A consultancy project that tasks students with working on a live business problem has helped a De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) student secure a coveted role at home furnishing giant Dunelm.

Daisy-May Peberdy secured a role as a social media executive at the company, having completed a Business Research Project (BRP) that explored ways that TikTok can be utilised as a business-to-business tool.

Daisy Dunelm

The BRP replaces the traditional dissertation and is open to postgraduate marketing courses students, allowing them to work on a live business problem provided to the university by both local and national companies.

Students undertaking the BRP will meet with their business of choice either virtually or in-person to discuss their brief before they are tasked with producing a 10,000-word report, which is later submitted to the company for its consideration.

Passionate about social media, Daisy had started working with Leicester-based merchandise specialists Everything Branded while studying for her master's. She based her BRP on the company as it looked to launch on TikTok for the first time.

She believes her experience on the BRP was very influential in helping her secure her social media role at Dunelm.

Daisy said: 'I don't think I would have gotten my job at Dunelm if it wasn't for the BRP. It's such a good opportunity to work with a business organisation and feed into its strategy.

'My BRP was self-sourced, so I sat down with my manager at Everything Branded and asked what the business needed. They were very keen to create a TikTok and utilise its Shop feature, so I based my report on ways businesses can use the platform to market themselves to other companies.

'TikTok is primarily a consumer-based social platform, so I had a lot of research to do and meetings with both my tutors at DMU and managers to discuss my findings.

'That knowledge really fed well into my interview with Dunelm, which itself is looking to launch on TikTok in the future. I was tasked to put together a TikTok social media strategy for an upcoming campaign in my interview and used the skills I learned from the BRP and my master's to create a professional document.

'And now that I secured that role, I will be implementing my strategy to launch Dunelm on TikTok, which is incredibly exciting for me.

'I also believe that Everything Branded has launched a subsidiary company too, Everything Swag, which is largely based on the TikTok strategy laid out in my BRP, which makes me very proud.'

Each year, new businesses offer briefs for students to work towards. This September marked the end of the long-running relationship between gaming juggernaut EA Sports and international football governing body FIFA, a split which will see the FIFA license dropped from the next game in EA's illustrious series.

The split was the basis of EA Sports' BRP brief and tasked DMU students with researching potential competition for their upcoming game, EA Sports FC 24, as well as opportunities to help the renowned publisher grow their already impressive social media following.

Among the students to work on the brief was Jawahra AlAwadh, who studied for a Master's in Strategic and Digital Marketing, and relished working on EA Sports' project.

She said: 'Working with a big company however threw up a couple of different challenges. Their presence is already very big and they've established so many strategies that it can be hard to think of suggestions.

'I focussed my research predominantly on the company's social media platforms and how it can boost its presence, particularly on TikTok. The brand has already created collaborations with celebrities, which received a lot of engagement but stopped posting soon after. As it's such a fast-growing platform, I put forward some ways to better utilise the account to boost engagement.

'The BRP has been of great value to me as it has improved my marketing research skills and helped me identify that there is still a possibility of improving marketing strategies that can be applied to expand its audience and gain other competitive advantages.'

Combined with her master's certificate, the BRP is already opening up new job prospects for the 26-year-old back in her native Kuwait.

Having impressed on first interviews with Zain Group and Alshaya - two of the most influential companies in the Middle East - Kawaha hopes to build her career in marketing and has been invited back for further interviews with the companies.

Associate Professor David Gordon, Advertising and Public Relations Management MSc programme lead, said: 'The BRP is designed to give students an authentic consultancy project, providing them material for their CV, LinkedIn, and to discuss at interviews. It is employability-relevant coursework that demonstrates how their researching skills and talents can provide the remedy for actual commercial situations.

'From 25 years in industry and 20 years recruiting graduates, this is exactly the type of assessment that gives graduates the tools for successful job applications'.

(C) 2022 Electronic News Publishing, source ENP Newswire