It is 2:00 P.M., 22nd June (Friday), 2018. There is a lecture on Market Management. It was going to tough for students due dizziness in post lunch session and tough for faculty also, as to keep students attentive. Professor came into the class and greeted us. He glanced through our faces & identified that strong dizziness. He thought for a while and said, “Today we are going to invent new products & will market them, right now, here in the class.” Everybody was just confused and was thinking, “How we can invent something just now?”
Then Professor Said, “Think about the problems around you. The problems you are facing in your daily activities and then think about numbers of possible solutions. You need not to be rationale while thinking for solutions, be it infeasible and impractical. Once you have long list of alternatives with you then check for the best one. Then prepare the strategy, how you will market that solution.” Now, Students started to think about the problem, then the solution and in the last about the marketing strategy.
I found that among all, two products were really different & problem solver. One was ‘Radium Bulb’, which is a kind of bulb filled with radium liquid and emits the light. This bulb does not require any battery & electricity supply and has well enough lighting period. The second was the Spectacles wiper, which wipes the spectacles. During the rainy season, all people with spectacles have faced the problem as water drops blur the vision. Although these products are fictional for now but changed my way of thinking that solutions are not far away, they are just here only we need to think differently.
Then students prepared the marketing strategy of their proposed solutions. The strategy prepared by them was little vague & shallow and this can be expected as they have prepared that with their existing set of knowledge. Then Professor has explained the concept of ‘Go-to-Market strategy’ very diligently with the other example. Then again, Professor has given us a chance to prepare a marketing strategy for our proposed solutions. This time the strategy prepared by us was far mature & was sounding effective. When the teaching style is the combination of the theory & real-time application, then learning becomes truly practical & effective.
This was my memorable classroom experience, which makes me feel confident about my future as a star marketer.
Which ABG company would you want to work for and why?
From last many years I have been fan of IDEA’s advertisement campaigns. Every time IDEA has rocked in the market with the launch of a new advertisement campaign. IDEA has been in the top Telecom companies. But, recently due to a disruptive competitor, Idea has to merge with Vodafone to stay competitive. In this tough competition, radical strategy is need of the hour. I have worked informally with my father, in planning & executing local level strategies and currently learning marketing strategy in one of the premium B-schools of India.
- Vijaykumar Thakkar
Marketing, SIBM Pune