MICA Trio wins Loreal Brandstorm 2010 National Finals
L'Oreal Brandstorm is an International Business competition where 6200 students from across 40 countries compete for the coveted trophy. It gives the participants a unique opportunity to experience real life marketing challenges of the corporate world. L'Oréal India had invited students from top Indian campuses to participate in this dynamic international marketing competition where they take on the role of a brand manager for an existing L'Oréal Brand.
The MICA Team - Team Brandwidth - stormed through all the rounds to be the ones to represent India in this competition in the Finals at Paris. This team comprising of Aaron D'souza, Ramesh Krishnan T and Sukalyan Roy will now be working closely with L'Oreal India and McCann Erickson to further refine their ideas before the finals. This year 169 teams from India participated in a bid to represent India at this competition at Paris in June '10. The top 4 teams that battled for the Brandstorm National 2010 title were from NMIMS Mumbai, SCMHRD Pune, MDI Gurgaon and MICA Ahmedabad.
The competing students were assigned a case study on Diesel - from the Luxury product division of L’Oreal Pvt Ltd. Each team of 3 had analyzed & prepared a presentation on the case study given on Diesel. The students had to conciliate the brand's philosophy as an innovative, trendsetting, international brand with the right approach in its Marketing Strategy and new product launch. The students presented their ideas on how they would use marketing strategies to launch a beauty range for men in line with Diesel Brand.
Speaking on the occasion, Dinesh Dayal, COO and Director Luxury Product Division said, “It’s very interesting to watch the new aptitude and experience in proposing new product lines, right from concept development to product innovation and a well rounded marketing strategy. Brandstorm is a high-involvement HR initiative, which spans over 9 months engaging the student community & the professors through rigorous elimination rounds. This year again we are looking forward to having an interesting competition at the International Finals in June.”
The 4 teams this year were judged by top executives from L'Oreal, Diesel and McCann Erickson based on their Product, Positioning, and Communication Strategies amongst many others. Judging all the talent were Managing Director L’Oréal India – Jacques Challes, COO and Director Luxury Division L'Oréal India – Dinesh Dayal Director Human Resources – Sujata Tyagi, Business Manager Kerastase L'Oréal India – Smira Bakshi, Marketing Manager Luxury Division L'Oréal India – Julie De Clermont Tonnerre, President Advertising and Head of McCann Erickson Mumbai – Govind Pandey and Senior VP Diesel, Fashion India – Sumeet Yadav.
Sukalyan from Team Brandwidth, MICA says "This competition is a virtual simulation of the real world and had taught us more than any classroom can ever teach us". "4 months of hard work has finally paid off" says Aaron D'souza from the winning team, "but the work has just begun". The winning MICA trio now gets an opportunity to represent India at the 18th International Finals in June 2010 in Paris and compete with students from over 40 countries across the globe.
To know more about MICA, go to www.mica-india.net
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