On 10th October 2009, the first leg of Mercatique - the flagship event of MAXIM – The Marketing Association of XIMB, was rolled out successfully. Mercatique 2009 has been designed to have a workshop format in which a series of workshops would be conducted throughout the year to achieve greater industry and student body interaction.
The speakers for the two sessions were Ms. Ashwini Deshpande (Director, Elephant Design &Strategy) who conducted a session on brand strategy and design and Mr Pritam S Purkayastha (Senior General Manager Marketing, SAIL) who spoke on supply chain management in marketing and enterprise risk management.
During the first half of the day, Mr Purkayastha spoke to the students about the vision and mission of SAIL, which is one of the biggest steel producers in India, and its marketing setup. He also spoke about the top down and bottom approach used by SAIL while drafting its annual plans and stressed on the importance of customer satisfaction, and the measures taken by SAIL to increase the same. This was followed by two case study discussions during which some interesting new concepts such as Enterprise Risk Management, backyard integration to access and control the source of raw materials and building of ports to avoid berthing delays were discussed. The session was concluded with three videos which showed how SAIL manufactured steel and ensured that all the steel produced meets its quality standards.
This was followed by a session by Ms. Ashwini Deshpande who spoke about Elephant Design+Strategy which is a strategic design and innovation consultancy firm that partners with organizations to transform them into dynamic, profitable and meaningful entities. She described the company’s journey from its conception on 1st May 1989 to now, and the various lessons learnt along the way. She discussed various case studies to highlight how certain design and packaging changes were implemented and the thought process and market research that went into doing the same. All the case studies discussed were of highly successful products. Each case study was followed by a lively discussion in which students clarified their doubts related to the design industry in general and the product re-design mentioned in the case study in particular.
There were case studies for product design (Aristocrat), brand revamping (HUL Breeze) and new brand development (Titan EYE+). Each case study dealt with a consumer perspective, their requirements and how the design team arrived at the proposed solution. For instance in case of Artistocrat hard luggage product design, the target customer wasn’t defined properly and various aspects of usage and style were considered.
For Breeze, women were the target segment who didn’t even have access to good facilities in their homes. For them fragrance meant scent. The aspiration for high end products wasn’t there and soap was the only beauty product used. A good and long lasting smell was preferred. The design team developed new pack designs which were better visible on the shelves and suggested 4 fragrances. Also the product shape was made to look bigger.
The third case discussed was for Titan EYE+ and it involved nomenclature, designing of the store layouts and ambience. Since the work EYE was available for the brand and it is closest to prescription eyewear, EYE+ name was used. Orange color was used instead of Red of Titan and also all the items in the stores were suggested to be on display. It was also suggested to have everything inside the store of glass as transparency is important for this business.
Learning design aspects of branding was really new to most of the students. Many things look pretty simple to us, but we need to appreciate the efforts put in these simple things that make them great.
Thus, to conclude, Mercatique 2009 has kick started in a big way! We hope that all the workshops that follow leave us with the same sense of fulfilment and satisfaction and the students get to learn from the vast experience of the industry stalwarts who have very kindly agreed to share their time and knowledge with us.
The speakers for the two sessions were Ms. Ashwini Deshpande (Director, Elephant Design &Strategy) who conducted a session on brand strategy and design and Mr Pritam S Purkayastha (Senior General Manager Marketing, SAIL) who spoke on supply chain management in marketing and enterprise risk management.
During the first half of the day, Mr Purkayastha spoke to the students about the vision and mission of SAIL, which is one of the biggest steel producers in India, and its marketing setup. He also spoke about the top down and bottom approach used by SAIL while drafting its annual plans and stressed on the importance of customer satisfaction, and the measures taken by SAIL to increase the same. This was followed by two case study discussions during which some interesting new concepts such as Enterprise Risk Management, backyard integration to access and control the source of raw materials and building of ports to avoid berthing delays were discussed. The session was concluded with three videos which showed how SAIL manufactured steel and ensured that all the steel produced meets its quality standards.
This was followed by a session by Ms. Ashwini Deshpande who spoke about Elephant Design+Strategy which is a strategic design and innovation consultancy firm that partners with organizations to transform them into dynamic, profitable and meaningful entities. She described the company’s journey from its conception on 1st May 1989 to now, and the various lessons learnt along the way. She discussed various case studies to highlight how certain design and packaging changes were implemented and the thought process and market research that went into doing the same. All the case studies discussed were of highly successful products. Each case study was followed by a lively discussion in which students clarified their doubts related to the design industry in general and the product re-design mentioned in the case study in particular.
There were case studies for product design (Aristocrat), brand revamping (HUL Breeze) and new brand development (Titan EYE+). Each case study dealt with a consumer perspective, their requirements and how the design team arrived at the proposed solution. For instance in case of Artistocrat hard luggage product design, the target customer wasn’t defined properly and various aspects of usage and style were considered.
For Breeze, women were the target segment who didn’t even have access to good facilities in their homes. For them fragrance meant scent. The aspiration for high end products wasn’t there and soap was the only beauty product used. A good and long lasting smell was preferred. The design team developed new pack designs which were better visible on the shelves and suggested 4 fragrances. Also the product shape was made to look bigger.
The third case discussed was for Titan EYE+ and it involved nomenclature, designing of the store layouts and ambience. Since the work EYE was available for the brand and it is closest to prescription eyewear, EYE+ name was used. Orange color was used instead of Red of Titan and also all the items in the stores were suggested to be on display. It was also suggested to have everything inside the store of glass as transparency is important for this business.
Learning design aspects of branding was really new to most of the students. Many things look pretty simple to us, but we need to appreciate the efforts put in these simple things that make them great.
Thus, to conclude, Mercatique 2009 has kick started in a big way! We hope that all the workshops that follow leave us with the same sense of fulfilment and satisfaction and the students get to learn from the vast experience of the industry stalwarts who have very kindly agreed to share their time and knowledge with us.
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