“High potentials” are young professionals who are in great demand on the labour market. They drive companies forward, found their own start-ups and are considered the leaders of tomorrow.
Worldwide hotspots that attract high potentials are, for example, London, New York and Shanghai. What about Hamburg? Despite a high quality of life and well-known companies, the city tends to be considered an insider tip when it comes to careers. But this should change and Hamburg should become more attractive and visible for promising talents.
For Hamburg Marketing GmbH, our students therefore tackled the task of researching the attitude and motivational structures of high potentials in order to inspire them to pursue a career in the Northern German metropolis with a suitable positioning of the city.
Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Jörg Igelbrink, the 5th semester Brand Management took up the challenge in its final practical project. Using primary and secondary research, the students analysed the intended target group.
A “mixed method design” was used, as each of the four teams chose a different approach for gaining knowledge. Qualitative (explorative) expert interviews and quantitative surveys were conducted, as well as in-depth literature research.
Based on the findings, the students developed strategic approaches for adapting the brand positioning of the city of Hamburg and designed corresponding creative campaign approaches.
The project was accompanied on the Hamburg Marketing side by Stefan Nöthen, Head of Strategy and Brand Management, and Jens Gotthardt, Project Manager Strategy and Brand Management.
While the briefing at the beginning of the semester could still take place at the Brand University campus, the interim and final presentations shifted to the digital space.
But even in this situation, the students demonstrated professional presentation skills. They opened up the world of high potentials to the cooperation partner, presented their developed strategies based on conclusive analyses, supported emotional core messages with captivating videos and showed their creativity with original implementation ideas.
Stefan Nöthen draws the following conclusion: “In the interim presentation we were already very impressed by the clever methodical approach. The final results of the students, with a total of four strategy routes, are great insights for us that show us perspectives for young talents and start-ups to further develop the potential of the city of Hamburg and make it transparent.”
We would like to thank Hamburg Marketing for their cooperation. This project offered our students the chance to put their five semesters of concentrated knowledge to practical use – a special pleasure when the customer is the “most beautiful city in the world”!
