Global Brand Consulting firm Wolff Olins visits IIM Lucknow

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In an attempt to expose top Indian business talent to the subject of branding, Wolff Olins, the international brand consultancy with offices in London, New York, Dubai and recently San Francisco, partnered with IIM Lucknow to conduct a guest lecture and a workshop on branding. Both first and second year students at IIM Lucknow had an opportunity to interact with Zia Patel, Principal and Head of Strategy, India and Dubai, Wolff Olins. Patel is a regular public speaker, focusing on branding in India. Her platforms include Goa AdFest, World Brand Congress, IAA, Designomics and Kyoorius. She also writes a blog, ‘Z’s tips for you’ on kyoorius.com where she tries to give practical and professional tips to young graduates.

In a hall packed with more than 200 enthusiastic students of IIM Lucknow, Zia shared her insights on branding and how Wolff Olins combines rigour and magic to create business impact. Students were thrilled to learn about the Wolff Olins way of working which involves the power of design to help its clients re-imagine their future and appraise their business from another perspective. The company that was behind the London 2012 brand is a regular recruiter at IIM Lucknow. Last year, Wolff Olins recruited summer interns for its Dubai office to work on the market entry and PR strategy for a BRIC nation. In the current economic scenario, there is no denying the importance of effective marketing and brand strategies to help businesses grow and defend market share. Wolff Olins’ priority market is India. This is why four years ago they set up the Dubai office. As their clients in India grow, more focus is needed in building the talent pipeline. IIM Lucknow’s strong reputation as one of the top Indian B-schools, especially for marketing enthusiasts, reinforced Wolff Olins’ belief in the skills and potential of students and therefore, they continue to recruit summer interns from campus.

“IIM Lucknow has a strong reputation for marketing. The team that I worked with there were humble and helpful during the selection process in 2012 and we hired three summer interns.”

“I look for originality: thinking, imagination and writing skills. This is a tall order. I am aware that these skills take years to develop through experience at Wolff Olins but I’m pleased to report that I am very impressed with the progress of our three interns this summer. We need more of such graduates to take India to the next level”, said Zia.

Using clients such as Tata Docomo and (RED), Zia passionately shared her insights on branding in the real world with the second year students. This was part of the workshop that took place after her guest lecture. At a high level, she took the class through the end to end process followed by Wolff Olins. The session was very well received and saw active participation and ideation from the students as well as the faculty. For students interested in a career in marketing, the workshop gave a fresh perspective and tools that will prepare them well for a career in marketing and especially in branding. Most importantly, the lecture and workshop gave them a new lens to look at branding which is much more than advertising and creation of a logo.

“The workshop was an amazing experience. It was interesting and extremely useful to learn how the firm thinks and challenges clients to get the best work done. They should be a think-tank not a brand consultancy’’, said a final year student at IIM Lucknow.

The Marketing electives at IIM Lucknow have been designed to build a superior understanding about real business issues faced by the industry and to provide hands on experience on how to solve them. The budding managers also get real life business insights by listening to and interacting with top professionals and leaders from various global and national organizations who regularly visit the campus as part of the curriculum.

Zia’s visit reinforced the reputation of IIM Lucknow as one of the top management programmes in the country and its growing popularity among international recruiters looking to hire well rounded managers.

About Wolff Olins

Wolff Olins is a global brand consultancy that is ambitious for clients and optimistic for the world and was recently recognized by Fast Company as "one of today’s boldest branding and innovation firms." In business since 1965, its clients are leaders in all categories including technology, culture, media, retail, industry, and non-profit organizations. Wolff Olins helps clients create game-changing work by developing unique brand experiences, products that drive demand, and creatively-led business strategies. The consultancy created the brands for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games that inspired and engaged a global audience of four billion people and for RED, which has raised $170 million dollars and saved 7 million lives in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa.

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This release was created by the Recruitment Cell of IIM Lucknow

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