WILD IN TOWN

The brand MovingMoose started moving as “WILD IN TOWN”; the launching campaign theme. During the last two months of field study, I’ve worked for the brand launching campaign being a member of the Wild Team (brand management team).

This was a great excitement wrapped with hard working for the team. To put it simply, a team doesn’t work without teamwork. A teamwork environment promotes an atmosphere that fosters friendship and loyalty. These close-knit relationships motivated the “Wild Team” in parallel and align us to work harder, cooperate and be supportive of one another.  

These two months of internship time was full of fun, engaging and informative. This opportunity allowed me to harness the skill, knowledge, and theoretical practice I’ve learned in university. This field study as Company Internship (CIS) enables me to gain enormous first-hand exposure of working in the real world which will render to my future.    

The last day or...?

I would like to summarize my field study experience as an intern at a swedish 

baby brand. What I have done through my internship was 1) be to be business

focusing on Japanese market as I wrote in the previous post, 2) influencer 

marketing 3) photoshooting for instagram and homepage and 4) product 

development.

For be to be business, I was responsible to find new distributors who can be

great partners with us. In order to get their attentions and build relationships, 

follow-ups and communications were really important. I was talking with my 

mentor today about culture differences between Turkey and Japan which 

seems Turkey's decision making is much faster than Japanese one based 

on the fact that Turkey just got a big order from us after one phone call 

discussions, where in japan where partnership especially long-term 

relationships seem to be very important, which may cause taking more

 time until new business has started. My boss told me, “The person must

know the market well”. Due to my background, skills and knowledge of 

Japanese market, He qualified me as being good at this position and 

offered me summer part time job.

For influence marketing, I created with others as a group, “Good-Will 

Campaign” where we promote recycling of plastic and replacing plastic 

to glasses as our main products are baby glass bottles. Regarding to

contacting influencers, established common clear messages are important 

to reach many influencers within short time. Otherwise, it takes too much 

time and energy. Also good organization of tracking the influencers

activities in their social media is important. 

For photo shooting, the light is the key for everything. Also as a photographer, 

other people's involvement and interactions with babies helped a lot since it 

helps to get photos of lively babies with different facial expressions especially 

smiles. The color match with products, backgrounds, babies clothes must 

be all considered together with our brand image of being simple and clean. 

As we learned in visual and communication class, images can influence 

consumers emotionally. Such pictures of mother and babies looking each 

other smiling are really lovable and i would like to focus more on “story telling”

for the future.

For product development, I was responsible collecting inspirational photos to 

expand ideas. Then, I categorized them based on the materials and colors to 

analyze the possibility for usage for our product development. Due to a 

shortage of time, the product did not go further but it was still great experience.

I was also involving with a responsible person for product development 

regarding color research, testing, contacting to manufacturing etc which 

provided me the insight who the product development was done with others 

involved.

Within 10 weeks, I was able to involve in many projects where I gained so

much knowledge and experience. I feel grateful and lucky to work here. One of 

the great dvantage to work in a small company is that one can gain so much 

vast yet deep experience and have a big responsibility in your work.

Hej då för nu

Hey everyone!

This is my last internship blog post although I will still be interning until the end of June. My internship, so far, has been all a preparation for A/W 18 and S/S 19; from products to website update to marketing to pop-up events. It has been a constant learning experience every day so far in terms of planning and organizing, but I am really looking forward to June when we go into the implementation of the plans for S/S 19 in terms of the product shoot and the marketing tool that will be developed subsequently. Moreover, I will also be able to see how the company seeks to communicate the value of sustainability and the overall collection theme in its product and images; which is what my report is all about.

Based on the preliminary findings so far, I have found that at the core of communicating sustainability in S/S 18 collection has been largely focused on the fabric and its functionality. The overall collection was largely driven by hemp, lyocell, and viscose to provide a lightweight and cool option for summer. As a result, this idea can be largely seen in their product images for the collection.

This largely drove the tone of the product image as well as the gesture and posture of the models; to communicate the idea of lightweight and breathable. The gestures of the model, the tone of the images and clean aesthetics of the presentation here serves as semiotic symbols the company consciously used.


More on this will be in the report and the presentation; however, I hope you all got the insight into how signs are being used in the marketing and although consumers might not take it as companies intend them to; there is still a conscious effort on companies part to impart their values and ideologies through the product images.

I hope you guys have had a good time reading my blog.

Until next time,
AJ

Time Flies

Now after almost two months, I find myself again wondering how time flies.
During my last bits of the internship, I did a lot of research about topics that are in close connection to the project I'm involved in. Re:textile provides knowledge as a tool to companies which I, in that case, was responsible to deliver.

My research deals with remanufacturing and automated manufacturing that in best case can enable local production in countries, where it is normally more expensive to produce. In the era of digitalisation and the fourth industrial revolution on the verge, both concepts find more and more attention. Although there is not a lot of research done about remanufacturing yet, I have a sincere trust that in the upcoming years this strategy will be promising for a circular economy respectively for companies to use resources more efficiently and design for it as well.

Automated manufacturing is a side effect deriving from technological development which aims to optimise production flows to become more cost-efficient. It is a very flexible production method that can be assembled according to a company's wishes and production capacity where different parameters have to be considered as well.

The research process equipped me with new insights that appeared valuable for Reused Remade to implement into their current business approach. In these means, and within my given amount of time I tried to discover as much knowledge as possible in order to provide ideas where the company could improve or put further effort in its R&D.

Summing up, the whole project was a learning process how to organise myself, be patient when I was dependent on other people's input and efficient with the resources I already possessed. Project management always requires an interactive network so that communication and reliability are of utmost importance.

Summary of knowledge gained through Be to Be business

This is my 10th week of the internship and I am amazed how fast the time has

 been passing by. Today, I want to talk about what I have learned through be to 

be business especially in the relation to Japanese market. Firstly, market barriers 

are discussed and then suggestions are shown. 

Firstly, baby bottles and nipples are dominated by a big company in Japan,  

so it was tough to find distributors who can manage this condition enough  

to become successful. 

Culture and language barrier also need to consider. My mentor told me that

 he contacted to China before in English, but he got no response. This might

be because of language barriers as I also experienced that English was not 

understood in Chinatown in the US. Being able to communicate with their first 

language can give a tremendous benefit and advantage when entering new

market. Since many Japanese do not speak English as it might have been the

case of China, it is important to have products and packages described in 

Japanese so that consumers can read our products and know the benefits 

of using the products. One of the CEOs from Japanese companies who 

have been working with baby products told me that the expectations from 

Japanese consumers towards products qualities are very high. Therefore, 

precise and clear descriptions of products are vital. Also, even the company

 who got interested in working with us consider this language issues and saw

 it as “undeveloped products” to adapt Japanese market. As a result,  after the 

discussions, the responsible person introduced me another responsible person 

from different department. This all takes time and cause to delay business 

development and possibly miss the business opportunities. 

Lastly, when entering new market as being unknown brand, it is  

important to have reliable sources including established homepage.  

The CEO mentioned above told me the importance of “storytelling”  

of the company and products because of his success stories handling 

Canadian brand which became “hit” in Japan. Also, when I called  

Japanese companies to tell our products, many of them looked at  

our homepage right away. However, homepage and Instagram  

account are all in English, some of them could not gain the 

information that they wanted which could reduce the speed of 

new business business opportunities. 

Considering all of above, I think the company should develop their

homepage with more languages available, more precise, clear and 

easy to understand products descriptions and interesting and

likeable story telling. Since, it is a small yet fast growing company, 

we have always so much to do and to develop but I am really 

enjoying this atmosphere and look forward even more growth!

Goodbye for now

Wow, time really flies by when you are having a good time and are busy all day long with interesting and challenging tasks. This will be my last blog post here, though my journey at Monki is far from over jet. I really can not believe I have been at Monki within the purchasing team 8 weeks already, so much has happened since I entered that fantastic colourful office for the first time...

I did never though I would learn this much during two month, nor could I believe how many interesting and inspiring people I got to meet. If I would try to summary my time at Monki I would say that one of the thing that has stroke me as one of the most interesting things during my internship is how the product development process really work – from design meeting to first sample arriving to the office. It has also been really interesting so se how closely the team works together as well as with the people at the Global purchasing office.  Moreover, I have been investigating how the company’s sustainable objectives are taking into account by designers, buyers and buyer assistants in their everyday work and since Monki is a very environmental and sustainable conscious company this has been very exciting. Right now I am performing the last interviews and summarize the observations I have been doing the last couple of weeks in order to start finish the internship report.

Besides observing and interviewing, during the last weeks I have also been busy assisting not only “my team” and my mentors in their every day job, but I have also got the opportunity to help the Buyer at the denim department, which has been really fun since they work in a slightly different manner than how they work in my team. During my last weeks at the internship, and during the summer I will assist her more and more. Hence it feels really good starting getting an understanding for all the various denim styles, articles and washes.

Hope you all got a bit of insight in what is like assisting the buyer assistants at Monki – if you want a fun internship and in the same time learn a lot I can really recommend Monki!

Have a lovely summer!!

Backstage at Copenhagen Fashion Summit

Dear All!

This is going to be my last blogpost even though it is still not the end of my internship which will last around one more month. 

At the moment, I am truly overwhelmed by the fast pace in which time has been passing and just realised that I will have to say goodbye very soon. 

But until then, I want to share how exciting the last couple of weeks have been!

As being part of the #teamcontent, we were working on full capacity to finalise the Pulse of the Fashion Industry Report 2018 which has been published 9 May! 

After reaching this big milestone, the whole Global Fashion Agenda team focused on setting a new mark for this year's Copenhagen Fashion Summit and I had the very pleasure to work backstage at the event, ensuring a seamless speaker management together with my colleagues - what an honour to meet all the great names ranging from the hosts Amber Valletta and Tim Blanks over sustainability-frontrunenr Stella McCartney to David Fisher (founder of Highsnobiety). 

Funnily dancing Global Fashion Agenda team on the main stage 

The Copenhagen Fashion Summit was the absolute highlight of my internship, also because of the high and supportive team spirit which I never experienced in that way before and that additionally to the enthusiasm kept me awake during these days :)

Over and out from Kappahl Shanghai

And so the final week at Kappahls’ production office is over. It feels like it was yesterday i first entered the office curious about what the following weeks would be like. These weeks have been incredibly fun, educational and inspiring, including work in the office and visits to port, suppliers and factories. I also got to join their yearly outing where we went ot an island outside of Shanghai for two days of teambuilding activities, see picture. My goal for this internship was to get deeper understanding of the role of a production office and the work they do, and my expectations have not only been met but also exceeded!

At this point I’m focusing full time on the report in which I investigate how local production offices in China affect the purchasing process for Swedish fast fashion brands. After participating in the daily work, I have seen myself how closely the merchandisers, technicians etc. work both with the buyers in Sweden and the suppliers. Further I have interviewed four employees at the office, of which all brought up the importance of having good relations with the suppliers, as this will benefit product quality, price and speed of the purchasing process. Thanks to the production office it’s possible to meet physically with the suppliers more often, which is good for the relation and for problem solving. They also highlight knowing the culture and the language as important factors for building supplier relations. Their opinion is that these points would be very hard to fulfill without the local production office. More about this is to be found in my report!

All the best!

Sofia

Signing out

Today is the day I'm signing out from my NA-KD e-mail for the last time. I have had such a great time at NA-KD and I have learned so much about the concept and practice of Influencer Marketing. The atmosphere and the way of working at the department suits me very well, with a lot of team work, own responsibilities - and a constant goal orientation. The manager told me during an interview for the field study that their way of working is characterized by the words "It's better to apologize than asking for permission" - and I think that this is the way to do it to learn quickly, which is important for both the interns and the department in general.

This last week I have spent a lot of time phasing out my ongoing work and collabs, and introducing a new intern to the way we work at the department. She will take care of all my and Agnes' monthly collabs and continue to do collabs with new influencers in order to grow the Danish market. It feels like only days ago that I was the one not understanding anything and being all confused about all the spreadsheets.

The upcoming week I'll be finishing my field study report, I have the results and discussion left to write. I have had the opportunity to interview both the assistant manager and a team leader, and they have provided me with great inputs for the report. I'm looking forward to presenting it on the 1st of June, and hearing about the classmates' experiences during their internships!

Have a great day, and good luck with the writing of your field studies!

Best,
S

End of internship at NA-KD

Hi again,

It's been a while since I wrote here last time, but I think it's time for me to sum up the past weeks and write my final post here.

Last week was my final week at NA-KD, and me and Sara finally got to see some results from our campaigns in Denmark. It's been amazing working with Sara, and together improving the Danish market. Although, there wasn't much for me to do the days before leaving, just to make it as easy as possible for someone else to pick up what I left. I got to meet the girl who's taking over for me, and I showed her everything that I would've wanted to know when I started. So it felt good to leave everything to her. But somehow a strange feeling just leaving everything.

Oh, I almost forgot - I actually got a task to do! I had to go through a list of items and placing the link of each item in a new document. This was preparations for a coming collaboration. The task was no brain surgery, but I had something to do for a couple of hours.  

I'm surprised on how eight weeks can fly by so fast. I spent the first days stressing out about the fact that I didn't knew anything, but now it all comes naturally. The tasks aren't that difficult, but you have your own responsibilities and get to learn how do do things on your own, which I think is a developing and encouraging strategy. The mentality is rather "learning by doing" than "thinking before doing", which might feel scary sometimes but works great for me.

Right now, I'm writing my report which takes up most of my time these days. I'm really happy that the summer finally made it to Sweden and that the sun's been out the past weeks. Even though it's hard to sit in the sun and write (my computer and my head can't handle the heat), it sure makes it easier to write when you can sit outside under a parasol :)

Breakfast at NA-KD HQ, with all employees and interns. Such a nice breakfast and good way to start the day!!

At NA-KD there's a fika-list, where employees and interns sign up and brings fika on Fridays. I thought it would be a great idea to bring some chocolate cake for my last day. And it was a success!!

Now I have to continue with my writing, but it's been a pleasure writing here a few times letting you know what I'm up to, and of course reading about what my classmates are doing as well. 

Have a nice summer!

Best, 

Agnes

Bubbleroom - End of internship

The time really flies by when there are many things that needs to be done and when you have fun during the process. Friday was my last day at Bubbleroom and it is crazy thinking that I have been there for eight weeks already. 

During my last week several people asked me if I have had a good time and if I have learned anything during my internship. My answer to both those questions were yes. I have had the most fantastic time at Bubbleroom and I could never have imagined having such a good experience and learning so much as I have. Working at the buying department at Bubbleroom has truly opened my eyes about how much details are put in each stage of the process of presenting a product on the website, and essentially to the customers. Product description, for example, is not solely about writing texts, it encompasses measuring the product, adjusting prices, and determining the material composition. The same goes with creating product articles and placing orders. There are many details considered and each part has a huge effect on the other. 

During my time at Bubbleroom, I never thought that I would get the opportunity to experience so much, not only have I worked as a buying assistant, but I have also been able to work as a studio assistant, gotten a taste of how the marketing department works and been part of Bubbleroom’s clearance sale. It has been hectic at times, but I have learned that anything can be done as long as you believe in yourself, are determined, and are open for the opportunities that are presented in front of you. Being surrounded by amazing co-workers, inspiring clothes, and first hand seeing the process the products go through, from inventory to photoshoots, has been very inspiring and a huge part of my great experience during the internship. 

Me and my classmate, Anna who has also been interning at Bubbleroom, even got asked to help out during Bubbleroom’s staff party, during Friday evening. It was a garden themed party and the girls had done such an amazing job decorating and organizing for the event. The event was a lot of fun and a great end to our internship.

Oh and remember when I told you about the clearance sale that was only for family and friends in my previous blogpost? Well this time Bubbleroom is also having one for the public. Mark 29^th of May in your calendar, between 12-18 o’clock there will be a clearance sale at Bubbleroom. Make sure you stop by, there will be an amazing assortment of clothes and accessories at very good prices. 

On that note, I will finish this post and thank you guys for following along. It has been so nice checking in and also reading what my fellow classmates have been up to during their exciting internships.

/A 

Final demoday

The final have come! There has been some hectic last days to finish the final pitch for tomorrow. A business pitch was harder to build than I thought. I have been working on it for a while but finally I have a set script and a pitchdeck that I can be proud of. The journey of DeDecco is on it’s way to begin and among other things thanks to the accelerator THINK.

Reaching out to investors

The whole idea with the accelerator program is to prepare the startups to pitch in front of investors. Of course has it been a lot of different workshop and mentorship going on but the final product is the pitch. It has been a very interesting journey with lots of good in pack from many different people and references. Almost to much advice. Being concrete with the content and choosing the right words to get the five minutes interesting for the audience has been a bigger challenge than I thought. Thinking of what to say to have more credibility and trust on stage is crucial.

The journey begins

The business DeDecco that I will present tomorrow has just started is biggest journey and there will be exciting to get the feedback from investors tomorrow. I have learned that it takes lots of validation to come to the point where DeDecco is right now. Listening to the customers, what are there thoughts about the business? How can we validate the business model even more to be profitable both for the customer, interior designer and us? The investigation part never ends and its necessary to keep doing that to reach the goal of establish the market. DeDecco have proven out the business model and is now ready to take this business to the next level.

Final words about the outcome from the accelerator

People are very motivated to help out and give input on the business. The acceleration has an atmosphere that invites you to discover and test out the business. It has been a very exciting three months where both the startup and me have developed. The team behind THINK accelerate have gave us such good advice and their network with mentors have been very suitable for this business. Great people make great things is what I’m going to take with me. Being a great person needs development of yourself but the most critical part is to have great people around you to reach the greatness you look for.

Wish me good luck for tomorrow!

/Emma