Hello everyone,
This week we interviewed Natalie Massone, Design Director at Hoppipop about her recent experience of the Level 2 Award in Digital Marketing.
Hoppipop is a digital publishing and product design studio. They help companies optimize their design processes and facilitate cost-effective development solutions.
Natalie recently completed the Level 2 Award in Digital Marketing and has been applying her new-found knowledge to develop a marketing strategy for her childrens book publishing project.
Enjoy the interview…
Hello Natalie, could you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello, sure. I am a UX/UI and Visual Designer who has been bootstrapping my independent children books publishing project. I was actually self-employed when I first started to study on the Dagile programme.
Can you tell us why you decided to study through our programme?
I joined the program to better understand how marketing works at a business level. While I only had a rough idea of my audience, I needed to research analytical data specific to the publishing industry and Amazon marketplace. Conscious of the competition, I needed a clear vision on my company project’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as of the competitors.
The structure of the course gave me the necessary skills to develop a successful marketing strategy, that can optimize my resources and focus on my target customers.
Learning about competitors, micro and macro environmental factors has helped me in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the products I want to produce. I could tweak some initial ideas and plan products and promotion in a consistent way.
After completing the course, I feel a lot more confident and determined to move forward.
What made you chose Dagile as your training provider?
I was introduced to Dagile by LSBU, with which I did a previous program on Immersive Technology (ACE). The Level 2 Award in Digital Marketing helped me in acquiring some of the skills and knowledge that I was missing.
How did you find the course and it’s teaching?
I found the course excellent and the teacher Thomas Empson outstanding, patient and committed. I greatly appreciated his feedback and advice, that helped me in completing the assessments, by focusing on my business and Industry.
The course was clear, at the right pace and focused. I particularly enjoyed the structure of the course and modules. I could approach the research from different perspectives: marketplace, industry, competitors, type of products, customers (target buyers and final consumers). I could organically and consistently build up my learning from unit to unit.
Each lesson and assessment provided the opportunity to learn about marketing processes and best practice and allowed me to deepen my initial knowledge with further relevant readings. This gives individual learners the tools to expand their skills and knowledge at their own discretion.
Did the training help you develop new ideas for your company and did you get the chance to implement them?
Absolutely, yes!
I just completed the course, but I certainly plan to implement new ideas and important differentiation factors in the next 6 months or so.
Do you think the training will enhance your career prospects?
It might enhance my career as an employee in the future. However, it has already given me solid ground to pursue my business plan and objectives.
Learning about how marketing impacts other departments involved in the customers’ journey, like sales and products, certainly helps me in proposing customized design solutions, that are strongly backed up by data.
Learning about the consumers’ purchasing behaviour, the marketplace, marketing environment, the competitors’ products and their promotional advantage, inform both design and business on a variety of potentially critical aspects related to their products or services.
Do you have any final thoughts to share?
I am very grateful to Thomas, Dagile and LSBU to have given me the opportunity to develop a solid marketing strategy for my project.
Thank you so much for your time Natalie.
We are grateful to Natalie for sharing her Dagile experience with us and wish her every success for the future.
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