When the thesis process started, it was not clear where it would lead. I wanted to study a subject that was not too familiar to me and educate myself in areas I would need in my work in the future. Digitalization and digital marketing have always interested me, so I started to work by studying data-driven marketing, artificial intelligence in marketing and other “hot topics” in the field. Soon I realized that no matter what the subject was, I kept bumping to the phrase that digital marketing reformations should be based on the existing marketing strategy. At the same time I changed my job inside HAMK and ended up being responsible for marketing which demands developing the marketing processes in the whole organization. This put me to thinking about how to move towards a more strategic marketing planning process and the communications manager and I discussed about how there should be a marketing strategy which
continues and completes HAMK’s business strategy. But what should the marketing strategy contain? As I started to dig into the question, it soon transformed into the key research question of my thesis. When I added my other interest, digitalization in marketing, to the question, the form of my thesis started to build up.
Maintaining an objective vision of the subject and organization during the thesis writing work was quite a challenge. As I work in HAMK’s SCD in the role of being responsible of marketing, the content of this thesis followed me to work and the work followed me home to the thesis writing. As a result, I can be sure that all the information inside the thesis is really relevant to HAMK as I know the subject inside out. But it has also taken away the element of surprise:
if this thesis was made by someone who was not responsible for HAMK’s marketing, maybe there could have been some unexpected findings coming from outside the HEI’s world. When asked employer feedback from the thesis and its process, HAMK’s comments were positive. They think that the frame for HAMK’s marketing strategy will help to develop marketing in HAMK and
supports the decision making in marketing.
Finally, I am really satisfied with the outcomes of this thesis. I am confident that with the frame built in this thesis I can continue to develop a more strategic approach to planning marketing and help myself and others to do so by using the created marketing strategy frame. I am aware that this is a starting point of a long development project and not the final result, but the future work can now start from a studied point of view and not from a hunch – and that is the whole point of this thesis.
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APPENDIX 1 The second version of HAMK’s marketing strategy frame