"Consultancy helped us identify our ideal customer"


Leicester Castle Business School's Executive Company Project scheme matches talented postgraduate students with companies who need expertise to solve a particular business issue. Skincare company Dermacare tell how their business benefited from the free programme.

INSET Andrea 1

The skincare industry is one of the biggest in the UK, worth some £17billion a year – and also one of the most competitive.

So when skincare expert Andrea Patel wanted to launch Dermacare Direct to help provide customers with the very best products to help their skin, she got in touch with DMU's Executive Company Project.

She was matched with postgraduate Juliana Dragseth who was set a tough task: to find out potential customers, competitors, research pricing and packaging options for Andrea and her team.

Her studies gave her the skills to plan and carry out a detailed market research project, which proved invaluable to the Leicestershire company.

Andrea said: “Juliana relished the challenge we presented to her and her work surpassed our expectations.

“She came out with numerous positive ideas and wrote an excellent report for the market research brief. The report helped to identify various areas which we would be able to work on, chiefly our potential market sector and the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within this. Equally important was identifying our target market and ideal customers. Assistance with pricing was also crucial and enabled us to decide on the correct market segment for our products.

“After the first couple of weeks of introduction to our business, Juliana did not require any further support and she was quite capable of working by herself and on her on initiatives. This was very helpful for us as we did not have to oversee her constantly and we became confident in her abilities and work.”
 
* Businesses can learn more about the Executive Company Project and how to apply for postgraduates to work free for them on a specific business challenge at the Leicester Business Festival. Book now to find out more at a breakfast briefing held as part of the festival.

Posted on Friday 14 October 2016

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