Vodafone Malta recently invited marketing students from St Aloysius College, Junior College and the University of Malta to their premises at Skyparks to give them a taster of what it means to work at a corporate company, sit around a table and rack one’s brains in the same way Vodafone’s marketing executives do on a day-to-day basis.

Vodafone Malta insights executive Keith Sammut asked the students to identify their target audience and build a persona of their ideal customer. They were then asked to come up with a product and a go-to-market plan.

“By knowing your persona intimately – their interests, hobbies, methods of communication, challenges they face and how they spend their time and their money – you can determine what their needs are and, consequently, how best to create products and services that serve them better,” said Mr Sammut.

University student George Zammit Montebello, who is also the president of Communications student association CommA, professed that he had never done persona building in such detail before. “It was great fun and it was good to hear from industry professionals and people who are actively working in the field. It was also especially refreshing to see how the theoretical concepts we are taught in class are applied in real life in a practical and tangible manner.”

Brian Mifsud, marketing senior lecturer at the Junior College, encouraged other companies to offer similar workshops: “Companies can benefit from giving a face to their brand and bringing the brand closer to students. Such initiatives also serve as excellent corporate social responsibility platforms.

“My students really enjoyed it – the practical application of marketing theory is of great value to them and they benefit from getting exposure to an actual workplace and seeing the real thing in action. It also served as a great team building exercise for them.”