34 th MAXI Fair

The 34th edition of MAXI Fair, one of the biggest and most respected marketing events in the B-school circuit, was officially inaugurated by Rahul Bose at XLRI Jamshedpur. The 2-day marketing extravaganza, conducted by the Marketing Association of XLRI (MAXI) boasts of a rich legacy of over 3 decades and attracts an audience of over 7000 people every year. MAXI Fair pioneered the concept of Disguised Market Research and has been commended by the likes of Philip Kotler and Theodore Levitt. In addition to having an enviable client base comprising of corporate giants like HUL, P&G, ITC, GSK, Nestle, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo, MAXI Fair now boasts of an ISO 9001-2000 certification as well.

This year, the event is set to get bigger than ever and has been launched at an all-India level. This would enable students from B-schools all across the country to battle it out for the chance to take up Live Research Projects from the likes of HUL, ITC and Airtel. Furthermore, MAXI Fair, also known as the Jamshedpur Mela is a household name in the Steel City and is a much awaited occasion. The Fair, which is set to take place on the 19th and 20th of January was declared open by actor, director, social activist Rahul Bose, who also delivered a talk on “Sensitive Leadership and Social Responsibility”.  The Research Design phase which precedes the actual event has already begun and MAXI Fair 2013 is all set to surpass the previous versions with its scale, grandeur and success.

 

MAXI 2012-13 Junior Executive Members

Introducing the flag bearers of the coolest committee on campus. We’re the rebels, we’re the outcasts , we’re the game-changers. We are INSANELY DIFFERENT.

 

Here it is , Finally , an opportunity to know what the New Insanely Different say about themselves ! Given an option to paint their imagination we get to know that they have varied interests .. One enjoys counting sheeps whereas one in Hunting for true love ! Where one competes with Varun devata to create rains , there is one who calculates what percentage of hers is a Salman Khan Fan :O

For more interesting facets of each Insane person here who dared to be a part of this committee check out the following intros !

 RAHUL BAJAJ aka BUZZY : 

The Mighty Toothbrush in hand, a frenetic Buzzy clears out the buffet
of ceaseless gibbering, sickly drapings and mind-numbing
motion-captures of a sold world-space. Oblations to his new gods, and
their unification, the indubitable ‘M’, fill the rank blots left in
his wake.

His thoughts remain scattered amongst wispy projections, flaring blue
in a timeless dimension, where ideas are shredded, and blown down
hurricane corridors.

His mind: a sparking new million-threaded positronic core — or a bald
cogwheel, depending on how you look at it.

He waits in the quintessential dank closet, chewed off fingernails et
al, for the next Ice Age, to barter off his collection of select teas
for guarana, caffeine, and the next in intelligence-enhancing
chickenfeed.

His pastimes include branding sheep.

 

Pragya aka Dhanno says

I am highly intuitive. I trust my feelings and read  body language perfectly, so don’t try to say one thing and mean another–I will catch on quickly. I am crazy about clothes, jewelry, perfumes and passionate about shopping!! A complete food junkie I love cooking and eating. I love to travel around with a good guide book in hand exploring all the famous and not so famous local eateries. I like the idea of combining creativity with fun, live in my own dreamy world but still manage to come back to realities of life every day!

SURAJ MENON aka KON-G says

My name is suraj, ppl tell me I’m crazy, but what do they know! I have a limited vocabulary- mostly 4 letter words. My favourite of the lot is LIFE. I’m laidback and easy going (actually I’m just lazy but that doesn’t sound half as good). I read, I write and I pretend to care about the everyday things in life as I go through the motions. Cogito ergo rum- I think therefore I am an old monk! *

*- all facts in this article are totally made up, but then you knew that already.

Archana aks pee-Po 

Is  an inveterate book worm and lives on a diet of mystery, humour, adventure, suspense and pizza.  She is a Malayalee who grew up in Chennai and loves Delhi. She loves singing and is a Classical vocalist. Someday she hopes to set up her own enterprise and find true love.

Sagarika aka SarSon says

I like colourful pencils, have a fetish for black nail paint and am slightly careless with gadgets. Here’s presenting SagrikaSharan, hailing from the small town of Bokaro Steel City and completely mesmerised by the charms of the enigmatic city called Delhi. After years of contemplation and research, I was actually able to crack my chemical and non-chemical composition, and hence feel one step closer to “self-actualization”….So here it goes:-

18% Happy-go-lucky

15% Staunch Salman Khan fan

13% Clothes-n-shopping enthusiast

12% Movie buff

11% Dreamer

10% Glutton (Pure non-vegetarian)

9.5% Facebook addict

9% Learner

2.5% Impatient

That’s precisely me..:)

I am but a mortal creation, playing my part in the divine conspiracy called “MAXI”….

 

AnUsHa aka TEJA iS

Presently, a 1^st year HRM student at XLRI. She is a staunch believer in diversity because she is an epitome of one. She is a biology student who became an engineer (NIT Warangal) ,joined HRM and chose to opt for MAXI. If that’s not proof enough, she belongs to Andhra Pradesh, brought up in Delhi, board exams from Gujarat, graduation and work experience from Andhra Pradesh and presently in Jamshedpur. If geographical diversity is not enough then worth mentioning are the her interests which include sports (badminton, TT, Throw ball) singing (carnatic, bollywood ) dancing (Junglee or otherwise) compeering (informal) creative writing (poetry)  and reading ( anything except text books).One day she dreams to feature in a Pepsodent ad.

 

Mantra of life: Nothing is impossible. Just give it a shot first!

 

AvishEk aka SoRRy says 

(a lot of things apart from sorry )

Hi, I am Avishek … excuse the weird spelling! I love the rains, and i’ve been called a rainmaker. My enthusiasm often exceeds my abilities – at almost all things i do to kill time. Movies and music excite me … so trust me to torture you with my vocal skills, or the lack of it. I love a joke  … more so if it is on me. My favourite joke – the one in which papa tomato squashes the baby tomato and says – “Ketchup

 

ANd Finally SHaShanK aka Yo-SHAnKy is

Called by many as the Destiny’s child, he vouches by Justin Beiber that it’s his talent that does the trick.  Curiosity run in his veins as he has seen it all but understood very little. His favorite pastime is decoding poker faces and stalking Facebook pages. Loves to challenge himself time and again, but seldom does he accept them. Believes in just two states of matter and has solid reasons behind doing so. Loves to travel a lot, even though the displacement, many a times, tends to zero. He strongly believes that Marketing is everything we do and is sure the readers get the purpose of this all by now!

 

 

 

 

 

Re- Civilize Yourself – Nivea’s Marketing Debacle

NIVEA RE-CIVILIZE YOURSELF AD

Nivea’s Re-Civilize Yourself ad campaign, which was launched in 2011, was one of the most disastrous advertisements in recent times. It pictured an African- American man with a shaved face and short hair discarding his old face which sported a beard and an Afro. This was apparently meant to represent his looks before and after using the product. The tag line “Re-Civilize Yourself” further went on to establish their portrayal of men sporting the traditional African- American look as being uncivilized. Needless to say, their blatantly and unapologetically racist ad resulted in widespread public outrage. The social media was virulent in expressing their fury over such an attempt to stereotype people based on their ethnicity. Such was the extent of negative publicity that the ad garnered that Nivea has to subsequently issue a full- length public apology and scrapped the offensive ad. The adage “Any publicity is good publicity” no longer holds water as this kind of extremely negative publicity is very difficult to mitigate. This was indeed one of the most unsuccessful ads to have been released in recent years.

Nivea Bids Rihanna Adieu

The Nivea poster-Rihanna

What is common between a well-established, 100 year old body-care brand and an artist who released the album, “Good Girl Gone Bad”? Absolutely nothing. Global skincare giant Nivea, realized this only now as it fired R&B diva Rihanna who had been the company’s brand ambassador for the past year. After shelling out millions of dollars on a high-profile ad campaign, the company today axed Rihanna as its brand ambassador for Nivea.  Quoting the chief executive of the firm, Stefan Heidenreich, “Rihanna is not compatible with the Nivea’s brand values. It was not a question of the success or failure of the campaign.”

Rihanna’s raunchy outfits and party-girl image had a lot to do with the present course of action.   Heidenreich, who is now the head of the Nivea’s parent company also stated, “The advert starring Rihanna was a no go. I do not understand how Nivea can be brought into association with Rihanna”. According to him, Nivea is a company which stands for trust, family, and reliability. Rihanna on the other hand hardly portrays a staid, respectable image. Rihanna too stands to lose out immensely from this fallout. The superstar earned close to 53$ million dollars just over the past 12 months from the ad campaign.

Speculations are also rife as to whether this is a part of the company’s “Re- Civilize Yourself “ad campaign which was slammed for being blatantly racist. This disastrous promotional campaign which was withdrawn last year after public outcry and protest hurt the company image substantially. Given its past track record, Nivea letting go of Rihanna might now raise uncomfortable questions about whether her race and ethnic background had anything to do with the present issue.  If it doesn’t want a replay of last year’s fiasco, the company would best chalk out its marketing strategy before it implements them instead of doing it the other way round!

Surf Excel : 2 bucket series

Successes must be remembered but failures must not be forgotten. Surf Excel India had many successful campaigns. But this is a less successful one.
This ad talks sustainability. How Surf Excel can save two buckets of water daily. So why did not it succeed?
Is it because it was ahead of time and Indians were not very aware of “saving water” (and hence idea can be reused now or a while later) or is it because it makes a counter-intuitive promise of cleaning clothes better with lesser foam?

Coke, Pepsi and sports

Pepsi India has gone for “Change the Game” with their full strength and started backing up football. They have also started mini football tournament in few Indian cities.

 

Coca Cola meanwhile has got Sachin Tendulkar and stuck to cricket itself.

 

But, both the giants have overlooked Olympics till now. India has a lot of hope and prayers for their Olympic team. Wonder who is going to make the first move.

Pepsi Change the game (Football)

Pepsi is back with their “Change the game”. This time they are talking about changing more than just the game style- Football over Cricket. Cricket is having a tough time, people are being more open-minded about other sports- But is India still ready to digest “Football over Cricket”?