Metrotopia Finalists!

The finalists who will be present at Metrotopia during MICANVAS 2009 are (in random order):

1) Sanket Bhale and Virapandy T (IIM K)
2) Shubham Khurana (XLRI)
3) Karandeep Singh Kapany (MICA)
4) Gayathiri NC and Geraj Vinny Rajesh (IMT Ghaziabad)
5) Abhishek Parameshwaran and Priyank Loonkar (MICA)
6) Kanika Masand and Jasveen Kaur (MICA)

The finalists will be contacted shortly with further details of the competition. We request all the finalists to confirm their presence at MICANVAS 2009 latest by the 31st of October. In case we are not notified by then, the reserve teams will be called in your stead.

For any queries, feel free to contact:

Kanika Gupta
+91 9998337468
kanika8@micamail.in

Kunj Sanghvi
+91 9558816596
kunj8@micamail.in

TAM Media Metrix Finalists!

The finalists who will be present at TAM Media Metrix during MICANVAS 2009 are (in random order):

1) Dushyant Dattatrey (IIM C)
2) Anshuman Ghosh and Shubham Khurana (XLRI)
3) Utsav Mamoria and Chinmaya Chitlangia (MICA)
4) Gaurav Arora and Piyush Nangru (IMT Ghaziabad)
5) Manas Makhani and Surabhi Suri (MICA)
6) Rohan Warey and Aseem Tulli (MICA)

The finalists will be contacted shortly with further details of the competition. We request all the finalists to confirm their presence at MICANVAS 2009 latest by the 31st of October. In case we are not notified by then, the reserve teams will be called in your stead.

For any queries, feel free to contact:

Kanika Gupta
+91 9998337468
kanika8@micamail.in

Kunj Sanghvi
+91 9558816596
kunj8@micamail.in

Airtel 'What's Your Calling?' Results!

The results for Airtel 'What's Your Calling?' are in at last! The winners are:

1st Place: Wrong Number (MICA)
2nd Place: Jingle Bells (IMI)

Congratulations to the winners and better luck next time to the others!

For any queries, feel free to contact:

Kanika Gupta
+91 9998337468
kanika8@micamail.in

Kunj Sanghvi
+91 9558816596
kunj8@micamail.in

Media Moguls

To all those who thought that their knowledge of media was better than the next person, they now have a chance to prove themselves right! MICANVAS in association with Dare2Compete.com presents Media Moguls – the media quiz!

The event starts at 10 PM and ends at 10:30 PM on the 28th of October. A few things to remember for all interested:

1. The online quiz is open to all B-school participants.
2. Each team can consist of one member only. Each team can take the quiz only once.
3. The registrations for the quiz are open on www.dare2compete.com. Please go to the Quiz tab for the same. Registrations will close at 9:50 PM on the 28th of October.
4. The results will be declared shortly after the quiz is concluded.

If you think you can beat the best as far as media is concerned (and if you are right), you stand to take away Rs. 1500! And if you just fail to notch the top spot and come in 2nd, there’s Rs. 1000 still waiting for you.

Enough of incentives. It’s now time to put your media prowess to the test!

SBI Bank On Us Finalists!

The finalists who will present at SBI Bank On Us during MICANVAS 2009 are (in random order):

Finalists:

1) Almas Shafiq Ahmed and Ranjani Mani (MICA)
2) Preeti Dewan and Ramesh (MICA)
3) Vishesh Sarangal and Amarnath De (SJMSOM)
4) Priyank Loonkar and Milan Abraham (MICA)
5) Rahul Gandhi and Pooja Pande (NITIE)
6) Devhuti Bakshi and Divyendu (MICA + Retail Analytics)

Reserve:

1) Divya Sharma and Rahul Bhatija (MICA)
2) Gaurav Bhandari and Nitin Chaswal (NMIMS)

The finalists will be contacted shortly with further details of the competition. We request all the finalists to confirm their presence at MICANVAS 2009 latest by the 28th of October. In case we are not notified by then, the reserve teams will be called in your stead.

For any queries, feel free to contact:

Kanika Gupta
+91 9998337468
kanika8@micamail.in

Kunj Sanghvi
+91 9558816596
kunj8@micamail.in

Last Man(ager) Standing Finalists!

The finalists who will be present at Last Man(ager) Standing during MICANVAS 2009 are (in random order):


1) Gaurav Bhandari (NMIMS)
2) Harsimran Singh (ICFAI)
3)Sagar Patil (IIMA)
4)Amit Monteiro (MICA)
5) Sachin Sharma (MICA)
6) Anand Kulkarni (JBIMS)
7) Meghna Gupta (MICA)
8) Chinmaya Chitlangia (MICA)
9) Abhishek Sharma (IMT Ghaziabad)
10) Arpit Mundra (SPJIMR)
11) Rahul Bhatija (MICA)
12) Chandan Pansari (MICA)
13) Awadesh Kumar (JBIMS)
14) Gaurav Kulshesthra (Corporate)
15) Pallavi Anand (IMT Ghaziabad)
16) Mridul Karkara (IIM K)
17) Shalini Kumari (MICA)
18) Manan Shamihoke (XLRI)
19) Tarun Saxena (MICA)
20) Megha Chaturvedi (Corporate)
21) Chethna Chandrakanth (BIMM)
22) Megha Bhauwala (SIMS)
23) Saurabh Ranadive (DOMS IIT)
24) Abhisar Gaur (MICA)

The finalists will be contacted shortly with further details of the competition. We request all the finalists to confirm their presence at MICANVAS 2009 latest by the 28th of October. In case we are not notified by then, reserve participants will be called in your stead.

For any queries, feel free to contact:

Kanika Gupta
+91 9998337468
kanika8@micamail.in

Kunj Sanghvi
+91 9558816596
kunj8@micamail.in

Passion Inc. Finalists!

The Stage I results for Passion Inc. are out! The six shortlisted teams are:

1) Atul Jain and Shakti Bharihok (MICA)
2) Anjan Kumar Ash (IIM Shillong)
3) Sananda Saha (SIIB) and Tanumoy Sarkar (TAPMI)
4) Vineet Sharma and Varun Singla (XLRI)
5) Vaibhav Sharma and Tanvir Ansari (IITM Gwalior)
6) Abhishek Bhati and Chetan Singh Negi (TISS)

The finalists will be contacted shortly with further details of the competition. We request all the finalist teams to confirm their presence at MICANVAS 2009 latest by the 26th of October. In case we are not notified by then, reserve teams will be called in your stead.

For any queries, feel free to contact:

Kanika Gupta
+91 9998337468
kanika8@micamail.in

Kunj Sanghvi
+91 9558816596
kunj8@micamail.in

Blogger's Park Entries Up!

Yes, all the Blogger's Park entries are now up!

Just scroll down and you'll find all of them here. You can also view all of them together at this address.

Keep these few points in mind before commenting on an entry:

• Anyone can leave a comment, but only from a valid id, and not as an anonymous person.
• The comment should start with ‘I Like!’
• People are free to add any further comment that they want, but only ‘I Like!’ will count as a point towards the blog post.
• You can make comments on as many entries as you wish but no more than one comment will be considered for a single post. All other comments from the same ID will not be part of the final evaluation.
• All the comments before 8 AM, 24th of October will be considered invalid and will be deleted from the post or not counted for the final evaluation.
• All comments have to be on the blog www.micanvas2k9.blogspot.com

Once again, the rating begins 8 AM on the 24th of October, 2009. Let the best blogger win!

Saloni Handa, MICA

Customer Value

Archita Trisal, MICA

Tanvi Gupta, MICA

Neha, IIM Calcutta

Hitesh Advani , Gidc Rofel Business School

Kshama Chhapkhanawalla, Welingkars Institute of Management Development & Research

Word Of Mouth
Sue is a new hot girl in college,
With hair as dark as the night,
Her eyes are soft with a sparkle,
And her smile could fill you with delight!
She is a rave amongst the boys,
And the word has spread so fast,
That most people inquired about her,
To know her current status and her past.
After the surveys were finally over,
And all looked fine and cool,
I personally got a chance to see her!
She was a friend of my friend from school!
Her body was insanely sexy,
Her walk was full of grace,
And when we exchanged a smile,
I could feel my heart increasing pace.
Half the college has not seen her
Although most of them would die to
But in all honesty I know
All say of them swear by ‘as hot as sue’

Anish Shah, Indus Institute of Technology

Ishan Rohit, IMT Ghaziabad

Customer Value : It matters

Introduction
Gone are the days when customer was synonymous with the word ‘casht se mar’ (Hindi, meaning: dying out of stress). Customers are God today, who Generate the revenues, make businesses Operate and even Destroy the incompetent.

Most of the markets are monopolistic which leave little room for price making. A large number of competing firms in the same level playing field are in a frenetic fight to increase their customer base. This can be achieved through either eating into the competitor’s share or creating a new market. As the population keeps growing, the latter do happen more easily, but at a relaxed pace. The exponential growth can be touched by snatching market shares.

Why Customer value ?
Customers have numerous options to choose from. At the first instant, they may go by their instinct and buy a particular product. This may have been a result of an advertisement, advice of a family friend or even persistence of their children. Similar to the idiom “It’s easy to reach the top, but staying there is difficult”, it can be inferred that it’s easy to acquire a customer, but it’s difficult to retain him/her.

Gauging by the Pareto analysis that 20 percent of customers bring 80 percent of revenues, Customer value to an organization holds importance. Customer Lifetime value, judged by the amount of a product bought during the customer’s lifetime helps to ascertain his worth to the company. If he is a high value customer, the management can then decide to focus on him and increase his satisfaction levels. This can be aided by specific offers and delightful rewards, which can be in the form of birthday or anniversary gifts. A customer-company relation can be transformed to a more informal one. Even to an extent that the customer can act as an influencer among his group propagating word of mouth publicity about the company.

When marketers sit with the existing customers list and wonder how to meet targets within the specified time, they have a helpline in the form of Customer value. They can easily neglect ‘Lead’ Customer who have generally been disinterested and increased customer retention costs of the company. A brighter focus on the gold and platinum customers saves communication and time costs, at the same time decreasing the customer churn rate.

Analyzing through Customer value
Defecting profitable customers must be counseled for their experiences which propelled them to take the decision. Since they have a useful insight into the company’s services, they may be able to pinpoint a fault which could have been neglected. Even best of the processes and practices are sometimes not providing that ‘wow’ factor for the customer. The reasons have to be looked into, as they are reported by valued customers.

Tejuswi Prakash, NMIMS

Cash Cow
Boston Control Group brought me in,
I ensure every organization a definite win;
I am a cow laden with excess cash,
Dogs,?, and even stars I can thrash.
I am a business for lots of money,
The profit margin looks so sunny;
I need a little cash to be maintained,
Long term growth is what is sustained.
I come in with a high market share,
The future looks so bright and fair;
Low market Growth, I don’t worry,
As lots cash comes so fast in a hurry.
I am considered stable and boring,
That is why require a little of milking;
Firms desires for many varieties of me,
As I give them success, the golden key.
If a change is ignored by the management,
I as a rich cash cow become so complacent;
Replacing me for the better is the need,
As they have myriad stakeholders to feed.
Excess cash can always be reinvested in turn,
For I can ensure shareholders a big return;
Apple’s I-pod can best describe my role,
People like it with their heart and soul.
I can be a tempting target for a takeover,
I can give firms a beautiful, shiny makeover;
This is just a small description of mine,
Working with me will show you the shine.

Sweety Jain, Welingkar institute of Management Development and Research

Word Of Mouth
Somewhere amidst the Himalayan city
Was located the institution of my knowledge
A place where all the learning’s began known as the college.
The local language influence had its unique way
Of how these three golden words would get me enough pay.
Ek kaan, Do kaan and Makaan was the way I learnt this mantra
And today it is the best marketing tantra.
With the clutter of 1500 ads viewed everyday
The power of words is what ultimately lay
You speak about either what you like or what you hate
This brings about the efficiency rate
The power of words through the mouth interface
Will definitely taking you ahead in the race
A jargon that is a part of every marketing class
is successful only if it reaches the mass
well the crux of it is not just talking about it
but to spread the word enormously to make it a hit
human tendency of believing what others say
surpasses the gimmicks that others lay
make it happen, let it be talked about
you will definitely be accustomed to the clout
the story is not so simple
any misinterpretation would be a pimple rather than a dimple
intricate details to be taken care off
to make sure that the right message reaches the other end
ample number of examples from the past to prove the efficacy
right from the hereditary passage of the tortoise and the hare story
the life expectancy of this marketing mantra is unlimited

from the Stoneage to contemporary world it remains unshed.
Gossip would be another terminology for these three words
Trust, Reliability and potentiality being the three cords
the indian mentality of making sure that no news remains confidential
making sure that everything is passed and the act is real
The power of words spoken remains unconquerable
The spread is fast, more and unbeatable
Tool needs to be used to its maximum
So that the viral spread reaches all rather than some.

Amandeep Kohli, IMT Ghaziabad

Below the Line Marketing: An under-the-pant approach
When you hear the word Below the Line, and you here refers to us soulless MBA types, you normally associate it with promotions and short-term incentives. For instance, Wikipedia (May God Bless it creators) defines BTL as “forms of non-media communication such as short-term incentives, largely aimed at consumers”. But that’s so boring right!

So let me define the real meaning of Below the Line marketing – a truly interesting concept which applies to all items that can be marketed from the waist downward so as to speak. Well that leaves us with rather odd assortment of choices starting with the Jockeys and Amul Machos of the world. And let’s just confine the contents of this post to the men’s department or else I might be sued for vulgarity. So here goes your crash course in Below the Line Marketing.

I thought that before going on to talk about the different types of ways to market such items, I would define the meaning of the “Line” first. Because essentially speaking, there are different types of lines in this world – from thin to fat to black to white; but I think you get the drift so I’ll stop right here.

If you look at the advertisements, all of them seem to focus on the male libido with the exception of Amul Macho which for reasons only known to them decided to focus on monkeys and apes. Talk about monkeying around! In my opinion, all underwear manufacturers should tie up with condom companies and sell the two as a co-branded product. This will go a long long way in dealing with our nation’s fight against AIDS because everyone might not buy condoms but everyone definitely does buy undies man. This will also keep various NGO’s happy as your company will be seen as one serious about CSR and increase your brand value. Voila!

Hey and in case you think my ideas about Below the Line are crazy and out-right demented, you’re in for a huge surprise buddy. For I have other enlightened fellows like me in this world who’re always thinking about the health of our society by keeping your funny bones tickling. Want proof. Here’s one:

These days everyone’s talking about the recession and how marketers especially should cut costs. Well, looks like someone really thought Below the Line in this case and as this article in TheDailyBlonde points out new BJs are only 99cents! Well I dunno how much the old ones were worth but this one is a definite cracker of a deal for all the men out there and especially for those who didn’t believe in God!


Now that you’ve really got the clear meaning of all the fundas about Below the Line marketing, well, what in the devil’s name are you still doing here reading this Gospel? Get out there and dazzle the world with your new found knowledge. And make sure you wear a little protective gear around your private parts ‘cause you might just get kicked Below the Line'.

Rhucha Kulkarni, SIMSREE

A WAR OF WITS: Guerilla Marketing
Watch out, beware; it’s a battle out there,
Every company eyeing a greater market share.
Making a mark in this cut-throat competition,
Calls for an era of marketing innovation.
Marketers, Awaken!! Unleash your new weapon,
Invest time and energy, perk up your imagination.
Move on from bows and arrows, the old world marketing tactics,
Battle it out with machine guns, the new age guerilla logic.
A logic garnering trust, and relationships unending,
Reach out effectively to customers, through judgment and understanding.
Communicate through social networks, tap into new segments,
Shout out your brand loud and clear, use wild placard campaigns.
And yes, do not forget, the power of the spoken word,
Get going and use guerilla for the buzz to be heard.
Get creative, get unconventional; recreate your brand vision,
Advertise digitally, extract the maximum from minimum.
Two companies, two products, like pythons in a deadlock scramble,
Each uses stealth in war, to swallow up the opponent.
These two lions in a fight, using aggressive guerilla marketing,
But are customers overwhelmed, is a thought worth pondering.
The future is fierce, the future is next,
Is guerilla the way to go, or do we need to introspect?