BUSINESS & MARKETING

Persona-Based Storytelling in Marketing – Addressing Customer Issues with Relatable Content  

with Sandra Offel, Digital Marketing Analyst at Eaton 

(5 hours per week for 10 weeks)

Organization: Eaton is a power management company made up of over 92,000 employees, doing business in more than 175 countries. The energy-efficient products and services help the customers to manage electrical, hydraulic, and mechanical power more reliably, efficiently, safely, and sustainably.

Research project: The participants will create characters based on the existing buyer personas and write one blog entry each utilizing the created characters. While the main focus is on marketing, they will also collaborate intensely with colleagues from engineering, the customer experience team, and product management across the whole EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region.

At the core, the goal of marketing is to get the right message to the right consumer. Persona-based storytelling means bringing a buyer persona to life and letting them speak, ensuring that the content is not only tailored but also relatable. A buyer persona is a representation of potential customers, with as much detail about their demographics, career, goals, interests, and pain points as possible. In comparison, a character is a person in a story, used by the writer to perform the actions and speak dialogue, moving the story along a plotline. Persona-based storytelling brings these two elements together by bringing a persona to life and then creating a story through this character’s lens.

The participants will create characters out of the existing personas using the insight of various departments, and present those to the team.

Afterward, they will collaborate intensely with the engineering department to create a short blog entry out of a 1-2 page write-up. At the end of the assignment, the participants will present their findings to leadership.

Required background: Students majoring in Marketing and/or Information Science, Business, Economics, English, Creative Writing or other relevant disciplines, as well as committed students with a high interest in writing and business. 

Online Tutoring for Refugee/Migrant Children or Adults

with Tamara Mijatovic, Station Wien

(5 hours per week for 10 weeks)

Organization: The mission of Station Wien is to create an exchange between different cultures by providing guidance through tutoring and learning support, as well as educational and social events for immigrants and educationally disadvantaged women with children.

Research project: Participants will be paired with school children or adult learner(s) seeking extra learning help. Fields in especially high demand are English and German, but students may be asked to tutor a different subject based on the learner’s needs and the academic background of the Illinois student. Intermediate German skills are required for students tutoring any subject other than English. The project ends with the submission of a short portfolio, in which students reflect on their tutoring experience, their teaching methods, and a critical reflection on the project in general.

Required background: Students across a variety of academic disciplines who are interested in sharing their knowledge and gaining teaching experience. Possible fields are (but not limited to): English, German, Mathematics, Science, etc. For subjects other than English, basic German skills are required. 1-2 students