XIMB organised their annual business conclave "Mercatique 2017"

MAXIM, the Marketing Association of XIMB organized their annual business conclave "Mercatique 2017" on 6th August 2017, Sunday, 9 am. The topic of discussion for the conclave was “Marketing in a VUCA World”. The speakers for the occasion were Ms. Sujata Dwibedy, Ms. Ritu Gupta, Mr. Amit Tiwari and Mr. Vijay Jacob.

Prof. Mridula Mishra, the moderator for today’s conclave declared the forum open for discussion by asking “How well these lessons apply to today’s rapidly changing environment?”

Ms. Ritu Gupta, Director-Marketing, Consumer and Small business at Dell India Inc., was the first speaker of the day. She started her speech by explaining the concepts of VUCA. Then by giving examples of Roger Federer and Nokia, she quoted “VUCA is not same for everyone. It depends on how you choose to perceive it.” Talking about PC penetration and her experiences in Dell she also cited how effects of demonetization and GST would make the VUCA sound more relatable in the marketing and business scenario.    

The next speaker was Mr. Amit Tiwari, Vice President, Marketing, Havells India. Putting forth his points through videos, Mr Amit Tiwari stressed on the importance of consumers in the market. He quoted “Change is constant in VUCA. Change starts with Consumers, who should be the center of every marketing plan”. By giving models of CDJ, he cited that the 3Ts of Marketing, Technology, Trend and Time are constantly changing. A very new concept “MarTech” where the traditional marketing meets technology and real time servicing was introduced by him to the audience.    

The third speaker of the day, Ms. Sujata Dwibedy, Executive Vice-President, Carat Media Services, gave a completely different angle to the discussion by bringing in how the term VUCA was experienced in the media and advertisement segment. She cited examples of Cadbury Silk Oreo and Maggi and how they changed their marketing strategies from time to time to deal with the dynamics of the ever changing market. She stressed on the fact how targeting is one of the most important factors of any product development.

The last speaker of the day, Mr. Vijay Jacob, Sr. VP and Country Head at Commonwealth McCann, came up with very interesting case studies to validate his stand on the topic for today. Be it the Paytm’s strategy after Demonetization or Saffola’s “Heart’s age” movement, he brought out how these big brands had dealt with VUCA in their own way.

The speeches were followed by an interactive question and answer session with the audience. The event concluded with a vote of thanks, given by Professor Mridula Mishra. The event also marked the release of “MAXIPRESS” marketing journal by Team MAXIM, XIMB.