Author: Carina Steindl

Title: How digital Developments impact Brand Uniqueness

Subtitle: A Case Study on Personalization and Brand Equity MASTER THESIS

Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Oliver KOLL Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism

University: The University of Innsbruck School of Management

Author: Philipp JUEN, B.A. Innsbruck, May 2019

This thesis has only some similarities to Janina Schindlers and my thesis, but it was the closest I could find. It was done for a Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism major, not a design-related discipline.

Level of design

The Master-Thesis has a pretty basic, standard design. It’s just done with Microsoft Word and there was clearly no focus on any further aesthetics needed.

Degree of innovation

Since it is a case study it is more of a representation of the state-of-the-art in the year 2019.

Independence

Philipp Juen wrote his thesis without company support (he was not paid for it or anything) and without any other team members. There was just the support of his family and his supervisor Univ.-Prof. Dr. Oliver KOLL. In addition, it is clearly visible in the work that the author has given his own thoughts to the researched topic and was thus able to present the connections.

Outline and structure

The work is well structured. Nevertheless, there is a major structural ambiguity. In my opinion I think it is better to place the list of tables, list of figures etc. at the end of the thesis and not in the beginning.

Degree of communication

Basically, the level of communication can be classified as good. Clear definitions of terms are given in the right place. This guides the reader well through the topic. However, there are some chapters in which many visual facts are described that could be made easier to understand with the support of pictures or graphics.

Scope of the work

I consider the total length of 93 pages to be appropriate for a master’s thesis. The topics are presented precisely and comprehensively.

Orthography and accuracy

Spelling as well as grammar, sentence structure etc. are in order. There are no serious errors to be found.

Literature

The number of sources used seems appropriate. The ratio of online sources to specialist literature (clear predominance of specialist literature) is also okay. However, the bibliography could be clearer, despite the alphabetical order (e.g. by dividing it into books, journals, etc.).

Just recently I ordered a dress. Actually two dresses, but it was the same one just in different colors. You might wonder why? So, my sister is going to get married in August and I just fell in love with this dress at first sight.

It all started with a simple Instagram add and well, I just thought that nothing like this would ever happen to me, because I am way too smart and well educated for stuff like this (haha got a good reality check there). To be honest I was a little bit naive for believing that Instagram would do background checks on adds. Guess, what that is no happening! So, after clicking on the add I got forwarded to another page which seemed nice at the first sight.

I didn’t really read anything i just picked out the green and the blue variant of the dress and was super happy about the price, which should have been a broad hint, but well whatever. The next hint should have been that my credit card was declined three times, but hell I really wanted this dress. So, long story short, I asked my dad about his credit card and et voilà it worked.

Throughout all this time I did not even realize that something might be off about this page. I just was just wearing the so-called rose-colored glasses. The first time I got a bad feeling was when I did not receive an order confirmation, but still I really really wanted this dress so I just ignored it. Also, I told myself that this might be my own fault because I was deleting millions of e-mails like a crazy person this week and so maybe I just deleted it by accident.

However, after seemingly never ending three to four weeks of waiting for my holy grail I started suspecting something. Also did my father, who guess what, was not really happy about all of this. So, I decided to contact the customer support. Still hoping that there has just been some kind of mistake, but after receiving the first answer I kind of knew that something was just not the way it should be:

Dear customer, 

Thanks for your support and concern on our store.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused. The items are out of stock before, we have gathered some back and they arrived our warehouse today ,  we have wrapped it and will send it out within 3-5 days. The tracking number and tracking link would be emailed after shipment. Thank you for your patience.

Do., 22. Apr., 04:11

A week or so later, still no tracking number, no order number, no nothing. I wrote them again. This time I told them I would cancel the order and the payment and surprise surprise I got another answer from them including a tracking number and a site where I could track my package.

Once the order was shipped out, the tracking status will take a few days to be updated online by the shipper. 
Therefore, please hold on for 3-5 business days and try again later. 

Tracking number is UF850430075YP, this is tracking site: https://www.17track.net/en , you can follow it easily. 

Very sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.

05.05.2021, 04:33

If you click on this link you will get redirected to another page and if you then try to search for the tracking number, guess what, it will not be found. This was the point where my father and I actually tried to cancel the payment via the credit card institute just to find out that because of entering his 3D secure code the company can not do anything at all. As we learned, as soon as you enter you 3D secure code somewhere, you release the payment and there is no turning back.

Despite all of the previously mentioned stuff, I got another e-mail today with another tracking number etc.

As you probably already thought, there is still no validation.

Long story short, I got scammed and now I have to find another dress for the wedding. Shit happens…

Correction: The dresses arrived, but guess that’s what feeling scammed feels like.