students to some innovative ideas in terms of how brands are pushing the boundaries to ensure effective customer engagement. It has been a pleasure working with Lee, and we hope to do so again in the future."
Dr Claire McCamley (left), the module leader with Lee Thawley (right), freelance marketing consultant for ITS Marketing
