Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Exams!

Hey ESB IBers! We hope you are enjoying this lovely holiday break. We wanted to wish you a happy holiday season and send a few gifts your way.

1. A Delicious Christmas Drink
2. A Cup of Warm Cocoa for Studying
3. Some Fun Holiday Games
4. Some Study Help
5. And Some More..
6. Finally, Some Motivation!

IB3: The First Practice-Oriented Experience

Combining the theory taught in university with the practical demand of a company can sometimes be quite challenging. Therefore, IB students in the third semester get the chance to learn a mixture of both praxis and theory. In the Marketing Research class, Prof. Dr. Gerd Nufer introduces the students to this new topic in an approach different than other classes: Half of the class consists of getting familiar with research terminology and statistical approaches to conduct a marketing research survey,  while the other half consists of applying these new tools to a real life project. What sounds quite challenging and highly time intensive turns out to be also an interesting and informative experience: The students get in touch with a company of their choice and find together a topic of interest for the company. The students then develop their own survey, taking into consideration what Prof. Dr Nufer taught them in class. Analyzing the data from the survey gives a first insight on how the start of a future bachelor or master’s thesis could look like.

For the first time it was possible to apply theoretical knowledge from previous semesters to a practical project. Later on, the findings of the survey were introduced in combination with a consultation to the class and the company representatives. 

This semester, a group of six students were working together with “Amy’s Donuts & more”, a local snack store. The students first analyzed the trends on the global snack market and later used their survey to find out whether these trends would be successful in the German market. People from the cities Stuttgart, Tübingen and Reutlingen were asked for example whether they would find new snack trends like “Bruffin and Cragel” interesting for the German snack-market. Bruffin and Cragel is a new trend from Brooklyn, New York. Cragel is a mix between a Croissant (cr) and Bagel (agel). Bruffin is composed of brioche (Br) and muffin (uffin). The two mix- pastries caused long queues in front of New York bakeries. Further questions considered the demand for vegetarian and vegan snacks and drinks. “Amy’s Donuts & More’ will now try to put the findings into practice to fulfill the wishes of the interviewed people.

For the students, the project was despite the big workload a success and a great learning. The Marketing Research class is a welcome change to the other more theoretical classes.

Adventure is Out There: the Night Abroad

With Night Abroad the IB Vision Committee brought the well-known wanderlust to the ESB on last Tuesday. This event gave the students the opportunity to plan their exchange semester. Firsthand-information on more than 40 different partner university was provided by alumnae and current exchange students.  Here is the official list of the IB partner universities. 

In a fun, relaxed atmosphere students were able to get an inside look on our excellent partner universities with brochures, information, and first hand accounts from students. As stomachs filled with adorable finger food, the hunger for internationality was satisfied with this wonderful event.