Competition win gave students internships at SCA
With a competition entry in the shape of a video, master’s students Charlotte Eriksson and Victor Salén from the School of Business, Economics and Law won the desirable first prize – internships at SCA. With a sustainability approach, they are helping resolve marketing issues for the global hygiene and forest products company.
During the spring term, Charlotte Eriksson and Victor Salén will be writing their master’s thesis. Parallel to this, they will be spending their days at SCA’s new head office in Mölndal, next to Gothenburg. Charlotte, who is from Stockholm, and Victor, who is from Åre in the middle of Sweden, studied as undergraduates in Gothenburg and then continued with the Marketing and Consumption master’s programme.
They have come into contact with SCA several times during the programme. The competition was announced last spring, with students from seven universities around the world invited to compete.
“The challenge was to break the taboo surrounding menstruation. We found the subject both interesting and important. It was fun to take a practical approach to solving a problem. Of course, the prize was also a plus,” says Victor.
They started creating their competition entry by interviewing their classmates, who are from different parts of the world with different backgrounds and values.
“It was very educational and enjoyable. There were some who were very open and felt comfortable talking about menstruation, while there were others who couldn’t even understand why we would want to talk about it,” says Charlotte.
The competition entry was based on humour and the use of social media celebrities, so-called influencer marketing. Their convincing video presentation succeeded in taking them all the way to the winners podium. Since January, they have been conducting their internships at SCA and are part of an innovation project for the Tork brand, conducting market surveys.
“We were involved in deciding what we were to do. We must praise our bosses at SCA for giving us such a great opportunity. We could focus on sustainability, just like we’d wanted to. The importance of sustainability work is something we carry with us from our studies and it offers many benefits, including competitive advantages,” Victor explains.
Getting to work with real market surveys has been a valuable experience. It has also been an eye-opener in how business-to-business works differently from consumer marketing.
“It’s great to be able to actually apply what we’ve learned in school. Now it’s for real – and there’s no cheat sheet – no right or wrong. The company doesn’t already have the answers, instead we have to find them,” Charlotte explains. “It’s fun and we’re really enjoying ourselves!”
“We can really recommend other students to take the chance if it comes up. We’re seeing and learning so much. When we start looking for employment, this will be a good experience to have. It’s also something that differentiates us from other students,” ends Victor, who would like to work with sustainability communication in the future.