Hands-on training in marketing for BIM students
TACTFUL BUSINESS: The winners of `Marwar 06', organised at the Bharathidasan Institute of Management.
The annual marketing challenge event, `Marwar 2006', organised by the Bharathidasan Institute of Management (BIM), gave the first-year students a feel of the pressures they are likely to face in the corporate world and how they should think smart and act fast.Replete with hands-on experience in the marketing field in specific and all areas of management in general, the week-long event, organised by `Bismarc', the institute's marketing club, also provided an opportunity for the future managers to test their capabilities as a team player. For the entire period, the students had to adhere to the Marwar Code of Conduct.
The first-year students were divided into 16 teams, and each team was assigned a pair of guides from the second year group. The teams had to design an innovative yet feasible product that has to be launched in the market — their target market being the second-year students.
The teams designed many impressive innovative products and came up with catchy names with taglines. To mention a few — Foun "10" Head, wisdom @ your fingertips, Ice-Wear - Chillax, I-Fresh, Freshness Unlimited, etc. Teams also had to design an advertisement campaign, for which they were seen running around the campus to identify locations that would give their products better visibility.
The teams made a presentation, which explained their proposal to a panel of judges. After this, eight products were eliminated and the other eight qualifying teams acquired these eliminated teams.
Personal Selling to customer groups (second-year students) and other promotional activities were carried out in the next phase of the event. This was also an opportunity for the first-year students to interact with their seniors and make new friends.
Advertising Spaces were sold out for auction. Each of the eight teams was given virtual money to purchase these spaces. Heavy promotional activities were undertaken by the teams to position their creation as the prime product of the event. Some teams had made a brochure and they gave it to senior students during personal selling. One team even made a band to depict their product and gave it to the students. Teams also made jingles.
A complete experience of a trade fair environment was felt on the day stalls were put up by the teams.Teams came up with out-of-the-box ideas to draw attention of the prospective customers. For example, one team gave instant photographs to people visiting their stalls. All this was done to impress the second-year students who had three votes each to cast in favour of the teams they felt were the best.
And after all the hard work, came the day of final judgment. Teams prepared a Business Plan and presented it before a panel of judges. The presentation included details of the target market, marketing strategy and financials. Teams also had to make an advertisement and perform it on stage. Each of these teams was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 5,000, Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 1,000 respectively.
"There was learning not just in the marketing domain but also in interpersonal skills," said the BIM Director M. Sankaran. To quote the freshers of BIM: "Marwar was just amazing and it was a wonderful way to start our journey towards a successful managerial career."
R. KRISHNAMOORTHY
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Karnataka
Chennai
Coimbatore
Hyderabad
Madurai
Tiruchirapalli
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
