We recently had the absolute pleasure of working with Birmingham City University. As part of their coursework, Fashion Branding and Communications students were invited to pitch a new brand concept to SilkFred, earning them the opportunity to take part in a work placement with us in spring 2023 and be mentored by the team.
The project brief focused on creating and launching a brand with SilkFred – this involved a combination of in-depth customer and market research, as well as design, production, merchandising, shooting and promotion of the brand.
More About The Brief
Students were asked to create and pitch a brand in teams of four, including a name, brand mission, target audience, market analysis and unique selling point.
All aspects of the brand had to be considered, from visual creative direction and product design to a social media campaign, as well as consideration of how and why the brand would fit with the SilkFred platform and appeal to our customers.
Talking about the project, Clarissa Clarke-Williams, Brand Scout said: “Collaborating with the fashion students at Birmingham City University was a fantastic opportunity to highlight talent and forward-thinking ideas and opportunities.”
“It was a pleasure to listen to all the projects, which were all extremely innovative and visionary. All the teams involved showcased how they could implement new ideas into an established e-commerce business and proved how their skills could be applied for future career paths,” she added.
What The Winner Gains
The winning students will gain real hands-on experience with a week’s placement at SilkFred’s Brick Lane offices, where they’ll shadow the team and learn about the wider industry. As well as seeing how our marketing, tech, customer experience and brands teams operate, the winner will get insights into how a brand can drive its growth and carve out a successful niche online.
Georgia Glenn, a Fashion Branding and Communication student who participated in the winning brief presentation, said: “The SilkFred Live Industry Project was one of my favourite modules to date. I feel like it really helped me consider time management when working in a team in line with a brief and consider the needs of other members of the team.”
She continued: “I loved presenting to SilkFred, it was interesting to hear from the Brand Scouts about their jobs and the industry they work in as I would like to join this industry one day. They were open and honest and the Q&A we did was insightful. Their feedback was encouraging and a real confidence boost.”
About The Winning Brand
SF brand scouts selected BEA.U loungewear as their winning brand concept. With an emphasis on comfort, quality and size-inclusivity, BEA.U sets out to use sustainably sourced and thoughtful materials that are kind to both the skin and environment.
“We chose BEA.U as our winner because the team had identified a gap in the platform for a new and distinctive loungewear brand,” said Clarissa, Brand Scout.
“They demonstrated thorough research of SilkFred, paying particular attention to who our customer is and our core price point. The pitch was smooth, clearly delivered and the team complimented each other. As brand scouts we were very impressed and felt we could really imagine on-boarding the brand.”
Congratulations to the BEA.U loungewear team!
