As the fashion industry accounts for over 10% of global CO2 missions, the need for behavioural shifts toward sustainable practices is critical. This thesis explores how digital tools—specifically the Digital Product Passport (DPP) and Statiegeld (a deposit-return mechanism)—can be strategically designed to engage consumers in circular fashion behaviours. Conducted as a case study with New Optimist, a sustainable slow fashion company based in Amsterdam, the research investigates how these tools can facilitate sustainable action, enhance brand engagement, and address systemic barriers such as low consumer awareness and practical friction.
A mixed-methods approach was adopted, consisting of qualitative interviews, a quantitative survey with segmentation analysis, and co-creative workshops with customers with predefined segments, triangulation the data. These methods informed a three-horizon design strategy. Horizon 1 involved redesigning the DPP and Statiegeld system for clarity, accessibility, and cross-segment usability. Horizon 2 introduced Statiegeld Plus, a brand-integrated loyalty app embedding circular participation through rewards and Augmented Product Features. Horizon 3 proposed Statiegeld Global, a scalable consortium model inviting other sustainable fashion brands to join, facilitating cross-brand exploration and trust through standardised implementation of DPP and Statiegeld systems.
Findings emphasise the importance of embedding sustainability into the product experience, rather than positioning it as a separate brand narrative. The proposed design supports both consumer empowerment and brand innovation, offering a robust and adaptive system for sustainable engagement. Recommendations are made for further research into system viability, reward mechanisms, and onboarding strategies for external brands.

This thesis explores the strategic market entry of Creative Wall Paint, a new product by Royal Talens, under the Amsterdam All Acrylics brand. With the company's expansion into wall paint production, the research aims to determine the most feasible, viable, and desirable approach for launching and positioning the product within a competitive market.

Through an extensive market, consumer, and competitor analysis, the study identifies Creative Home Improvers as the primary target group, individuals who seek personalised and artistic interior design solutions beyond traditional wall painting. The research reveals that differentiation is essential, as the wall paint market is highly competitive and dominated by established brands.

The findings suggest that Creative Wall Paint should not be positioned as a conventional product but rather as a creative tool that enables artistic self-expression. A multi-channel marketing strategy is proposed, leveraging digital engagement, influencer collaborations, and retail partnerships to reach and inspire consumers. Additionally, the study emphasises the importance of educational support, curated colour palettes, and creative guidance, ensuring accessibility and confidence for users.

By implementing this strategy, Royal Talens can successfully diversify into the Interior DIY market, expanding its consumer base while maintaining the artistic credibility of the Amsterdam All Acrylics brand. The research provides a structured Product-Service System (PSS) for launching Creative Wall Paint, ensuring a differentiated market position and long-term growth potential.

PEZY, a design agency specializing in product development and wheelchair designs, explores innovative opportunities in custom wheelchair solutions. This report begins with a comprehensive analysis of the wheelchair industry, distinguishing between developed and developing countries based on different market demands. While developed markets emphasize highly adaptable and ergonomic wheelchairs, developing countries prioritize affordability, durability, and ergonomic designs.

The focus shifts to the potential of developing country markets, where PEZY identifies promising opportunities due to significant unmet needs and limited competition. Kenya serves as a case study, revealing robust demand for wheelchairs and highlighting challenges. The supply chain analysis underscores the involvement of stakeholders, including governments and aid organizations, essential for wheelchair distribution in challenging areas. The competitive landscape offers further insights into PEZY's potential entry into this market.

To address these insights, together with PEZY a value proposition was formulated with a self-build, custom-fit wheelchair concept. To improve PEZY market position strategic alliances with stakeholders are pivotal for market entry and validation. A phased roadmap guides product development, from initial design feedback to pilot testing and market launch.

The report affirms the viability of wheelchair innovation in developing countries, emphasizing PEZY's strategic alignment with aid organizations for sustainable market penetration. By leveraging alliances and funding, PEZY aims to introduce impactful wheelchair solutions.

This Master’s thesis investigates strategies for Yonderland, Europe's largest premium outdoor retailer, to attract and retain Generation Z, a demographic not previously targeted by the company. Through extensive research, including qualitative and quantitative methods, a literature review, interviews with stakeholders, and multiple creative sessions, a comprehensive strategy was formulated for Yonderland and the focus subsidiaries — Bever, A.S Adventure, and Cotswold Outdoor — to appeal to Generation Z's unique preferences and behaviors. Key findings reveals Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2010, as digital natives who value social consciousness, authenticity, and transparency in their brand interactions. This demographic heavily relies on social commerce and peer recommendations, incorporating digital seamlessly into their lifestyles, which influences their loyalty and purchasing decisions. Despite an interest in premium outdoor products, Yonderland initially overlooked the potential of engaging with this demographic, missing significant sale opportunities. The research suggests a strategic pivot towards building authentic connections with Generation Z by emphasizing environmental and social values, and utilizing digital platforms like TikTok for effective engagement. Highlighting the role of over a million Gen Z creators on social media, the strategy focuses on leveraging these influencers to foster genuine interactions and product discovery, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and relatability in marketing efforts. The research critiques Yonderland's existing loyalty programs for their transactional focus, which fails to resonate with Generation Z's values of self-expression, inclusivity, and personalization. It further identifies issues such as a one-size-fitsall approach, lack of meaningful customer journey integration, and underutilization of customer data for personalized experiences. This misalignment underscores the need for a strategic overhaul of Yonderland’s loyalty programs to resonate with Generation Z’s values of self-expression, inclusivity, and personalization. To address these challenges, the thesis suggests an overhaul of these programs to better align with Generation Z's expectations, needs and values. It proposes a shift towards a premium paid membership propositions that emphasizes customer engagement, community building, and personalization through the introduction of a Customer Data Platform, Atelier Café, and Membership App. The new strategy aims to enhance customer engagement, loyalty, and community building, positioning Yonderland to better meet Generation Z’s sophisticated needs while redefining retail customer experiences through connectivity and a focus on sustainability. The Customer Data Platform is designed to enable Yonderland to play a more relevant role in their customers’ digital lives, transitioning from fragmented customer insights to a comprehensive understanding of customer needs and behaviors. This marks a shift towards more relevant digital engagement. The Atelier Café is introduced as a community hub for member events, circularity, and craftsmanship, serving as a focal point for community engagement, workshops, and events that resonate with Generation Z’s values focused on sustainability and craftsmanship. Meanwhile, the Membership App enhances discovery, community, and personalized experiences across its Discovery, Shop, Service, and Community Pages, revolutionizing Yonderland’s engagement and diverging from conventional retail practices towards embracing sustainability and community. This integrated approach signifies a move away from traditional retail models, fostering a more connected and personalized customer experience. This approach, along with leveraging TikTok as the primary marketing channel and launching the Member Days, aligns closely with Generation Z’s preferences, aiming to boost brand visibility, loyalty, and growth by fostering authentic connections. To seamlessly integrate this new paid membership proposition into Yonderland’s offerings, a futurestate service blueprint has been developed alongside a strategic roadmap. The thesis concludes that Yonderland can successfully attract and retain Generation Z by aligning its strategies with the demographic's preferences for authenticity, community-building, and environmental and societal values.

CM.com is a conversational commerce company specialised in offering solutions in CPaas (Communication Platforms as a service). One of the industries to which they point their ‘software as a service’ is music event ticketing. With their General Admission (GA) Ticketing product, CM provides event organizers with a platform to set-up their ticket sales process, sell tickets, handle event registrations, communicate with visitors, and support other event logistics.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant effect on consumer behaviour related to music events and festivals. Event organizers must innovate in their offering to stay relevant to consumers within the overcrowded market. This has led to changes in organizer’s needs and priorities regarding their ticketing platform. CM needs to respond in their service offering to stay relevant in the market and fulfil their client’s needs. In combination with the desire to leverage the potential of their product portfolio better, CM seeks to identify new opportunities in the way their ticketing product is designed and delivered to their client.

The project involves creating a holistic perspective of the project context and involved stakeholders through gathering extensive qualitative data, taking a service design perspective. The gathered information serves as fundamental knowledge to co-create towards a new strategic service proposition, combining user-research, industry trends and strategic competitive positioning with CM’s technological potential.

The results conclude CM’s ticketing product should be developed towards “Facilitating the Easy creation of Rich & Effective omni-channel communication touchpoints for event organisers.” This proposition aims to facilitate organisers to adopt a progressive, data-driven approach to communication between organiser and consumer. Data allows for effectively targeting consumers in a personalized way, boosting the conversion of communication touchpoints. Working with this data proposition should be designed for non-data experts, making the workflow for the creation of data driven communication touchpoints as easy as possible. Ultimately, the proposition seeks to enable organizers to create more points of engagement between organiser and consumer over a rich array of channels and purposes, contributing to a unique and pleasant visitor experience.

To deliver this value proposition to clients, three development stages must be completed. Firstly, the focus should be put on improving the fundamental functionalities through which organisers gain knowledge through data, whereafter its usability should be improved. Finally, the communication possibilities to improve the visitor experience should be enriched. The proposed final service proposition is concretized through UX-use cases, illustrating the proposed user-flow on an interaction level.

Due to CM’s unfamiliarity with the design process and the different internal project teams working in silos, additional guidance is provided to embed the project outcomes effectively. The guidance in the shape of a visual overview describing the service proposition’s value in terms of desirability, viability, and feasibility aims to persuade company-wide value. However, this does not guarantee implementation within CM. Additionally, a “From Research to Development Guide” facilitates the product team to work towards the proposed service proposition with the created product materials, ensuring a user-centred process.

This report describes the graduation project in collaboration with Total Design (TD), a creative agency specialised in Branding, Communications and Technology. The primary objective of this thesis is to enhance the internal collaboration between these three domains. To achieve this goal, the study explores the barriers to collaboration, using co-creation sessions with TD employees as a key method to gather insights. The process follows a general approach consisting of four phases, Exploring the Current Context, Reframing the Problem, Creating Opportunities to Improve Collaboration and Catalyse Synergy Creation at TD, each described in its dedicated chapter.

Leveraging co-creation sessions and interviews with employees of TD, the study shows that the internal team’s focus is seen as the main barrier to multidisciplinary collaboration within TD. This focus stems from team-specific targets, that discourage collaborative efforts between teams and cause each team to prioritise their own proposition to clients. As a result, clients are unaware of other services offered by TD and employees under-utilise the expertise of their colleagues. This internal team focus comes from TD’s existing organisational structure. Therefore, a new organisational structure is proposed as the final solution for TD. The proposed organisational structure introduces dynamic, project-based teams that replace traditional, static teams, facilitating fluid cross-domain collaboration and enabling a more agile response to client needs. The expected positive impact of the final design for clients is a broader service offering and improved client satisfaction, and enhanced learning and innovation for employees of TD.

The report concludes with recommendations for the adoption of the new structure and recommendations for future work. The first aim to mitigate the reorganisation’s potential challenges, like coordination & communication and a loss of team identity and include involving employees for successful implementation. The latter suggested areas for further research, including broadening the focus group, incorporating diverse research methodologies and conducting follow-up studies to assess the impact of the changes implemented.

The findings provide valuable insights into employees’ perception of the current situation, the barriers to collaboration and the desire for engaging employees in decision making. To align with employee demands and enhance multidisciplinary collaboration, TD is recommended to transition towards the proposed organisational structure that facilitates dynamic project team configurations.

Innovation is critical in driving economic growth. It fosters new products and services to move the economy forward. On the other hand, innovation requires new technologies to thrive. One such technology that has revolutionised various industries is big data. By harnessing big data, businesses can unlock valuable insights to enhance decision-making processes and ultimately encourage innovation across sectors. While big data holds the potential to drive innovation and economic growth, managing big data-enabled digital product innovation projects is challenging. Organisations need the resources, knowledge, and skills to manage these projects. In addition, companies should also be aware of the privacy and security risks associated with these big data innovation projects. Considering all the many factors influencing big data innovation projects, it is necessary to understand how they impact these projects in order to manage them well. This doctoral project answers the main research question: How do companies develop big data analytics capabilities in digital product innovation? This doctoral research identifies the different factors that influence big data innovation projects and reveals the mechanisms behind how these factors influence each other and affect digital product innovation. This research contains a multiple-case study with four cases to explore the answers to the research questions. The case studies analysed four new digital service development projects from four big companies operating in different industries (i.e. transportation, internet, navigation, and cybersecurity) in the past five years. In these cases, big data from various sources are used as input for machine learning and statistical models to enable digital product innovation. For collecting research data for this study, the semi-structured interview protocol was used, focusing on the process of using big data in innovation projects, the challenges and factors that affect this process, and its consequences. This study’s findings highlight the mechanism of how antecedents influence big data analytics capabilities (BDAC) and subsequently impact innovation performance. The study applies the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities view as theoretical frameworks to clarify the mechanism behind enhancing innovation performance. It investigates the antecedents of BDAC constructs, explores the interactions among these constructs, and evaluates their effects on innovation performance. This research enriches the existing literature by revealing how BDAC constructs promote their development, unveiling the dynamics within BDAC, and emphasising the vital role of data variety. Furthermore, it extends the literature by uncovering novel connections between dynamic capabilities and BDAC and between environmental uncertainty and BDAC, broadening the scope of environmental uncertainty and examining the effects of BDAC constructs on innovation performance. For practitioners, this research suggests that innovation performance can be ultimately improved by enhancing data variety and establishing supportive internal and external environments for BDAC.

This report presents the findings and recommendations of a research project focused on developing a comprehensive strategy for commercial smallholder farmers in urban and semi-urban areas of Kumasi, Ghana. The objective was to co-create a strategy that addresses the specific needs and challenges of farmers in the region. The research involved extensive field visits, interviews, and collaboration with farmers, stakeholders, and relevant institutions.

The study identified three design challenges: developing a B2B strategy for farmers, enhancing farmers' brand awareness through marketing, and improving communication between market queens and farmers. In-depth interviews concluded that prioritizing the B2B strategy would be most beneficial due to demand from restaurants and hotels. Based on the chosen design challenge, strategic and tactical roadmaps were developed, drawing from literature research and coded interview transcripts. The roadmap consists of three horizons.

The first horizon focuses on enhancing cooperation among farmers within a farmer organization to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their produce sales. This involves building a brand identity and establishing a strong sales structure.

The second horizon centers around raising awareness among farmer organizations through various advertising channels, with a particular emphasis on packaging. Packaging plays a crucial role in extending shelf life, developing a strong brand identity, and enabling traceability. Efforts at the farmer level aim to increase brand awareness and drive customer demand for the farmer organization's produce. Students will also be involved in understanding brand development and designing effective marketing materials.

The third and final horizon focuses on securing storage and cooling facilities that can be collectively utilized by farmer associations. These facilities, provided by the government, are contingent upon farmers' progress and achievements. Additionally, an educational component is proposed, targeting students at Kwadaso Agricultural College through workshops that highlight the importance of advertising, storage and cooling spaces, and collaborative efforts among farmers.

The production of denim harms the environment, and given the industry’s size, the negative impact is significant. Therefore, denim must be produced more sustainably. In order to bring about change in the industry, an increase in demand for eco-friendly jeans is necessary to incentivise investments in sustainable production methods. Here, low-cost clothing brands and retailers can play a crucial role. With their substantial share in the denim industry and their connection to consumers, they have the ability to grow demand through effective Sustainability Communication. Unfortunately, their efforts currently overwhelm and confuse consumers, consequently damaging consumers’ green buying intentions. Therefore, this thesis, in collaboration with House of Denim, a non-profit striving for a more sustainable denim industry, investigates how low-cost brands and retailers can adapt their Sustainability Communication to ultimately increase the popularity of sustainable jeans.

To find a solution, this thesis examines the inter-organisational relations in the current system for SC, the brand's and retailers’ experience of the system and future notions by means of interviews and a literature study.

The investigation of the current system uncovered the multifaceted complexity that causes the SC shortcomings of low-budget brands and retailers. The inter-organisational challenges that contribute to this complexity are the indefinite and incomplete means of authorities that fall short in offering the industry constructive guidance. In addition, internal challenges from brands and retailers contribute to the complexity as their commercial strategy is in conflict with sustainability efforts; they operate individually and end up discouraged. On top of that, the competitive nature of the fashion industry, driven by seasonality, and fast-changing trends on low price points makes it challenging for low-cost brands and retailers to prioritise sustainable efforts.
Nevertheless, upcoming European legislation and showcasing eco-efforts to consumers are the predominant motivators for these businesses to invest in sustainable practices.

To overcome the complexity, brands and retailers must collaborate to level the playing field for SC towards consumers. Therefore, the final design is a proposal for a Dutch Denim Coalition. It presents the vision in a storytelling poster, suggests a strategy to build the coalition and offers dialogue starters. The coalition unites brands and retailers and connects them with knowledge and experts. The goal is to encourage managers from brands and retailers to adopt the same principles for sustainable denim and collectively work on improving the current system for SC.

This thesis highlights the fundamental issues that hinder the change of these low-cost clothing brands and retailers. It emphasises the significance of involving non-sustainable brands and retailers in sustainability discussions, as they represent a large part of the denim market and cannot be ignored. Hence, the design suggests a new direction for House of Denim which revives and enlarges the impact of their resources with a more inclusive view of the denim industry. Ultimately, it brings them one step closer to their vision; a Brighter Blue.

Imagine you show something that you made to a client, and all they give you is the following feedback:

“Just make it pop!”

So.. what do you do with this? Nobody really knows.. and it may surprise you, but this is not a made-up example. This is existing feedback from real clients.

The main focus of this project, therefore, lies in improving this kind of client feedback. In particular, feedback in a brand identity creation process.

A brand identity is a unique and recognisable set of associations about a company that sets you apart from the competition. It is a complex combination of elements and needs a structured creation process. The result needs to resonate with its customers, differentiate the brand from competitors, and at the same time, represent what an organisation can and will do over time. To make sure all these different elements are appropriately incorporated, good communication between a client and an agency is essential.

The agency involved in this project is Dentsu Creative Amsterdam. Within DCA, communication concerning creating brand identities is established through the client providing feedback on the presented work. However, to understand what the client means, this communication needs to be very clear, which, as demonstrated above, is currently not the case.

Therefore, this graduation project aims to create an approach that makes the feedback given on the brand identity creation process more effective. This should result in a more structured and efficient feedback process, saving time while ensuring the same quality of work and preventing any unneeded frustrations between the client and the agency.

The final design is a tool that educates the client on effective feedback and guides them through the whole feedback process. The structure of the form is dependent on the decisions made by the client as they get different follow-up questions based on the feedback they give. After validation with a real client, it is concluded that the use of this tool leads to more effective client feedback in the brand identity creation process.

Heineken wants to become more popular under generations Y and Z. Therefore, the Heineken Design and Sustainability team want to create the Heineken Innovation Lab. The HLab aims to be a playground for co-creation, a mix between a bar and design space.
However, co-creating means sharing unfinished ideas, innovations, and opinions with people outside the company. Heineken is a legacy brand and has a strict brand policy to ensure the brand's premium quality is maintained. Poorly executed creations or prototypes might water down the Heineken brand.
It is difficult for Heineken to relinquish their strict brand principles because they fear damaging or hurting the brand. However, these strict principles can overshadow creative space when working on the disruptive innovation the HLab wants.
This thesis aims to solve the following Research Question: How to set up a design and innovation process that balances creative freedom with a legacy brand and aims to create novel prototypes in the Innovation Lab of a multinational organisation?
The double diamond method is used in this thesis as a base for the process, which cuts the project into four distinguished phases: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver. This method provides the necessary structure for organising diverging and converging phases.
This research uses literature and interviews to gain insights into how to co-create without damaging a brand and what elements of Innovation methods the HLab should use. Furthermore, this thesis collaborates with the HLab team and external agencies during two workshops and several meetings. The workshops are used to realign the parties involved in the HLab and create a common ground and theme on which GenYZ can connect with Heineken.
The research found that there is no readymade method that the HLab can use to innovate with GenYZ. Rather, this thesis shows that combining elements of popular methods already proven to work within other Innovation Labs is a better option. This thesis finally proposes a specially crafted Innovation Flowchart for the HLab.
This Flowchart satisfies most requirements that were determined in the Discover and Develop phases. The Flowchart is based on Design Thinking, Lean and Open-Innovation methodologies.
Moreover, this thesis also found that Heineken and GenYZ have enough common ground to connect. The design of the Theme and Exploration Roadmap shows just one of the many possibilities to engage GenYZ with the Heineken brand effectively.
The thesis concludes by advising Heineken on how to start the process. The HLab should start by giving more authority to GenYZ and choosing believable external creatives who can be affiliated with Heineken. To protect the Heineken brand, the HLab should carefully pick communities or groups of like-minded GenYZ collaborators for co-creation and could use a sub-brand for outward communication.

The world is facing a climate crisis. We are polluting the earth with high CO2 emissions and waste. In addition to this, the human population is ever-growing. This results in a demand for more products, which will create even more waste. Products that are predominantly made of raw materials. Meanwhile, the global economy is only 7,2% circular and this situation is getting worse year after year.

While on the one hand, there is a desire for raw materials, and on the other hand, there are ever-growing piles of waste, there is an opportunity to meet the two. The growing desire for repurposing waste streams creates fruitful ground for businesses that focus on waste stream innovation, like Renewi. Renewi currently enables the circular economy by giving new life to used materials. It positions itself as the leading waste-to-product company in the world’s most advanced circular economies. To stay a leader in recycling and the production of secondary materials, an ambitious goal is created, called Mission 75. This goal is to recycle 75% of Renewi’s collected waste in 2025. This is 10% more compared to 2020, where 64,7% of the collected waste was recycled. The only way to get to this 75% is through improving current activities and being innovative. By all means, after reaching Mission 75 the goal will without doubt rise to 80% or 85%.

Being an innovative company calls for having a proficient innovative process. This process entails a dynamic workforce keen to engage in innovation activities and is well-informed about ongoing activities. Being innovative is one of Renewi’s core values. Yet, the current innovation process doesn't work optimally, while it is challenging to spread an innovation mindset across a large, geographically widespread company with various working cultures. This paper endeavours to contribute to this objective by addressing the research question: “How can the innovation process of Renewi be improved to enable the company to recycle more and at a higher quality?”.

One of the largest trends among young adults concerning the camping industry is the vanlife movement. As ANWB requested research into targeting Gen Z with their camping portfolio, this project dives into an analysis of the current market trends, the company and its industry and the consumer and their behavior. The ultimate goal of the project is to answer the research question: What business strategy can be designed for ANWB to activate Generation Z to become members of the association through the camping portfolio of the company?
The process starts off with orientation, using variable research techniques to gain insight into the context of the problem. It became clear that ANWB is not currently targeting the selected demographic audience well, as both their offering and their branding does not suit the consumer’s demands. Using this as the problem source, an explorative search on trends and the consumer lead to various more insights that allows for the strategy to be detailed later on in the process.
After elaborating on the widespread initial research, this document discusses the design process that has been followed. Using the first ideation round to narrow down the scope towards vanlife, a deeper dive into the consumer behavior is derived from qualitative interview. Insights into vanlife enthusiasts identifies three value drivers linked to their experience: freedom through unrestrained travel, joy of building, and the expression of identity through creative decision-making. These drivers are used to further design a concept that enables the distinction of these drivers between its service offerings.
The concept is split into two services: the hosting of workshops to repurpose vans into RVs, and the renting of these RV-vans for private use. The workshops will eventually be held in a workspace environment that also facilitates a community of van builders and vanlife enthusiasts to meet and connect.Having this community can greatly boost the naturally occurring oral advertisement for the brand, in turn tackling the current negative brand image. The rental service offers the consumer a low-investment option for experiencing vanlife first-hand, ignoring the necessity for building the van themselves. Breaking apart the act of building and travelling allows for the consumer to choose to engage with the concept however they prefer: only building, only travelling, or both.
To help ANWB target the consumer, their innovative offering should be combined with a good branding strategy. This project therefore presents a product launch campaign, with several recommendations on styling and tone of voice. Focussing communication on the adventurous experience paired with vanlife instead of the current ‘parent’ aesthetic the brand is known for is proposed to shed new light on the brand, better suiting the target group in the process.
Taken together, the roadmap presented as the result of this project presents a full strategy that covers both portfolio innovation and the marketing strategy,, thus enabling the company to successfully target the predefined demographic audience.

Today’s society relies significantly on the use of plastics of all kinds. While the material provides many benefits, plastic pollution poses a heavy threat to the environment. To reduce the environmental impact of plastics while still benefitting from their use, various certifications aim at labelling different plastic products as sustainable. To ensure that those certifications really label plastics that contribute to sustainable development, it is important to analyse which labels are scientifically sound and useful instruments to enhance environmental standards, and which might contribute to greenwashing. However, a certification can only be as good as the practical implication it has. The example of Berdal Rubber & Plastics BV, a Dutch producer of plastic buckets and tubs, shows that a key challenge arises from communicating the importance of adopting such certifications to business customers, in their case, especially in the building and DIY industry. Hence, this research tackled the following research question: How can the scientific soundness of sustainable plastics certifications in the European building and DIY industry be assessed and how can the importance of using such certifications be successfully communicated to the buyers and end-users of plastic products? To answer this research question, inductive research making use of a mixed-methods approach has been conducted, in which Berdal served as a case study. As a first step, this research developed an analysis framework for certifications, then, it researched what a successful communication strategy for certifications that includes said framework can look like. A major challenge that has been identified is to change the sometimes still unfavourable attitudes towards certifications and sustainability found within the building and DIY industries. Additionally, the low understandability of certifications limits their use, while being difficult to target by communication strategies. However, communication on certifications and sustainability can be more successful when it considers certain aspects. Especially the dialogue with stakeholders and credibility through proactiveness are seen to be important. Target group specific communication that focusses on personal relevance is found to be another aspect to consider. Here, the role of the framework can be to present information in a clear and detailed way, and to be an instrument to point out the advantages a specific certification can have for the communication’s receiver. For the specific situation of the case study of Berdal, it has been found that setting up a reciprocal dialogue, especially with their buyers, and emphasising the credibility of their message about certifications by focussing on their reliability and standard setting can be beneficial. Additionally, the focus of communication should lie on the personal benefits of their stakeholders individually. The framework for Berdal as a plastics producer can be used to transparently show why certain certifications have been chosen or how they compare to others.

The sustainability adoption of sustainability practices is currently low for Small Enterprises, Freelancers and Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs), while they must do their part to become more environmentally sustainable. SMEs are responsible for many greenhouse gas emissions emitted and as almost all companies in the Netherlands are SMEs, this presents an urgent call for change. However, many SMEs are not prioritising sustainability which is not without cause. Many limitations within SMEs withhold them from taking action. The most significant hurdle for SMEs is their size which comes with limited human, financial and technical resources.

Furthermore, the same limitations result in SMEs’ lagging use of digital technologies. This lagging use of digital technologies is unfortunate because ICT can positively contribute to environmental goals if an SME uses ICT in their business. A way to improve environmental sustainability with ICT is through telecommunication (telecom).

However, there is still no broadly adopted manner in which SMEs can use current telecom technologies to be less harmful to the environment. The telecom sector is in a position where it can enable its customers to become more sustainable and reduce scope 3 downstream emissions. Nevertheless, as the role of enabler is not yet optimally utilised by telecommunication companies (telcos), customers are not yet decreasing their emissions. Therefore, there is potential for KPN to guide SMEs with their sustainability expertise to transition them towards sustainability through using telecom.

SMEs face challenges when open to adopting sustainable telecom practices. The explorative research in this thesis has shown that six different topics influence whether an SME can or is willing to adopt a sustainable telecom practice. These topics are; the right means for an online way of working, collaborative effort, education of digital sustainability, management decisions for sustainability, office building restrictions and reducing physical presence.
To enable SMEs to use their telecom more sustainably, telcos should keep these topics in mind while working towards solutions. Furthermore, elements that are valuable to SMEs to adopt sustainable telecom practices are knowledge, inspiration, community and guidance.

In this thesis, a platform is designed with which KPN can support SMEs by being the provider that connects telecom to sustainability by facilitating SME customers with inspiration, guidance and education on suited sustainable telecom practices while considering specific context challenges that SMEs face. With the platform, KPN educates its SME customers by communicating sustainability information to provide the customers with sufficient knowledge to start acting. As a result, the SME customers of KPN can be inspired to use telecom more sustainably. Furthermore, the platform includes a community of stakeholders connecting KPN to customers and customers to each other to exchange sustainability knowledge. The development of the platform allows KPN to become a partner in sustainable telecom use for SMEs.

To work towards the proposition of being a sustainability partner, KPN should prioritise sustainability in their organisation and introduce it in the SME market. To do so, KPN should educate and teach its employees about sustainable telecom practices KPN conducts. To incorporate sustainability at KPN, a new design principle is designed that communicates sustainability. The design principle summarises information about SME customer values for sustainability so it can be tested on customer journeys. With the new knowledge, the employees can prioritise sustainability more in their work, resulting in its implementation in customer journeys.

In a competitive marketplace, brands need to stand out to stay relevant. This means that it is important to keep evolving as a company and to find the whitespace to grow. The brand centered in this research is TBWA\NEBOKO, a big advertising agency located in Amsterdam. Their job revolves around finding this whitespace for other brands and creating advertising campaigns to initiate this growth. This is done by Disruption, where the strategists hunt for conventions and construct a vision, to eventually create a Disruptive idea for the brand.

To stay at the top of the list of advertising agencies, TBWA needs to keep innovating and start implementing change, to find their own whitespace. TBWA\Worldwide initiated this change, by shifting its focus from traditional media campaigns to disruptive experiences and focusing more on where to find growth in business. This requires a new methodology to be implemented within the organization. However, the new methodology, Disruption X, is not adopted by the Dutch TBWA\NEBOKO.

This project aims to implement Disruption X into the organization by creating a solution that will enhance and connect the three components of the TBWA\NEBOKO intangible asset: human capital, information capital and organizational capital. The strategists, Disruption X and the TBWA\NEBOKO culture respectively. By using the context mapping approach, this research uncovers why the implementation of Disruption X has been unsuccessful up until now. The research focused on the strategists from the Dutch teams and included a couple of people from the account teams to gain a broader perspective. With the use of sensitizing booklets and by conducting interviews useful data was gathered. The analysis of this data revealed that Disruption X was not actively used and not all employees were aware of its existence. Most data pointed back at the teaching method and appearance of Disruption X. People have to watch hours of difficult online lectures on their own initiative to educate themselves while they do not have time for this. Besides this, Disruption X appeared to be enormous, too difficult, lacking purpose and thus frightening, making the entry to the method too complicated.

The AIDA funnel is used to cluster all the relevant data conclusions and pinpoints how Disruption X needs to be enhanced for adoption within the strategy department of TBWA\NEBOKO. Narrowing the scope of the project leads to a focus on the Desire and Action phase of the AIDA funnel. A simplified presentation and clarifying its purpose need to generate Desire to use Disruption X. Delivering this tool in the “right” way will get the strategists in the Action phase.

An iterative design phase, where the concept is constantly validated by the strategists, results in the final product. The Disruption X Compass functions as a platform that invites, guides, assists, shows and inspires the strategists with Disruption X. The platform helps strengthen the intangible asset of TBWA\NEBOKO by enhancing: the culture through the celebration of achievements; the strategist by learning new working methods and Disruption X by delivering the method in a comprehensible way that incorporates all necessary information and data in one platform.

Since the platform solves only a small part of the whole challenge, the final part of this research will present an implementation plan. The plan initiates and suggests several activities for the successful adoption of Disruption X, including the finalization of the platform, the launch of the platform and how to track and improve the platform. Combining the Disruption X with the implementation plan will hopefully serve as a stepping stone to reaching the TBWA ambition.

Before this thesis, the startup Maki was founded with the aim to inspire people in their twenties to sew their own clothing. A product was developed which gained promising traction. But to scale Maki, gaining traction is vital, just like it is for other startups.

To answer the main question, ‘how can early-stage startups obtain their first 1000 customers? ‘, this thesis explores literature and distills 6 elements that seem essential for driving traction: segmentation, positioning, core message, channels & content, branding and revenue model. For every of these elements, experiments are done to find what works for driving traction for Maki. This includes for example deep dive interviewing, testing different positionings using Instagram Advertisements, trying out TikTok as a promotion tool, testing different brand identity styles and testing revenue model types.

The learnings from these tests are eventually combined into an implementation plan for Maki. But next to this, the learnings are combined in a compact, straight-forward manual (consisting of a Booklet and a Recipe Sheet) for other startup founders to use to experiment with their ‘traction ingredients’.

This project lives in the intersection between marketing and entrepreneurship. The client company is Athlete Development, an early stage start-up that creates digital strength & conditioning training plans for team sports athletes. They sought external expertise in the field of branding and the commercialization of their product. As a start-up using bootstrapping as their method of financing, they face many challenges related to managing limited resources. Thus, the minimal means they have cannot facilitate the application of established go-to-market strategies. This project aims to explore how a start-up like Athlete Development can design a go-to-market strategy, using principles from experimental learning while only operating with internal financial resources.

The Dutch healthcare system has reached a point of no return. Or we drastically change our behaviour and the way healthcare is delivered. Or we keep on going as we do, and the costs will be unbearable, pressure on the workers increases and access to care will become something for the happy few. To contribute to changing the Dutch healthcare system, this project proposes a possible strategy to reshape the operations of Service Apotheek towards 2032. Service Apotheek is one of the bigger pharmacies operating in the Netherlands and they have almost 500 branches in the country. The strategy describes a desired change and has been constructed using the path of the double diamond. In the first part, the foundation of the project is described. In the second part, the current practice is deconstructed into three focus areas that are affecting the future operations of the pharmacy. The third part introduces the insights of the empirical research and ends with a list of aspects that will become characteristic for the operations of the pharmacy. The next part presents a vision that uses these characteristics to describe the future operations of Service Apotheek and how these can be translated into strategic requirements for a new intervention. By turning receiving care from the pharmacist from a one-time event into a more continuous flow, health behaviour arguable can be influenced. The intervention presented in part five is a new proposed service delivered by Service Apotheek that aims to make preventive health the new standard in 2032. The pharmacy no longer only dispenses medicine, but the pharmacy offers programs that can help people to live a healthier life. In doing so, Service Apotheek transforms from a static medicine dispenser to a dynamic care provider that takes care of its patients. The value for the user is added when Service Apotheek can create advice or propose interventions that are specific for that patient on that specific moment in time. To show how this intervention can be implemented, a roadmap is constructed that shapes the transformation of Service Apotheek over the coming years. During the different steps, the service of Service Apotheek gradually expands to become able to deliver preventive care in 2032. In the end, recommendations for future research are introduced that could really make this intervention fly. If Service Apotheek succeeds to implement this transition in the coming years, they can contribute to creating a Dutch healthcare system that is viable again.

Over the past ten years Heineken measured a decrease in brand power, especially among younger consumers. Furthermore, Heineken lacks an experiential culture that fosters innovation due to daily workloads, mindset on global impact and scalability, immediate successful deliverables and business cases, and strict brand approval and brand mitigation. To increase the brand power among younger consumers and overcome the barriers this project is initiated, a project to create a place to open-mindedly explore the future of beer and beyond. The motive of this thesis was to advice Heineken in building an innovation lab.

A future oriented approach is chosen to create this place, called DIVE (Design, Innovation, Vision, Exploration). This approach is combined with the Vision in Product Design method, the dynamic capabilities framework, and the Design Driven Innovation method. Since the combination is new, there will be a reflection after every step. The steps are: 1. Understanding the present, 2. Approaching the future, 3. Imagining the future, and 4. Establishing final boundary object.

Understanding the present is achieved through analysing Heineken and the target group. Findings are that the world of beer is under pressure, that Heineken has not their fair share among the Gen Y and Z and that gen Z will bring disruption. For further research the domain is delimited to quality socializing among Gen Z.

Approaching the future results in a list of factors and together with knowledge from the previous step form a future worldview. This worldview is used to create a narrative about the place which indicates characteristics of the Heineken LAB. The place should be in an upcoming urban area where Heineken revamps an old building, look for combining nature, facilitating outstanding experiences, and repurposing old stuff. The place will have an amazing bar at its core to explore new drinking rituals, new production techniques, new beers and drinks and use new technologies.

The final boundary object, which is the result of this thesis, is a strategy including the aim, objectives, KPI’s, characteristics and a roadmap of four steps including planning, approach, allocation of resources, and accompanying themes for creating the Heineken LAB. The defined steps for developing the Heineken LAB are the brewery, the bar, the lounge, and the program. Through a workshop with both internal and external stakeholders the previous research and strategy is validated. Although the number of participants is low, the participants confirmed the research and agreed with the roadmap. After graduating, the strategy will still be in place.

The created framework in the beginning of the project needs more validation before concluding whether it works as an approach to create an innovation lab. Even though it worked for this project, there are limitations. Next to the approach, the ability to envision, inspire, simplify, structure, align, translate, embrace, and educate are needed.