From YI-CLOSET to Swiss Dual System educational methods

Nowadays, as the sharing economy is constantly encouraged and recognized by the government, sharing apparel is also under the spotlight. Some brands in this industry are quite mature and famous recently, like NSP, YES and X. Following this trend, the students from ISIB 2016 cooperated with a new clothes-renting platform in this autumn. They conducted a heated discussion about the project, “YI-CLOSET Environmental Fashion Sharing Platform”.

During the first visit to the YI-CLOSET headquarter, ISIB students actively interviewed the founder Lan’er and asked about the status quo as well as the vision of the brand. It is this kind of field interview and mutual communication that allows students to feel the urgent needs of the market and clients.

This also conceivably reflects the practicality of Professor Florin Baeriswyl’s "Swiss Dual System" education method, which introduces real business projects into the course and combines field research for students to understand the needs of the brand thoroughly, and to simulate the real case for those who are about to enter the workplace.

Prof. Florin Baeriswyl attended the course and listened to the students’ reports after they brainstormed and planned for half of the semester on October 25th, 2018.

Each of the four groups came up with their own positioning and marketing strategy for YICLOSET. One group positioned it as “rookies at work”, specifically for senior students and graduates with less-than-two-years internship; another group came up with the idea of promoting second-hand clothes through live and photo shooting; another group positioned it as “mobile cloakroom” through cooperation with hotels. Students’ ideas were really interesting and unique.

The follow-up of real business projects is quite different from the simulation case. The “ideas” of students are somewhat restricted and the political, economic, social, science and technology factors must be taken into consideration. The students said "We cannot invest as much as we want in the real project, so we need an enforceable plan. This is something we cannot experience in the simulation case."

Lan’er mentioned in the interview afterwards that she likes all of the plans. She developed that brand not for the fame or short-term return but for the mismatched needs between purchase and usage. Meanwhile, on their way to pursue fashion, many people put a lot of pressure on the environment. And she want to solve such problems. The plans that students put forward, like environmental protection methods, build emotional connection with consumers are very humane entry points rather than some cold commercial figures. These make people's lives full of joy and comfort. In her perspective, a good service brand needs to be people-oriented to allow users to liberate themselves from the invisible complexity of life and improve their living quality.

The project of YI-CLOSET is still going on. And the “Swiss Dual System” educational method is penetrating into students’ daily courses. It has endowed them with the quality, logic and wisdom in business. They felt the charm and joy of business project and branding through this project.