We welcome Bachelor and Master students to write their thesis at the Institute for Marketing and Customer Insight. We generally offer students a choice from a variety of topics for bachelor’s or master’s theses.
Bachelor & Master Theses
We offer a range of exciting marketing topics for bachelor's and master's theses and provide complete supervision, from the choosing of a subject through to submission.
Process
Students can find the topics in the list below. If we do not have a suitable topic advertised, a proactive application is possible. Please familiarize yourself with the research areas of our professors and PhD students and address your proposal (see questions below) to the person who best fits your research project. Supervision of topics from outside this list is possible only to a limited extent.
Before you begin, please make sure that you fulfill the following requirements:
- Make sure you know and comply with the rules and regulations of the Dean’s Advisory Office concerning your specific program.
- Be ready to start working on your thesis (more than 50% share of work time per week) within the next three months.
- Be willing and actively plan to complete your thesis within nine months after you’ve started your work.
If you fulfill the above requirements, we invite you to continue with the application process.
Sign-up process:
- Fill out the form below: This form requires you to write a first draft of your outline. To ensure a successful outcome, we ask you to take enough time to do this and follow our guidelines.
- Confirmation e-mail: As soon as you submit your details you will receive a confirmation email.
- Feedback on the Evaluation: You will receive feedback on your outline, including the decision on whether or not we will supervise your thesis. Please bear in mind that we cannot accept all applications since we have limited capacity.
- Appointment: hould you receive positive feedback: meeting & completion of your outline. As a general rule, “feedback” takes the form of an invitation to a personal appointment with your future supervisor. After this meeting, you will revise and resubmit your outline draft along with your filled-out and signed sign-up sheet (see Dean’s Advisory Office web pages) via email to your supervisor. We will print out your registration form, physically sign it and return it to you so that you can submit it to the Dean’s Advisory Office. On request, this can also be done by email.
Topics
Everyone knows them, everyone loves them. Brands generate emotions, create trust, convey values. But how do you actually become a brand?
In contrast to already established brands, start-up branding is about organic development from the ground up. What does research have to say on the subject? Which approaches have proven successful in the past? How can startups leverage key moments such as television shows, successful collaborations, or a post that has gone viral as best as possible for brand building? How have other successful startups in the lifestyle segment created a brand? The thesis will be written in cooperation with PAPYDO.
Target group: Bachelor or Master Students
Language: English or German
The problem is widespread and affects almost every company: At certain times, there are extreme fluctuations in demand compared to the average demand throughout the year. Wrapping paper is a product highly susceptible to this seasonality, as it is used primarily during the holiday season. Targeted marketing is a tool that can help companies break out of their niche, whether seasonal or product-specific. Many companies, such as Nutella, which is now marketing its “breakfast” product as a “baking” product, have already demonstrated how it can be done. What other successful strategies are there and which can be applied to the gift packaging market? The thesis will be written in cooperation with PAPYDO.
Target group: Bachelor or Master Students
Language: English or German
Customer Success Management zielt darauf ab, dass der Kunde mit dem Produkt bzw. der Dienstleistung nicht nur zufrieden, sondern vor allem damit erfolgreich ist. Das Berufsbild des Customer Success Managers (CSM) gilt dabei als relativ neu.
Mögliche Themen in dem Gebiet wären:
- CSM als Berufskategorie – Vergleich unterschiedlicher Branchen
- Strategien im Customer Success Management
- Rolle bzw. Profil eines Customer Success Managers
- Aufstellen von Customer Success Teams
- Schnittstellen des Customer Success Managements
- Customer Success Management & Kundenloyalität
- Etc.
Target group: Bachelor or Master Students
Language: English or German
- Capabilities: Which marketing & sales competencies do we need in 2030?
- How to combine intelligence (data collection & analytics) and creativity (empathy, uniqueness, usefulness) in marketing?
- In- & outsourcing in marketing: Increased efficiency & flexibility via an inhouse agency?
- Hiring for talent (data scientists, creatives, cross-disciplinary teams), especially recruiting via social media
Target group: MiMM and SIM Students
Language: English or German
- Evaluation of all central customer-oriented structures, functions, and processes: ensuring a customer-oriented form of organization
- How should the future marketing department interact with other company areas?
- Fostering understanding within marketing (e.g., translating data into insight)
- New work in marketing and new forms & technologies for flexible & agile collaboration
- Employee activism in marketing & sales
- Ensuring diversity and inclusiveness in marketing teams
Target group: MiMM and SIM Students
Language: English or German
The Buying Center Concept has been a major step in explaining organizational purchasing behavior (Johnston & Bonoma, 1981). While the research foundation for this concept is strong, in the past few years, marketing research has focused on new phenomena and concepts (e. g. Macdonnald, Kleinaltenkamp, & Wilson, 2018). With the acceleration of digitization not least due to Covid-19 in the past few months, there is urgent need to update our understanding of the buying center by integrating recent developments in marketing research and further analyzing the concept.
Target group: MiMM and SIM Students
Language: English or German
Intensive Zusammenarbeit mit dem Institut für Marketing & Customer Insight (Führungskräfteweiterbildung) sowie mit der Agentur Dr. Marc Rutschmann AG; qualitative Befragung von (Nicht-)Seminarteilnehmenden; Erstellen einer Kundenprozessanalyse; Herauskristallisieren von Magic Moments; kritische Evaluation
Target group: MiMM and SIM Students
Language: English or German
Most B2B decisions are buying center decisions – whether they involve equipment transactions, IT investment decisions, or the listing of cancer drugs in a hospital. Different models distinguish decision makers, users, influencers, gatekeepers and information selectors or expert and power promoters. The aim of the thesis would be to critically reflect the current state of the discussion in science and practice. Furthermore, it should be shown which strategies for influencing buying center decisions are successful in which situation.
Target group: MiMM and SIM Students
Language: English or German
Wann und in welcher Form ist Marketing für Spitäler erlaubt? Welche besonderen Einschränkungen gibt es? Wie ist der Stand in der Praxis? Welche Graubereiche gibt es? Wie sind die Unterschiede im deutschsprachigen Raum? Besonderheiten für das Online-Marketing?
Target group: MiMM and SIM Students
Language: German
Proposal
Contact
Katja Söllner
Seminar- & Event Organization / Assistant to Prof. Dr. Sven Reinecke
Phone:
+41 71 224 28 73