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IIM Indore’s marketing research event Utsaha, held a Marketing and Leadership Workshop on October 28, 2017. Earlier this year, Utsaha successfully pulled off its first urban edition, during the Navratri celebrations. In a run-up to its upcoming rural edition on November 3-4, 3017, Utsaha conducted a fascinating workshop that consisted of enriching deep-dive sessions, taken by industry veterans into the field of consumer behaviour, effective leadership in current business scenario, market research, rural marketing, and the importance of understanding the same. The theme for the workshop was ‘Leadership in Current Indian Scenario & Marketing in Terms of Understanding Consumers Better & Identifying New Business Opportunities’. The line-up of speakers included eminent personalities from the corporate world with years of industry experience and keen insights in the sales and marketing domain.
The event began with the official lamp lighting ceremony by the guests, followed by an introduction about Utsaha by the co-ordinator, Sahil Puri.
Dr. Anuj Paul, John Deere India, discussed about the agriculture sector in India in which mechanisation is only starting to bloom. He familiarised the participants with the concept of Purchase Funnel which illustrates the theoretical journey of a consumer through the processes of Awareness, Consideration, Evaluation, Purchase and Use of a product. Dr. Paul also elaborated on the kinds of challenges that a company like John Deere faces in creating awareness among people, such as reaching the huge mass living in a total of 641,000 villages, dealing with various languages and religious and people from various literacy levels. He also shared how his company overcomes these challenges – by the use of regional media to a large extent, use of stories with more images and less text to communicate better, use of technology to build their own data, and increasing BTL to improve quality of awareness, to name a few.
Mr. Prasanna Tiwari from Kirloskar Brothers started his address by introducing the participants to the rural demography. He proceeded to introduce the audience to the concepts of marketing and rural marketing. He highlighted the future potential of rural marketing in India.
Mr. S. Adikesavan is in charge of the Agri Business Vertical of SBI in the all India level. He emphasized the importance of building different aspects of the student’s personality. He encouraged the students to develop a mind-set of contributing to the nation, livelihood and value for everyone.
The fourth speaker for the day was Mr. Amit Kasliwal, who currently heads the Indian leg of Corporate Sales for Ford Motor Company. He spoke on the topic—‘Leadership in today’s business scenario’. He mentioned about how leadership is about inculcating small habits. He also spoke about the importance of learning the art of building long lasting professional relationships.
Mr. Subhendu Pattnaik, the fifth speaker for the day is amongst the 100 Most Influential Global Marketing Leaders and one of the top 50 Brand Leaders of Asia, 2017. He shared his insights from his work in the fields of digital & social marketing, branding using content and account based marketing amongst others. He talked about the rise of digital marketing, how big it is, building a positive digital footprint and how digital marketing can offer ultra-precise targeting, ultra-less costs, ultra-efficient tracking of ROI.
Last speaker for the day was Mr. Saroj Mohanta, Marketing Professional. He talked about the triple bottom-line and its impacts on sustainable business solutions in Emerging Markets. He discussed the probable markets coming up with rural rich and emerging communities, and enlightened the audience about market research, market discovery and designing innovative products for rural as well as low income markets.
The workshop concluded with a vote of thanks by Professor Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Director, IIM Indore. He thanked the speakers and organisers for contributing to the workshop’s success.