The first-ever omnichannel Johnson & Johnson Experience Centre (JJEC) in Singapore, equipped with retail technologies such as the POP6 cloud-based point-of-purchase execution solution and a live-streaming set-up, was launched on the campus of Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) today. The Centre was officially opened by Ms Low Yen Ling, Minister of State for Trade & Industry, and Culture, Community and Youth.
Retail playground to testbed new Online-to-Offline strategies
The JJEC doubles up as a learning facility and physical lifestyle store for students from NP’s School of Business & Accountancy (BA). Besides learning how to operate a brick and mortar store, BA students from its Business Digitalisation Track will also get to design their own learning. Depending on the products to be retailed, they will conceptualise suitable omnichannel marketing experiences for the customers and testbed their ideas at JJEC. They will experiment with Online-to-Offline strategies and next-gen retail technologies to create seamless ‘phygital’ experiences for customers – some of which may be adopted by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Singapore.
The collaboration will also provide authentic learning opportunities. For example, students will get to collect and analyse actual sales data to run business analyses, manage store inventories and execute time-sensitive promotions across points of sale – all of which are essential concepts in the retail business.
Close to 500 BA students can also look forward to gaining industry-real learning from J&J Singapore’s team of experts through hands-on projects, workshops, close industry mentorship, and regular consultations.
Industry-real learning through co-designing, co-delivery and co-assessment of curriculum
Working closely with NP, J&J will co-design the curriculum by providing real-life business scenarios for student projects. Students will have the chance to shape the marketing strategy for J&J’s product offerings by developing the research plan, proposing the appropriate research methodologies and tools, as well as conducting the research. They will then learn how to draw insights from the data collected to formulate effective marketing campaigns and promotional strategies.
Throughout the process, students will have the opportunity to engage J&J cross-functional teams on topics such as marketing, supply chain & human resource. There will also be workshops co-delivered by both NP and J&J to help students understand the breadth of the retail business.
Students’ proposals will be co-assessed by this cross-functional team, ensuring that skills and competencies gained are applicable in real-world contexts.
“We are delighted to partner J&J Singapore in this collaboration to place industry at the core of our students’ learning. By infusing industry-real learning in our curriculum, our students will gain access to a wealth of relevant industry expertise to hone their skills and competencies, as well as first-hand knowledge of industry trends and developments. This invaluable experience will give our students an edge in a wide range of careers in the new retail landscape where online-offline customer experiences, logistics and data converge to present exciting possibilities,” said Mr Lim Kok Kiang, Principal & CEO of NP.
“As a purpose-driven company, our partnership with Ngee Ann Polytechnic is a great example of what private-academic collaboration can do to help elevate the lives of people every day. Being consumer-first has allowed us to remain focused on creating the best possible experience for our consumers. Through leveraging the expertise of the next generation of leaders, we hope to continue to employ digital-first thinking and strong data-driven insights to generate a more personalised experience for consumers in the retail scene. By investing in the young generation today, we can help create more vibrant lives, build thriving communities and forward progress,” said Mr Guillermo Frydman, Managing Director, J&J Singapore.
Watch the J&J-NP collaboration video here: http://for.edu.sg/jjec
