Here goes the IIM-L INDEX!

HOW DO you differentiate one?s brand from another? Be aware that in today?s world branding of a particular product is extremely important, and differentiating one?s brand from another is a challenge, IIM-Lucknow students have launched ibrand ? a marketing initiative that coincides with INDEX.

HOW DO you differentiate one’s brand from another?

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Be aware that in today’s world branding of a particular product is extremely important, and differentiating one’s brand from another is a challenge, IIM-Lucknow students have launched ibrand — a marketing initiative that coincides with INDEX.

INDEX is IIM’s annual marketing fest that would be inaugurated at Nehru Bal Vatika, Aliganj from Saturday. Hindustan Times and Hindi Hindustan are media partners for INDEX this year. Commissioner Lucknow division RK Mittal would inaugurate the marketing fest.

“The event ibrand was launched in association with TATA as the principal partner to enable students to explore the field of brand building, an event we seek to expand and promote in the years to come,” said Nishant Chadnani, coordinator, INDEX.

The ibrand campaign this year was meant for postgraduate programme (PGP I) students to promote building and brand awareness among them.

Says Mihir Agarwal, PGP II student and a member of INDEX committee, “Around 25 teams, each consisting of five students, registered for the event. After the initial elimination that was done on the basis of creativity shown by students in preparing video advertisement for specific product category whose campaign the teams undertook.”

And what a brand building exercise it turned out to be. The entire ibrand campaign was divided into five categories—tea, cars, watches etc. Since TATA was their principal partner, the products were mainly TATA ones like Indica Car, Tata Tea etc.

The IIM teams, who qualified for the second round, had a challenge to promote their given brand across the campus within the 1000 point that each team was allocated to spend on brand building and advertising.

Five slots at IIM-L were selected and the participating teams had to bid for each slot. “The idea was to see how the teams went about popularizing their brands by effectively utilizing their budget and innovative planning that appealed to the audience.

Here, the audience comprised the IIM-L community,” Mihir said adding that IIM-L professors like Prof Dharmendra Sengar and Prof Debashish Das Gupta provide all the encouragement to the students.

The onus was on the teams to name their products (like one team named Tata tea as Basanti Ki Chai), specify the features and devise a strategy to build its brand image among the IIM-L community. A sample survey was undertaken to find which team managed to promote its brand in the best way.

The event became a huge hit. “Video advertisements were made and telecast at prime locations, intra college sports events were sponsored by individual teams for promoting brands etc,” Mihir said.

The performances of the teams were evaluated on the basis of the strategy adopted as well as brand recall among the clients.