Mudra Spark Finalists!

We apologize for the delay in declaring results and we thank you for your patience! Without further ado, the finalists who will present at Mudra Spark during MICANVAS 2009 are (in random order):

Finalists:
1) Aurora Borealis: Aarohi Shah and Aujaswi Agarwal (IMT Ghaziabad)
2) CSR: Aneesha Puri and Juby Jose (ISB)
3) Exhale: Prateek Dubey (Orios - Corporate)
4) Hitch Hikers: Divya Sharma and Sujeet Sairam (MICA)
5) Mountaineers: Ila Khanolkar and Gaurav Banerjee, Mountaineers (MICA)
6) SR Team: Ramesh Krishnan and Sriram Narayanan (MICA)

Reserve:
1) Firdous: Amit Tyagi and Vaibhav Suri (FMS)
2) Advaita: Noorpreet Kaur and Sajana Pegu(IIM B)


Congratulations to all the finalists and better luck next time to the others. We assure you the judges had a hard time picking the final six!

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 11:59 PM on the 2nd of November. In case we are not notified by then, the reserve teams will be called in your stead.

Please feel free to contact us in case of any queries.

Kanika Gupta
+91 9998337468
kanika8@micamail.in

Kunj Sanghvi
+91 9558816596
kunj8@micamail.in

Cin-cinema-tti Finalists!!

Without further ado, the finalists who have been chosen for Cincinematti - The Short Film-making Event during MICANVAS 2009 are (in random order):

Finalists:

1) Amit Kumar Sahoo, MICA (Sudoku)
2) Pranav Patadiya and Pravan Daxini, DA-IICT (Anami)
3) Aniket Mangrulkar and Prakhar Deogirikar, MICA (A Story In Brief)
4) Arnab Bhattacharya and Nitin Verma, FMS (Strive Against Impression)
5) Ankit Akhuari and Akshaya Karanth, MICA (Trial)
6) Ashvin George and Abhishek Parameshwaran, MICA (Charlie's Tale)

Reserves:
1) Rahul and Satheesh, IIM K (Transformation)
2) Abhay Sen and Gaurav Banerjee MICA (Paperboats)

Congratulations to all the finalists and better luck next time for the others. We assure you the judges had a hard time picking the final six!

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 1st of November. In case we are not notified by then, the reserve teams will be called in your stead.


Please feel free to contact us in case of any queries.

Warm Regards,
Team MICANVAS 2009

Blogger's Park Results!

Phew! After wading through the flurry of activity on the MICANVAS 2009 blog (www.micanvas2k9.blogspot.com) we have tallied all the votes. Each and every comment has been monitored to check whether it is a genuine comment and only comments posted from unique and authentic accounts were included in the totals.

On that basis, the winner is: Neha from IIMC (368 valid votes). Congratulations Neha - send us your details and there's Rs. 2000 and a certificate headed your way!

Special mention also goes out to Annamalai from MICA who came in a close second with 319 valid votes.

We hope you had fun participating in the event - we sure had fun checking out what you people had come out with!

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?

Varun Kalkal, MICA

Sujeet Sairam, MICA

Aarthee, BIM

Idiosyncrasies of the Oral Cavity!

“Pinku didi’s son Chottu failed in 3rd standard maths exam”, Pinku’s servant big mouth Meena told in C block Radha’s home where also she worked, who told to her neighbor F block Geetu who told her husband Rajiv who told his colleagues who lived in the same apartment when they went for morning jogging in the park which was heard by an old couple who were incidentally Chottu’s grand parents unfortunately!!

Imagine the phrase being replaced with “Pinku didi’s son Chottu is all rounder cause he drinks ABC health drink”- what was supposed to be series of gossips transforms into unpaid promotion campaign for ABC brand. But why does this information travel more vehemently than what a model cum mother in a TVC states about the same ABC brand?

“People care about people who care about them”- care even to share with them even the minuscule details they come across in everyday life! So that’s first chair on the Diaz of this discussion- Trusted Gossip!

Blaise Pascal came up with the triangle that geometrically represents the binomial coefficients – but what matters here is that moving down the triangle the numbers mingle & develop in superior dimensions. Similarly recommendations work like the formation of Pascal’s triangle- 1 person makes it to 2, who make it to 4, who leads to 8 & so on! Especially in today’s world with media & communication in every touch of anyone’s life, it is always possible for someone to just go around spraying their brand experiences in all possible ways- which may multiply & grow in dimensions explained by Pascal.

Saying in other words, information transfer in Pascal’s triangle is similar to what happens in Domino effect or Chaos theory- a teenage girl who tries an exotic flavor drink in CCD can set ALL her college mates like a pack of cards to falling towards the same drink- providing free advertising to CCD! Chair 2 on Diaz- Pascal’s triangle!

Galileo showed that gravitation accelerates all objects at the same rate by dropping 2 balls of different dimensions from Tower of Pisa. This scientific finding can be compared with what happens to finest & nastiest brand experiences- they just travel with same intensity. They are like some bottled up emotions which come up in mind of a young guy who meets his high school crush in alumni reunion after about 10 years, waiting to get out and make the best use of the moment! C block Radhu just cant keep it to herself if she gets to know “Chottu, the all rounder drinks ABC Health drink” or “Pinku’s son failed in 3rd standard maths exam”- she just behaves like an missile launcher that is indifferent to all missiles but just needs to keep launching. Chair 3 on Diaz- Uniform acceleration!

Why is there a need to establish dominance? This question has its presence in all fields ranging from ecology to marketing, but answer remains just the same as explained by Pecking order theory which states that dominance is established by defense & aggression. The dominance in hierarchy is necessary for reducing conflicts which incur expenditure of energy which translated into marketing parlance is as follows “Dominant brand in the market stands out & can save on marketing expenditure as they have free “Trumpet blowers” in form of customers”! Bottom-line of discussion- best brand experiences transform into individual advertising campaigns at zero expense to the company but positive income possibly. Final chair on Diaz – Pecking order!

With the four chairs aligned on the Diaz and enormous confusions mounted in reader’s mind, only last thing that needs to be added is just that “What this article needs is Word of Mouth”!

Gaurav Kumar, MICA

t was a sunny day in bangalore when I was walking down MG road with one of my college friends(a girl but not my girlfriend, actually I had tried but failed).. Anyway, back into flash back.. So, I was at my best to impress the dusky damsel walking by my side, ironically looking at other hunks on the street..and here comes the embarassment, a group of black Tshirt clad ladies with pamplets in their hands and offering a test drive on Pulsar "Definately Male" (aaahh... din know if it was a coincidence or an alternative as it was not working with the lady). I hesitated and gave the excuse ...Sorry, we have some urgent work and would give a try next time..the girls insisted and surprisingly "My lady" also joined them in pushing me forward to have a test drive. 10 minutes of counter discussion and here I washed my all the hopes down the drain to impress "My lady" with a blank face and disappointing confession "Actually I do not know how to ride bikes"... Oh my god! exclaimed the lady and looked at pulsar's "Definately male?" with a question mark.... I knew that was one of the marketing stunts of Bajaj and I was a victim of the "guirrila marketing".

After a decent period of time, when I became more erudite in terms of understanding management terms , I had another conflict, why Guerrila and marketing together?, isnt marketing enough alone to say it all?.... So the question is how to define marketing? how to justify Guerrila being associated with it? I would ask pardon from Mr Kotler on that but can not inhibit to express my perception about the subject which subjected me to a state of continuous introspection and ethical conflicts. Marketing is all about creating or understanding the needs of consumers(Such a kind hearted people the marketers are..grrrhhhhh!) and it is the process of communicating and delivering in a way as to benefit customers as well as the stakeholders(And in what proportion?)... now you add "unwanted" in all the verbs used in the pedantic definition and you get what "guerrilla marketing" is... Pulsar 200cc is the best bike for me when I do not even know how to drive a 100 cc bike, Plasama TV is the best deal in the market for me ... when I am still going on with my philips radio and vividh bharti on that...what kind of intrusion is this?

Over the years, I have developed a mindset and I am very strict to it... "you are always in market and you have to sell always else you can not succeed"... and if you do not follow this and fail...be a guerilla!

Shalini Kumari, MICA

Word of mouth: Double-edged sword

“It is an awesome movie…Hrithik is in his best form and so is Ash…the script is wonderful man! You must watch it!” Ever heard such a description from any of your friends? It so obviously compels you to go and watch the movie as soon as possible.

So, what do you think? To start anew, human-beings have always had the highest credibility and more so if they are our close friends or relatives. Right from our childhood, we take recommendations from the ‘experienced hat’ in terms of taking admission to school/colleges or taking up a job. It is just too obvious that the same is followed when it comes to purchasing a product.
Tracing the history, we immortals have always been good at spreading the word across. Right from the time when paper was not invented, the teachers used to lend their learnings based on memory to their disciples and it used to pass on like this from generation to generation until we stepped upon writing. Similarly the ‘bed-time stories’ about the older India and its myths by our grandparents had the same effect until we grew up enough to question it.

What enhances the credibility of WoM is the personal touch associated with it. The fact that we could not identify any ulterior motive on the part of the ‘teller’ generates a natural buzz about it. We learn from other’s experiences. We identify ourselves with other people and decide based on the experiences of the other person.

It is discovered in a survey that India (87%) holds the 4th position in trusting other’s advice over any other advertising tool with Hong-Kong (93%) leading the list. This very well reflects the natural trust we Indians entrust on others.

Next comes the question of harnessing the power of WoM in an era of more awareness, information and inquisitive customers where there are several channels of information available to them. How does one go about it as a marketer? The first and foremost important thing about WoM is to be honest. It does not take long for the customer to find out the truth and when it does there is no quicker way to destroy a brand than negative word of mouth. Hence, negative word of mouth can be extremely detrimental to any product .This is the other side of the coin or the other edge of the sword.

We hear it all the time that “word-of-mouth marketing is the best marketing because it comes with credibility and it costs you nothing”. Here I would like to differ a little because I believe that WoM is not just something that is reserved for marketing and communication folks. It is constituted outside of a formalized setting. It does not need any kind of marketing strategy but yes, we do need to plan for how to generate WoM buzz for our product/service.

The most important thing is to have a compelling unique selling proposition to enable a person to tell their friends about it. This constitutes the first step towards generating WoM. It often helps to introduce elements of surprise in form of unexpected freebies to get attention or stimulate customers to get talking about your brand. Do what others don’t. That’s an easy way to surprise people and win attention. Let others set the tone and you be the first one to disrupt it by being different. Hot Chips serves as a very good example of positive WoM.

It's no longer just one neighbor complaining to another about a bad experience he had with his car --- it’s a blogger relating his complaint to millions of people around the world. And what he says has permanence on the Web, unlike a passing comment made over the backyard fence. A review on Amazon.com or a strategically placed blog posting now has the power to radiate to more viewers than a primetime TV ad and be perceived to have more credibility.

Truly said that a successful marketer is one who has seen both the sides of the double-edged sword (WoM) and knows how to deal with it in a manner which is beneficial to him so as to avoid the other edge coming down his throat!

Annamalai, MICA

Anshoo Grover, MICA

A Barter of Emotions (Customer Value)
One sweet summer evening,
I smiled upon a thought;
For strange pleasure I got,
From all that I ever sought.
- - For everything I ever fought.

I was just about twelve,
When, on dinner, was my first date;
The chocolate was dark, and the roses – rare,
Still angry she was, for I was late.
-- Yet a kiss I got, by sweet fate.

From toys when kids, to crushes when teens,
Everything with pals – we shared;
Still competed, in a manner so strange,
That being best – was all for what we cared.
-- In private & public, these triumphs were aired.

A full million bucks I spent,
To make through a b-school;
Oh, that time! I love it no end,
No day did pass, with an unbroken rule.
-- The senseless race to be cool.

Smoking, for no reason other than,
Just to be a part of all;
Taking a drag of weed too,
When friends held a call.
-- Together we did rise, together we did fall.

Customers of emotions we have been,
Satisfaction of desire – our only value;
Its trading was never done alone,
Give and take, forever equal, between I – and you.
-- The barter of happiness, only then, is complete and true.

Richa Tibarewal, IMT Nagpur

Guerilla Marketing
What is it you want to sell?
Decided the target market?
Which market you want to sell in?
How do you want to sell?
Is it through the word of mouth or Buzz?
Or is it the advertisement that is must?
This is actually a hassel free marketing.

Guerilla is all about passion,
It is about the power the brands possess.
A small organization like yours
Is closer to customers than huge organization like ours.

Understanding the customers needs,
Establishing healthy relationships,
Builds trust and support in them
Is the strategy that guerilla marketing banks upon!

Human psychology forms the foundations
Primary investment is not money,
Instead time, energy, and imaginations.
Be different, stand out from crowd
Have to be heard not necessary be loud.

Guerilla attacks unexpectedly,
Its unconventional, it is different, it is unique
A provoking concept that generates buzz, turns viral indeed.
Approaching unusually, encountering in public places,
PR stunts and street giveaways of products sellslike derby horses,
Motive is to get maximum results from minimum resources.

Attracting customers on the spot,
Keep them engaging that they do not leave the host,
not done by airing just the advertisements,
Most important is engaging the customers and create a memorable brand experience.

Gunjan Verma, FMS

Akanksha Garg, IMT Nagpur

Cash Cow
We heard of a hen who laid golden eggs and its awful fate and now a cash cow???? Come let’s see what has to happen to it in future.

What I infer from a cash cow is a cow that gives cash instead of milk!! Well that sounds too weird for even a thought. Some of our respected ancestors have generated this term and given it a complicated definition intertwined in the intricacies of marketing. But do we ever realise what it is?

Cash cow is our investment, AT A COST , that generates slow and steady money market.In simpler terms, we buy a cow; we require funds for buying it,funds for taking care of it,milch it and in return it gives us milk although there are very few takers in the market since everybody is going for PACKAGED(AMUL etc) MILK.

Now if we keep on spending money on our cow, there will be one time when our investment or expenditure on it increases the revenue it generates.This is certainly because people find the packaged products more hygienic. Hence cash cow is a cow giving us milk and hence money but where we don’t hope to improve our no.of customers. What is it that we must do then to make out cow more productive?? Stop spending on it??? NO , certainly no.

The question lies open to all of us what we should do with our cow....It is giving us rofits but should we really spend on it continuously knowing the market share will eventually decrease or let it die like our old legendary hen who suffered death because of someone’s greed???
The question lies open for us......

Rajiv Kumar, IIM Kozhikode

1.
More than just a lip-service
Many banks claim that they support small businesses, but 1stBank in Colorado seemingly put their money where their mouth is. They set up several rotating displays in busy areas covered with business cards of their small business customers, plus the tagline "We care about small business." Now that is more than just lip service.

2.
Breast Cancer tumor in your way
If you walked through a city and noticed a big tumor blocking your path, it would most likely catch your attention. That was the work done for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation and they used huge inflatables to promote the campaign "The longer you wait, the bigger the problem gets."

3.
Melting away
To bring more attention to the climate change in the arctic regions and the melting ice, the German World Wide Fund for Nature placed 1,000 ice sculptures in the shape of sitting humans on the steps of the German capital at noon. As the sculptures slowly melted away they left quite a sad impression.

Vinamra Agrawal, SIMS

Akash, MICA

Sundernarayan, MICA

“Maldhenu Bhabhi” – A Value Construct

An hour glass she was, draped in a translucent chiffon sari, her curves accentuated by the shimmery cascade of softness. She lay on the couch, her form a languid, tantalising oasis waiting to quench the thirst of weary travellers. Her eyes were the colour of a witch’s oils, sparkling, fiery and passionate one moment; cajoling, demure and melting the next. As she gazed on with an innocent impish smile, her delicious lips delicately parted to reveal a beautiful strawberry mouth, nobody could have guessed the years of expertise hidden behind those eyes. Maldhenu Bhabhi, she was fondly called; loved and admired by capable men of all ages (TG – All SECs, age 18+, promiscuous, potent and adventurous male) , revered as the contemporary ambassador of the world’s oldest profession. She had an illustrious family lineage, Saveetha Bhabhi being one of the most prominent amongst them. As Bruce Wayne is told in Batman Begins, “It is not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you”. It was a dialogue originally scripted with Maldhenu Bhabhi in mind.

An astute marketer, she was an expert in below the line promotional activities. Above the line was very impersonal and Maldhenu Bhabhi believed in maintaining very intimate relationships with her customers and hence always preferred below the line. She was an expert in delivering customer value and her value proposition far exceeded that of her competitors. The value proposition included superior product benefits and she created an irresistible urge for repeat visits. Her core competency was her ability to put the customer on the spot, involve him in the process and make him experience the benefits of the product. It was a business model fully dependent on co-creation and the amount of satisfaction the customer derived fully depended on the input he put in. She targeted the topmost level of Maslow’s hierarchy – self actualisation. More often than not most of her customers reached their break-even point and this was the point from where she sketched her business. Experience ensured that she swiftly reached breakeven in each of her transactions and this was why her stakeholders invested heavily in her. It was an investment for sure, an exercise in relationship management.

The mouth figured very prominently in her profession! It was by word of mouth that she increased her reach, to unpenetrated markets and with such ease; the mouth (word of mouth) was the only tool that could take her closest to her customers. Apart from word of mouth she also believed in guerrilla marketing in the true sense. Parks, railway stations, subways, lodges; her agents could spring up everywhere.

Maldhenu Bhabhi was not just a value construct; she was the manifestation of all the values any man craves for. She was not just a grid in a two cross two matrix, she was equivalent to a power grid ready to electrify anything that dared to cross her way. She was not just a consumer durable, she was more durable than most of her consumers. Rightfully so, she was called “Maal-dhenu“, the cash cow!

***A “Kinky Kotler” publication***

Shriram Parthasarathy, JBIMS

Playing at the WoodMock

Spearing Morello riff, and the drummer loses his stick with his ears set on fire, thanks to the extended hand of Mr. Burns, and the rest stay close to a moment to witness the midnight sun. Welcome to the Rail House of Cushion-Park, where every one is a musician, and the most famous band called “The BlackJack Murphies” are getting their act together to win the most coveted prize in the history of music, that’s playing at the WoodMock festival.

Led by Timmy the tea toddler, the band has Homer, the horrific on the base and the backup vocals, Cartman, the anorexic gem on the lead guitar and Lisa, the levelheaded on the drums. The practice would take place every day, and here we are on the penultimate day of rehearsals before the ultimate showdown. If the band’s history is to be narrated, then it will take the airtime of a full symsons television series. Timmy had a problem with catching the verses with the encircling words stringing it together, that is when singing them. It would so happen, that he would remember and push through his diaphragms struck by constipation of the highest degree experienced by the folks in Timmy’s homeland, the soul title of the songs sung by the band, which happen to be products as the result of portraying a feeling of over-inspiration. Here they were, practicing on of the originals titled “Holy Cash Cow”. The back-up vocalist Homer, would take the forefront of the stage act of the band, and would indulge himself into a verbal war with Timmy, which to the audience would sound like a proper symphony.

The WoodMock festival is a distant cousin of the real thing, the Woodstock. This is meant for the up-coming bands from the lands unknown and unheard to at least 1/3 of the total world’s population. The fest is attended by the cereal convicts of the highest degree, spirits of the famous butlers from the English-rich novels and a whole lot of gamblers who could never make it to Vegas, as their perception of money is not accepted by the real world. The day finally arrives, and The BlackJack Murphies take the stage. In the audience, there is a man called Patrick Cash who happens to be the man behind 42 murders including the assassination of JFK’s pet goldfish and Castro’s old reindeer. He was accompanied by his Italian pet cow named “Ciao”, but pronounced “Cow” thanks to Pat being a native of one of the far stretched pastures owned by the Yanks. The band begins to play their original, “Holy Cash Cow” and the Cash Cow duo stand fuming in the front row, thanks to them being a part of the brigade of soldiers of the evil forces which has continuously fought against the defenders of faith in God, right from the times of Jesus Christ. They take the stage and nock down the band members one by one, leaving Timmy for the end. Cow makes use of his lazy horns to knockdown Timmy by spearing through his diaphragm. No one from the audience could break an inch, as the spectacle like this was never witnessed in the history of the WoodMock Festival before. The fest comes to a standstill, and the handcarts are called for to take the band members to the place they call hospital. The whole media gathers around the band in their run up to the hospital and tries to get some words out of the band members. It was pointless to wait for Timmy to regain consciousness, as there is only one line that escapes his cavity. 3 days passed and Homer woke up to a Sunday morning, where he was met by a print reporter waiting to capture some words from him about the concert and the mayhem that took place. Homer had only one thing to say “Don’t let the dogs out, if you get what I mean”.

Gomathi Shankar, SIBM B

G2G MARKETING (GUERILLA TO GUERILLA MARKETING)
(This story is a work of pure imagination and crazy fiction)

Change is the only entity that doesn’t change. As the saying goes, change and evolution are integral to every other aspect of our life. Chimpanzees and guerrillas evolved into humans. Stone man evolved into the farmer. Farmer to trader, ruler, politician etc. As man evolved his needs kept changing. Exchange concept changed to production concept, then product concept, selling and now to marketing with niche areas such as B2B marketing etc. What if a new change arises and as a necessity to the man, a new trend niche evolves – the G2G marketing (Guerilla to Guerilla). Well, this is slightly different from the Guerilla marketing that we have today. In fact G2G can be told as a hybrid of B2B and Guerilla. Where a service markets itself to another service to serve an eventual end user very aggressively in the guerrilla style, except for the fact the primary client here are the guerrillas. Lets delve deep.

In order to tackle with the problem of human losses in warfare, armies of every country are thinking of out of the box solutions to find non-human soldiers nowadays. And with increasing terrorist threats and an implicit war that is on perpetually, the need for a reliable strong and non-human ally is essential to man now. The Americans are contemplating robots and are making headway. That is their nature to invent. What if a discovered solution is presented to the problem ? Indian army scientists have been doing this major operation undercover for so long and have come up with substantial evidence of late. Soon the use of guerrillas – literally guerrillas – as part of an army regiment will be approved by the Indian government.

A small peek into the classified research by the Indian army : Seven years ago, when a group of six elite scientists gathered in the military head quarters to find some out-of-the-box solutions to the issue, they chose to dig deep into the history. They were authorised to be crazy. History books did not provide the required amounts of craziness. So they dug deep into mythology and Bingo! They came up trumps with the perfect solution – the Ramayana – a master military strategy envisaged by Valmiki centuries ago to use monkeys as military troops. Whats more evidence shows that they had a great commander too – Hanuman !

They chose to proceed and evaluate the feasibilities. After much research, a feasibility report was submitted to the President. Rumour has it that the ex-President Dr.Kalaam himself was taken aback when he signed the feasibility report and gave them the green signal. The modern scientists are able to prove that our monkey cousins are possessing a higher degree of mental processing capabilities than most other animals and with repeated training and practice, can reach human levels too. Examples of chimpanzees speaking English and guerrillas playing football have made the headlines quite frequently in the world. Therefore training the guerrillas for military operations under command of humans is a certain possibility. Their superior physical powers and the tree-hide attack modes can provide them a competitive advantage over even human soldiers in some terrains.

How to induct the guerrillas into training first – seems a perfect HR problem ? Not exactly – there is a lot of marketing involved. Two target groups have to be convinced first! The animal rights activists and the guerrillas themselves! Who better to convince them than the current guerrilla warfare unit chiefs of the military ! Thus came the uniquely Indian G2G concept of military marketing . Convincing guerrillas will be done through negotiators handpicked from the forest tribes. The activists are to be convinced by pure human diplomatic procedures.

The following is the copy of the letter obtained after security clearance from the military sent to the activists.

Letter #1 :-
GUERILLA WARFARE REGIMENT – INDIAN ARMY
18th October 2009

To
The Chairman,
Blue Cross India.
Sir,
Sub. : Induction of guerrillas into the military regarding

The Indian Army proudly announced the findings of its top-secret G2G mission recently to the world media and you must be aware of the proposal. As a guardian of animal rights, it is our foremost duty to get clearance from your body before we recruit some soldiers. The scheme has impressed and got approval from Dr.Kalaam, a scientist himself.

The threat of militants is on the increase and the lives of military men are as equally important as the common men for us. Thus came the unique idea of guerrilla soldiers. You must have some idea about guerrilla warfare – a highly effective surprise attack military method. We learnt it from the guerrillas ! What if the teachers themselves come to write the exams for us ?

If you are apprehensive about the capability of guerrillas to fight for us, you should remind yourselves of the great Lord Hanuman who played a pivotal role in Ramayana. In stead of seeing the myth as a story, look at it as a military strategy. This move will further strengthen our army and provide us a tactical advantage in deep forest fights.

I assure you that we are not forcefully recruiting guerrillas for this. We are conducting negotiations through tribal leaders with the guerrilla leaders in the forests. We are expecting a positive response. Initial responses suggest we are making more progress than we ever made through human negotiations with our neighbour countries through our diplomatic means. Only after receiving the consent of the guerrillas will we proceed further. Every recruited soldier will do so with his full uninfluenced consent.

Besides we can set up a governing board and decide on the compensations and perks for these soldiers. We are open to include a member from the Blue Cross and a Genetic Scientist and a Wildlife expert in the panel. Training will be given through a carefully designed programme framed by wildlife experts and guerrilla warfare chiefs. Separate training facilities will be set up for the guerrillas in the jungles of Western Ghats. Perks include special diets and animal spas in the camp. After a training stint of two years, an assessment will be done to select the soldiers.

Their job description will be xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (classified information) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The animals will be treated with utmost dignity and care by us. Besides based on the initial outcomes from the tribal negotiations, we are able to decipher that the guerrillas are considering themselves to be possessing superior knowledge than fellow animals and looking forward for a competitive challenge to justify their potentials. As science advocates strongly, the mental abilities of a guerrilla are greater than a normal animal and they have the ability to decide based on reason too.

I sincerely hope you understand the ethics behind the issue and the benefits of its implementation. Feel free to contact me for any further negotiations.

Regards,
XXX
.......................................................................
What happened next ? Well , you saw the date on the letterhead , didn’t you ?
So dear Homo sapiens ... what do you think about a guerrilla figting to protect you?

Alekhya Chakrabarty, IMT Ghaziabad

The presentation was going perfectly according to plan-till I passed the baton to Ankit. Always a passionate speaker-cum-marketer, he launched into the barrage of ways he was going to make sure the marketing blitz was going to work for our team. Midway through the presentation, and I quote him, Ankit says: “Through mouth-to-mouth publicity we will ensure that all customers are informed of the delights our brand has to offer”. The class roared in agreement, the faculty was pissed beyond imagination (our grades proved the degree of her annoyance, who cares about grades anyway)-but it made my decision amply clear indeed–the confusing world of mouth to mouth, err..’word of mouth’ needed to be delved deeper into.

Word of mouth can have many a definition, but the most effective explanation in my book is given by Peter Senge in his pioneering work ‘The Fifth Discipline’. Here is how he explains word of mouth as an example of a reinforcing circle:

Reinforcing Sales Process Caused by Customers Talking to Each
Other About Your Product
This diagram shows a reinforcing feedback process wherein
actions snowball. Again, you can follow the process by walking
yourself around the circle:
If the product is a good product, more sales means more satisfied
customers, which means more positive word of mouth. That will lead to
still more sales, which means even more widespread word of mouth . . . and
so on. On the other hand, if the product is defective, the virtuous cycle
becomes a vicious cycle: sales lead to less satisfied customers, less positive
word of mouth, and less sales; which leads to still less positive word of
mouth and less sales.

Looking back, the Neanderthal man used word of mouth in his community to pass on the tool making skills and techniques to his successors. From those days to the age of Twitter, Facebook-word of mouth is surely here to stay. Especially in these days-it has become such an inseparable part of our life that even in our subconscious minds we become prey to the guile of word of mouth. Whether it is about trashing the latest Bollywood release, spotting the latest hottie on campus, identifying the latest fad in the world of fashion, locating the most happening hangout in town-we spread word of mouth knowingly or unknowingly.

That’s about the almost ubiquitous prevalence of word of mouth, but a little reflection on the term and its related aspects will make one realise some of the less obvious connotations.

1. 
   It is so insanely impossible to ignore. It chases you down like a cruiser missile-you feel left out of the social circles if you do not pass it onto the next person who is virgin of the content of the latest word of mouth.
2. 
   It spreads faster than the best quality swine flu virus, or the most vicious worm on the internet. Ask Shashi ‘I won’t twit again’ Tharoor to certify.
3. 
   It seduces as dangerously as good old gossip-one feels like his innards are going to burst if he doesn’t participate in the word of mouth campaign J
4. 
   The term itself is insanely infuriating. Word of Mouth-as if the words could emerge from any other orifice of the human body.

In the world of social media marketing, brands, especially new brands, can ignore word of mouth at their own peril. Popular Websites like http://www.mouthshut.com/ thrive entirely on the power of word of mouth. Word of mouth has resulted in deaths of many a product which have been ahead of their times.

To wrap it up, at the end of the momentous two years of one’s life spent in the hallowed halls of the B School, when one wears the graduation robe with his stomach full of the MBA lingo – the candidate who takes the crown for being the most vicious and omnipresent one is, you guessed it-word of mouth

Vikas Bansal, IIT Madras

Customer Value Creation: Give up the control and flourish!!!

Customer Value can be created through umpteen ways. I will be putting my perspective on how to create customer value by “Giving up the control”. Bizarre it may sound but I have a small story which goes like this.

Visiting big retail chain and watching thousands of products displayed elegantly has always been an exhilarating experience for me. One hundred types of Soups, great variety of organic food, stimulating collection of sausages has always given the kick to gourmet like me. I tried to explore the reason, why retail chains emphasize so much on display of products. Marketing aficionados told me that the reason is obvious, not even worth discussing. More product display means better exposure, which further coerce customers to buy products, which otherwise they would not have bought. I took the logic and convinced myself that the use of million square feet of floor space to display products is to stimulate latent customer needs and in process fuel sales!!! Phew…

But one day something happened which impelled me to question this fundamental (stimulate latent needs), which was nothing less than a gospel for me, till now. I was in the process of buying laptop from Dell. When I came to making a payment, the nice lady form Dell put on IVR system and I could make the payment in seconds without revealing the details of my credit card to anyone (though I wouldn’t have minded it giving to the lady ;)). I felt liberated, literally. I felt like a free bird, which can fly in any direction, anywhere. This event led to genesis of following hypothesis.

Displaying items alone can’t make customer buy anything. But the display of products in retails is meant to give control in the hands of customers. It makes them feel liberated. (S)He thinks that (s)he has been emancipated. This emancipation is manifested in his/her purchase behavior. She (generally!!!) ends up buying bizarre products, which otherwise he would not have bought.


Given an option to choose between two restaurants, one would tend to choose the restaurant with more choices, even though he may always order the same things. This happens because more options mean more control. More control aggravates his latent needs. Vending machines, Millions of tariff plans by telecom service providers; elaborated menu all put the control in the hand of customer and lets him decide their fate.

In short if you want to create a unique value of the customer, be ready to give up the control. Give it in the hands of your customers. They value it and will surely pay you back, generously.
What do you people think??? Does it make any sense or it’s just a figment of my imagination? Comments are invited.

Kunal Arora, NITIE

Customer Value

Bhakti Gajjar, GIDC Roffel Business School

Word Of Mouth

Shwetha, MICA

Word Of Mouth
The most powerful marketing tool
Which is easy to use and super duper cool
Sometimes people use this to make of others a fool
But it sure helps in building a money pool
No tension ka maamla it comes at a low cost
So u needn’t be worried or feel lost
Not many people know how it is to be used
This is something to ponder about and feel amused
Although very simple it may seem
You have to put in efforts to fulfill your dream
It can help you meet your business objectives, your goal
Toh use this tool bol beta bol
It is the finest way to attract consumers new
Since we trust people very few
All you have to do
Is create a product which is fun, innovative and new
So much so that it becomes the favourite topic for discussion
And there you have accomplished your mission
But if your product is not as ground breaking as it should be
You start talking about it whether you are busy or free
Slowly and steadily people will know about it
And hojayega maamla fit
So do you believe now
Why where and how
Word of mouth is the most effective marketing tool
Ekdum fundoo and super duper cool

Pranava Boyidapu, IIM Calcutta

Break Even Point
Neha sipped on her coffee slowly as she waited for Ajay to come. Thoughtful, she stared into the haze of the steam rising above the coffee. She had been waiting for this day for three years now. Finally it has come.

Jiya ran into her house along with her mother running away from all the press. Her father was to be arrested with regard to some money managing scheme that Jiya did not understand. Her mother cried her heart out all night and abused Mr Mathur for cheating them, while the police lowered took her father in.

Ajay was Neha’s client and they had previously closed a deal where Neha guided Ajay on a huge investment in real estate that cost him about 1.8 crore which was almost all his life savings. Even though Ajay was about seven years older than her, after the deal he asked her out since they weren’t maintaining a professional relation anymore. This made Neha even more nervous. She had never dated a client before. But even more importantly she had been waiting for this day for three years now. Finally it has come.

Mr. Mathur had taken a huge loan from Jiya’s father against his house in Gurgaon to start his own manufacturing paper manufacturing unit. It was later found that the house was not his and the papers that were signed were not real. But Jiya’s father could not escape from his lenders.

Ajay was happy to see Neha finally.

“Sorry, the traffic kept me up. But I’m glad we could find time for this little meeting of ours”

“Not gladder than I”, Neha smiled.

“So what shall we order before we start talking about each other?”

“Well, let’s see! A fraud investment?”. Neha looked steely eyed at Ajay.

“Oh! Cut the work jokes now Neha! We are on a personal meeting, like a date, you know…”

“Yes! Very personal indeed! I have some news for you. The island paradise where you bought land for your new hotel just now! It’s vanished!”

“Neha! You must be joking! What is all this?”

“Ok. Let me explain, the Indian Ocean keeps swallowing and vomiting every now and then. So last night it swallowed your little island of money.” Neha sneered at him.

Ajay turned ashen, “What are you saying?!”

“I am saying that your 1.8crore drowned in the Indian Ocean and there is nothing you can do about it! It’s a risk you took. Sorry, did I not bold and underline that risk clause?” Neha smiled innocently at him.

As Ajay was trying to grasp the essence of this, Neha placed her coffee cup down, got up to go.
“I guess it’s a bad time for a date Mr. Ajay Mathur.” And she was about to leave when Ajay called out to her.

“Neha..”

“The name’s Jiya! You might remember this news article!” She placed on the table a small paper clip. The paper clip was about scandal of Mr. Rajeev Agarwaal.

“Now here comes the point when I break it to you, that I m his daughter! Well I guess now we are even!”

Neha turned on heel and walked out leaving a dumbstruck Ajay.

Yuvraj Singh, SIMS

Abhijit Pachorkar, TAPMI

‘Guerrilla Marketing’ is very old and can be traced to our ancestors-Apes and to be specific- Gorillas. Hence the name Gorilla mara-mari. With the passage of time, it came to be known as ‘Guerrilla Marketing’! It was a type of marketing used by monkeys –colleagues of Chota Hanuman during the ‘Satya-Yuga’. As you all know, monkeys (Gorillas) are best imitators and attackers. They used to hide in trees and attack the trespassers carrying food who didn’t lend it to them. Similarly, in today’s ‘Kaliyug’, marketers intermittently attack consumers who enter the market with cash and don’t spend it purchasing their products/services. But as observed by revered Peter Duckling, Cotler, Jack Stout, All Lies and other great Gassing elements of Marketing, consumers are also becoming smarter and they too, now don’t carry cash. Instead they carry credit cards. In response to this change of preference, the marketers have started carrying the card reader/swipe machine and a young swine. They threaten the customers of swine flu and get their cards swiped.

Ultimately, who wins the war at the end is a matter of great concern.....Not for the marketer or consumer, but for the little swine because it will decide as to who will clear the swine’s shit and feed him!

Nakul Sud, MICA

Spotlight Finalists!

Selecting a few scripts out of the numerous MICANVAS received for Spotlight took the time it had to. The waiting now comes to an end. The results are as follows.

Finalists:

1) Sri Ram College Of Commerce (Maujood)
2) Maitreyi College (In The Name Of Honour)
3) IIM Ahmedabad (The Tree That Shook The Earth)
4) IMI (The Ladder)
5) MICA (Untitled)
6) Corporate - Johann Mathai (Reluctant Bastards)

Reserve:

1) DA-IICT (Broken Images)
2) ISM Dhanbad (Sara)

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, 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

Tech-A-Tete Stage I Results!

Yes, we finally have them! The finalists for TCS Tech-A-Tete are:

1) Amandeep Singh Kohli and Hitesh Patel (IMT Ghaziabad)
2) Sriram Narayanan and Ramesh Krishnan (MICA)
3) Anshuman Ghosh and Shubham Khurana (XLRI)
4) Piyush Maskey and Ammar Tambawala (IIMA)
5) Tanvi Gupta and Pooja Shevade (MICA)
6) Mayur Gupta and Saurabh Ranadive (IIT Madras)

The two teams in reserve are:

1) Gourav Sinha and Ruchika Rathi (MICA)
2) Ashwin Durga and Sidharth Mehta (SJMSOM, IIT Powai)

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, the reserve teams will be called in your stead.

Phew! Believe us, narrowing the entries down to these selected few was no easy task. While we congratulate the finalists, we also thank every participant for making Stage I as competitive as it turned out to be.

For any queries, feel free to contact:

Kanika Gupta
+91 9998337468
kanika8@micamail.in

Kunj Sanghvi
+91 9558816596
kunj8@micamail.in

Cin-cinema-tti

**Stage I submission deadline extended to 28th of October, 11 59pm**

Shoddy film-making is something we have all been subjected to since the day we were born. How many times have we left a cinema hall wondering what inspired us to watch the film we just did, complaining about the acting, the story, the screenplay, the direction itself? Considering the amount the Indian middle-class spends on cinema watching today, we wouldn’t mind killing a director or two, would we?

But what is good film-making? To find that out, MICANVAS presents ‘Cin-cinema-tti’, the short film-making contest. So if you think you have a director in you, read on!

The event will take place in two stages. As part of Stage I, the participants (in teams not exceeding 2 members each) need to send in a short live action film (not excedding 5 minutes) on any topic of their choice. The videos should be uploaded on YouTube and the link should be sent to us.

The entries must be mailed in by 11:59 PM on the 24th of October 2009. All entries must reach us at cincinematti.micanvas@gmail.com.

From the entries received for Stage I, six shortlisted teams will be announced on 27th of October and these will be invited on campus during MICANVAS 2009 and will be given a topic on which they are expected to make a short film. The teams will be asked to present their films to a panel of judges the next day, followed by a Q&A session.

After Stage II, the team that comes out on top will win Rs. 12500 and the runner-up will win Rs. 7500. This is your chance to prove to the world that there’s more to direction than what the present lot has to present!

For more about the event, click here.

For any queries, feel free to contact:

Kanika Gupta
+91 9998337468
kanika8@micamail.in

Kunj Sanghvi
+91 9558816596
kunj8@micamail.in

Mudra Presents Mudra Spark!

**Stage I submission deadline extended to 25th of October, 11 59am**

Education has and will always be one step behind, won’t it? While we sit in classrooms and study theories, do case studies and presentations on various issues in the fields of marketing and communication, we little realise that the world outside is moving at its own rapid pace, that what is novel today is passé tomorrow.

This single fact makes it even more important that we concentrate on opportunities that can influence the thoughts of tomorrow rather than just reading the case studies of yesterday. MICANVAS and Mudra present 'Mudra Spark', where you get the chance to give form to the future.

The event will be conducted in two stages. As part of Stage I, teams (of not more than 2 members each) are required to submit a paper of not more than 2000 words with a clear and differentiated view point on ANY ONE of the topics mentioned below:

I. Brand Mythology – Is It A Marketing Tool?
Myths transcend time, geography and culture, surviving long after the people who wove them. If brand mythology is the cultural and contextual understanding of a brand’s past and present, can the mythology of a well-established brand influence its consumers or attract new ones? Are there any brand myths that have done exceedingly well, and what can we learn from them?

II. Sensory Branding In India
A complex media environment and consumers annoyed by interruption from marketers has made it challenging to build brands today. The idea that brands should engage consumers on a variety of touch points is not new, but to do it through the different senses is still an emerging thought. To what extent is this already being done in India? Does such a thought hold promise for Indian brands? Are there ways to touch the senses without invading them?

III. Advertising and the Cultural Divide
India is a diverse country and we see numerous national launches of marketing communications with regional adaptations. The North - South divide has been debated for years now. Expressions in Hindi passing off as ideas and translations that make no sense whatsoever for a Malayali or a Tamilian, the usage of caricatures and stereotypes like Rajanikanth or global ideas slapped onto advertising in India. Can this communication connect with its consumer? Is the world truly flat?

IV. Social Responsibility - A Cause Or A Charade
Consumers these days want to associate themselves with brands they feel good about rather than a product with functional utility. Recognizing this, many brands today espouse a social cause, and create campaigns that aim to bring about a social change. Are these ‘causes’ building better brands or eating into media budgets? Or are these campaigns only catering to the egos of people who created them? What should advertising do to make a real change?

V. Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
Women are the most influential buyers yet most marketing theories were developed in the days when men were the key influencers at both the supply and demand end of the market. Women now play a large role in the workplace and the marketplace. Is there a need to recalibrate these theories? Should there be different marketing campaigns to communicate with consumers depending on their gender? What kinds of brands need to take another look at how they are talking?

VI. Rural India - A Market That Defies Logic
In a country where 70% of its population lives in rural areas, successfully marketing to the bottom of the pyramid presents a huge opportunity for marketers. While large companies have been winning on the back of their distribution strengths, the proliferation of Direct to Home television (DTH) services is a surprising trend. A nascent industry in India, 10 % of rural households have a DTH service while only 6% of urban India subscribes to these services. What drives this growth in the erstwhile media dark areas? How will this affect the story of marketing to rural India?

The entries must be mailed in by 11:59 PM on the 23rd of October 2009. All entries must reach us at spark.micanvas@gmail.com. The six best teams, whose names will be announced on the 27th of October, will be invited to the MICA campus to make their final presentations as part of Stage II.

A few things to keep in mind for the Stage I entries:

• Papers must have a clear and differentiated point-of-view rather than solely participating in existing debates
• Questions listed at the end of each topic description are merely indicative of the kind of discussion and debate your paper should generate. These are not mandatory questions to be answered
• A case in point has to be included, where you throw some light on either an existing scenario or a possible strategy to best utilize the insights from your opinion on the subject
• Even though you may draw from global examples, the work has to be relevant to the Indian scenario
• A photograph and five line biography of the author(s) is to accompany the paper

After the end of Stage II, the team which comes first stands to win Rs. 25000 and the runner-up wins Rs. 15000! The incentive’s there, also a range of topics to choose from, and the chance to shape the future rather than reading about it as history some years later. So, without wasting time, get ready to do exactly that!

For more about the event, click here.

For any queries, feel free to contact:

Kanika Gupta
+91 9998337468
kanika8@micamail.in

Kunj Sanghvi
+91 9558816596
kunj8@micamail.in