Where innovation took centrestage

Updated on: Thursday, September 02, 2010

Innovative products envisaged at the BIM Marketing contest simulating a series of tasks starting from identifying a segment to conceiving and marketing a product or service for that segment took the form of a virtual marketing battle at the Bharathidasan Institute of Management (BIM), Tiruchi, earlier this month.

The five-day long annual marketing contest organised by BISMARC, the marketing club of BIM, witnessed participants coming up with various offerings such as Stylus, a portable perfume contained in a pen; M-Mate, a device that automatically switches off power supply to unattended accident-causing devices; Green Bike, a bicycle made of bamboo sticks; Kiwiz, a range of toffees made of natural ingredients; Royalkalyaanam.com, a wedding services portal; Apnahastha, a range of services for senior citizens; Ratatouille, providing a range of themed dining experiences at home; and Manna, a service that distributes excess food from educational institutions' canteens to charity.

According to BIM Director N. Bala Baskar, the real challenge was in meeting the strict deadlines.

The whole event was a test of creativity and innovation and provided a practical learning experience for the participants. The first of the two rounds involved creating team names, taglines and logos, designing a product or service, conducting a market survey and presenting the findings to a panel of judges. Out of the 15 teams that registered for the event, eight made it to the second round.

In the second round, the shortlisted teams were required to bid for advertising spaces in and around the BIM hostel blocks, prepare and put up creative advertisements, set up stalls to showcase their offerings and finally make an enhanced presentation on their promotional activities and the financial aspects of their product or service to a panel of judges on the final day.

The judges for the grand final event were S. Parthasarathy, Educational Sales Manager, iDiscoveri Education Private Limted, and Fr.Raj of Don Bosco Media.

After intense competition, Team Mafia was declared the winner, while Team Marcules and Team Bulls Eye Targeters were the first and second runners-up respectively. “The objective of MARWAR is to enable first-year students to gain practical experience on what happens in the corporate world in terms of the activities associated with marketing from idea generation to product launches,” said Liju, one of the organisers.

Vinodh, Event Coordinator, said that there was wonderful chemistry among the team members in the way they executed the various tasks.

Where innovation took centrestage

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