Our classes had begun last week and the students were getting into the hectic schedule that comes with b-school life. The classes were pretty interesting as unlike our educational experience till now; we were learning theoretical concepts and their vast applications in major organizations through a case-based pedagogy. As a commerce student, my focus and interest lied mainly with Finance and Marketing subjects.
The day began like any other in the morning and we were attending the session just before lunch. This session like in any other school, college or b-school was the longest as the students were getting distracted and hungry. The session was for the course ‘Marketing Management’.
The professor started the session with the concepts of consumer perception which is created by marketers through the marketing process of a product and how a brand or product positioning is created in the minds of the consumers as a result of the same. The theoretical aspects, although interesting, were appreciated by only a few.
But then the professor proceeded to elaborate the same using advertisements and by explaining the marketing techniques and processes used by various companies to create product positioning. Examples of various brands who failed to create the required consumer perception and thus eventually did not get the required product positioning was provided. This woke up the class as we realized that these brands were encountered by us almost on a daily basis and thus jolted me to the reality of the scope of marketing and the importance of what we as marketers were to do.
This experience will never be forgotten by me as this classroom experience created in me a thirst for knowledge in this area both theoretical and practical. This experience also taught me the dangers of using partial knowledge while taking managerial decisions.
Which ABG company would you want to work for and why?
I would like to work for the ABG in their retail business for their brand ‘more.’. In the years 2007-08’, I was a 7th standard student and the major retailer in the same segment in Kochi, Kerala was a brand known as ‘Varkeys’. They had a shop at all the right places and was the market leader in the city. Around this period, ‘more.’ started their operations in the same city and in a few years managed to capture a major portion of the market eventually putting the brand ‘Varkeys’ out of business. As a child, this fascinated me and created a spark for business and understanding them.
- Boney Antony