That One Day: When We Climbed The Ladder | IIM Udaipur

It was just another class on a Tuesday morning, or so we thought. I can hear the clock ticking as I am having breakfast in a rush. I put the dishes and run towards my morning class of one of my favourite subjects, Consumer Behaviour.

The subject in itself is interesting, but what makes it exciting is our Professor, Mr. Prantosh Banerjee. He is a person who is the epitome eccentric and is a teacher of the highest degree. It was a session on the concept of ‘laddering’. He was teaching us about the various ways to associate with a consumer with your product. He taught us about the levels of association with a product. He gave us some examples which ingrained the concept in our heads. All the students were ready to move on to a subsequent topic but he had something else in his mind for us.

He asked us to clear our tables and minds. We were surprised but anticipated something interesting to come our way. After ensuring that every students’ desks were empty, he asked us to keep only one notebook and pen in front of us. He instructed us to write only when asked and stay silent unless told for the next hour. He also gave us instructions, to express our opinions through nodding and raising hands only. Everyone was completely immersed in the class activity. He was speaking with a tone which sounded peaceful and made us calm.

He asked us to clear our heads, once again and drew a few concentric circles on the board. He wrote the word ‘Soap’ in the center of the circle. He asked us to write the first three aspects we think when we hear ‘Soap’ in the notebook. Everyone wrote it and sat silently. He asked all of us if we had written as asked. Everyone nodded in a rhythmic manner. He asked everyone to tell their writings and wrote every word on the board. He also quantified the frequency of the words from the poll. We were excited with the activity thus far, and were waiting to watch what’s coming next. From the poll, he took the most popular aspect, ‘cleanliness’ and asked us to write the activities we associate with it. We repeated the exercise and reached the most popular activity to be ‘Health’.

After reaching thus far in the activity, he recapped the exercise for us. He continued and told us a short story about a product with a history of more than 100 years. He told us that the product was soap and the company did a similar exercise on a large scale and used the concept. The more we went on with the story, all the students knew the product he was talking about. He began to sing the ad jingle of the product and everyone joined in the sing-along, “Lifebuoy Hain Jahan Tandurusti Hain Wahan”.

It is one of the most memorable experiences of my educational journey in IIM Udaipur as it taught me the power of brilliant and powerful teaching, as I would never forget the concept and its application throughout my life.

I would like to work with ‘Aditya Birla Retail Limited’ as I have been fascinated with the way, marketing practices in retail stores can impact product strategies. The retail chain, ‘More’ stores and megastores have participated in innovative marketing ideas in their stores to engage with customers. Retail stores are one of the best places where can understand consumer behavior and design the marketing strategy to maximise sales, as it has an array of consumer goods. I believe that I will be able to play to my strengths and be an asset to the company.