EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

HILDA GmbH is a Vienna-based start-up founded in 2020, which operates in the market of digital dementia prevention. Their product, a software that helps with prevention and early detection of dementia, is called meineHilda. Since a majority of people underestimate the risk of developing dementia, HILDA is looking for a marketing strategy which targets particularly these neglectors of dementia. Using the design thinking approach, the project team has gained a deep and profound understanding of the target group and, based on that, developed several marketing ideas for HILDA which were tested with the target group.  

Goal

The goal of the project was the development of an effective Marketing
and Communication Strategy for meineHILDA, which targets people who neglect the relevance and urgency of dementia prevention.

Methodology

The approach used for this project is the design thinking method, which is a human centered approach for finding innovative solutions. This method is particularly useful for developing a marketing strategy for a start-up as it allows to circumvent large marketing expenses by getting a deep and profound understanding of the target group and their needs. The method consists of five steps:

1. Emphasize: In this phase, the aim was to gain a general understanding for our target group, their needs, their wishes, fears and desires by conducting over 100 qualitative interviews.

2. Define: In the next stage, the relevant insights were summarized and typical user profiles were created in the form of personas. Moreover, Key Insights were derived which formed the basis for Idea Generation in the next phase.

3. Ideate: In the ideation phase, a large quantity of ideas was generated based on the Key Insights, ranging from traditional marketing measures to highly innovative ideas. The initial 63 ideas were evaluated based on feasibility, innovativeness and customer value and narrowed down to the 10 best marketing ideas.

4. Prototype: Those 10 ideas were prototyped in a quick and economic way for example by digital mock-ups or videos. They formed a first visual representation of the marketing ideas.

5. Test: Finally, the prototypes were used to test the ideas with the target group to gain feedback and insights that can be used to improve the marketing ideas and selecting the most attractive ones.

Results

At the end of the project, HILDA GmbH was presented with ideas and recommendations for their marketing and communication strategy.

Personal touchpoints have been found to be very important for the target group, therefore it is recommended to create these by interacting with the target group e.g. through pop-up stands where the product can be tried. Moreover, a strong desire for reliable information regarding dementia prevention has been identified within the target group. For this reason, HILDA should also focus on becoming a trusted source for this information, which in turn creates awareness for the brand and product. The testing phase confirmed that a combination of marketing measures should be used in order to tap into the full potential of the individual measures (e.g. a combination of pop-up stands, free goodies and picture ads).

The project partner also received a detailed description of their target group as well as customer journeys of their four user personas.

Finally, concrete next steps were outlined to facilitate the implementation of the marketing strategy.

Cooperation Partner

• HILDA GmbH
  Wimmergasse 3
  1050 Wien, Austria
  hilda.pro

Contact Person

• Alexander Stierl
  alexander.stierl@hilda.pro

Student Team

• Lilly Marie Hammerschmidt

• Harpreet Singh

• Robert Lainer

• Hannah Gierlinger

• Martin Nabecker

• Michelle Kellner

Project Manager

• Erik Kommol

• Carola Wandres