Prof. Dr. Carsten Baumgarth presents his research on “AI, Brands & Art” in Vietnam

Prof. Dr. Carsten Baumgarth from the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR) visited Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) at the end of October 2024 to share current research and ideas on artificial intelligence (AI), brand management, and arts. During his stay, he gave lectures and participated in various events to promote exchange with students and experts on site.

Prof. Baumgarth gave his first lecture at the Ho Chi Minh City Open University, a partner university of the HWR Berlin, on the topic of “Augmented Intelligence by AI – Elevating Brand Management and Brand Science to New Heights”, in which he highlighted the integration of AI into brand management and brand science. He also gave a keynote address at the third ArtTech Fusion Festival at the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) entitled “Digital Brushstrokes: Unveiling the AI-Art Infusion Effect”, which dealt with the influence of the integration of AI-generated art in packaging, advertising, etc. on brand perception.

Prof. Baumgarth discussed brand and marketing concepts for a Vietnamese mattress brand at the UEH with students and enriched the ArtTech Fusion Festival as a panelist in a discussion round on sustainable art markets, in which he talked about the challenges and possible solutions for artists who do not (yet) belong to the 1% of top earners.

Award for Michelle Marie Basak

Michelle Marie Basak, a former master’s student of Prof. Baumgarth, has been awarded second place in this year’s INa Sustainability Award for her master’s thesis “AI and Co meeting the customer interface”.

The master’s thesis deals with the sustainability problem of the high return rate in online retail, especially in the fashion sector, which accounts for 75% of all returns in e-commerce. The thesis analyses the psychological reasons for returns in particular. It analyses how innovative technologies can reduce the likelihood of returns. Empirically, this positive influence of technology is demonstrated experimentally using the example of virtual fitting (AR technology).

Congratulations on this outstanding achievement!

Photo: Kathrin Heller

17. AIMAC conference: Art Infusion by AI art

At the 17th AIMAC Conference in Lisbon, Carsten Baumgarth presented the first research results on the AI Art Infusion effect. The art infusion effect generally describes the phenomenon that integrating art into marketing (packaging, advertising, events, etc.) automatically improves the judgment of the product or brand. Interestingly, this effect applies to “beautiful” and “unattractive” art and has been extensively empirically confirmed. The objective of the research project is to analyze whether and how this general kind of infusion effect is valid for the integration of AI art. The first main findings of the project are:

  1. AI-Art is perceived as art by consumers and is even rated more positively on average compared to human art.
  2. AI art also triggers the art infusion effect.
  3. The art infusion effect is less pronounced if consumers correctly and incorrectly perceive the integrated art as AI-generated.

 

AI & Brand keynote at the B2B Media Days

On 16 May 2024, Prof. Baumgarth gave the keynote speech “From hype to superpower: How AI is changing brand management and brand work” at the B2B Media Days, the congress of the Deutsche Fachpresse.

The storyline of the presentation was the manta that we need to move from gimmicks to real use cases for brand management in the field of AI. In addition to a few concrete use cases, such as the use of AI in the development of brand positioning, the design of brand-specific and brand-consistent assets and the evaluation of live communication (e.g. trade fair stands) using AI, seven recommendations were formulated for the use of AI in brand management:

  1. Your AI knowledge will never get past a beta stage!
  2. Welcome your new AI colleague with open arms!
  3. Domain expertise is becoming increasingly important!
  4. Pay attention to brand safety!
  5. Reflect on the ecological, ethical & legal effects of your AI-supported brand work!
  6. Develop sustainable business models!
  7. Move from experimentation to business case!

B2B MEDIA DAYS 2024 – KONGRESS DER DEUTSCHEN FACHPRESSE am 16.05.2024 im Palais in der Kulturbrauerei in Berlin /// Foto: Mo Wüstenhagen

Participation in the 17th Global Brand Conference

The 17th Global Brand Conference, which took place from April 22-24 in Edinburgh, provided exciting and up-to-date insights into global brand research with around 100 papers presented. Alexandra Kirkby and Carsten Baumgarth presented a framework and first results on the transformative power of AI on the day-to-day work of brand managers. The session, which was also chaired by Carsten Baumgarth, was the only session during this year’s GBC with a focus on the interface of AI and brand. In a second presentation, Anja Lambrecht and Carsten Baumgarth presented the results of their study on the influence of augmented reality on brand strength, analyzing in particular the influence of the personality trait narcissism. The conference, which this time took place under the conference theme “Conscientious Brands: Making Sustainability and Responsibility Work”, provided an excellent platform for knowledge exchange and networking as well as a starting point for new research projects.

Technology Brand Expert Council elects new board

The Expertenrat Technologiemarken e.V. is taking off again with a new Board of Directors. Prof. Dr. Carsten Baumgarth (Chairman), Jens Karolyi (Vice Chairman), Prof. Dr. Karsten Kilian (Treasurer & Secretary) and Dennis Merker (Board Member) were elected to the newly formed board at the general meeting. We would like to thank the previous Chairman Jürgen Gietl, who did not stand for re-election for professional reasons, and Dr. Florian Maier for their work. The new Board of Directors will tackle new projects and develop formats – digital and live – with full energy. The first major project is the development and launch of a new website, as the previous website was unfortunately hacked.

New article on AI & brand published

No other topic has influenced brand science and brand practice as much as AI in the last two years. After the play and experimentation phase, the focus is now on developing, testing and implementing concrete use cases for the integration of AI in brand work.

In a recent article in the trade journal, Carsten Baumgarth and Steffen Schmidt provide an up-to-date overview of the opportunities and challenges of using AI in holistic brand management. The article has been published in the magazine planung & analyse and can be downloaded here.

Talks “In good conscience – Brands & Business”

We cordially invite you to Berlin on 20.4.2023 from 18.00 – ca. 21.00 at the HWR Berlin. Prof. Oriol Iglesias and Prof. Nicholas Ind will present their latest book “In good conscience: do the right thing while building a profitable business” for the first time in Germany. Dr. Sebastian Stricker, Co-Founder of share and ShareTheMeal, will share his first-hand and deep experience on purpose brands and social business. Following my Instagram project “Brückenbau Marke”, I will report on five impulses from brand science on sustainability & co. Our president Prof. Andreas Zaby will open the event, which we are hosting together with ESADE Alumni and the Institute for Sustainability of the Berlin School of Economics and Law.

You can find the program & free registration here.

B*lab report No. 5: Sip Soho

The fifth B*lab report on “Craft beer brand “Sip Soho” – AI tools in operational brand management” has just been published in both German and English. In this working paper we present the test of 27 so-called ready-to-go AI solutions for the generation of brand assets of a fictitious start-up brand. The paper provides an up-to-date overview of such generative AI tools, summarizes recommendations for the use of these tools and formulates open questions for the important and necessary discussion in practice and science. You can find the English edition as a free download here.

B*report – No. 4

Research results should be available as quickly as possible. Our working paper series B*lab report, launched at the end of 2020, makes a contribution to this. The now 4th issue publishes the best papers of master students of the course “Advanced Brand Management” from the summer semester 2022. The spectrum ranges from slow fashion to brand coolness through violation of gender stereotypes to brand activism in the context of employer branding and co-creation. You can find the issue here.