Illuminated??

Had been desisting from posting this from a long time... Illumina our market research fest concluded on 31st October. Here in the guise of a Diwali Mela we students at MDI lead consumers to play asinine games (of course after assuming that they are a bunch of gullible fools). At the end of the day we claim a footfall of a few grand and the sample from where we collect our data wouldnt impress a chimp agency. The data collected is allowed to flow through a series of software iterations and the output is presented with fanfare.

This year we had HLL which gave us a brief of getting consumer insights into cappuchino coffee. Yes Boss! the mighty HLL is going to take the esteemed opinion of yet-to-be MBAs (who have gained insights into consumer behaviour from those great games that they designed) on whether they will launch their coffee. After all Nestle is a small fish. They are nuts to carry out MR with firms like AC Nielson, ORG- MARG and the like. MDI's greats are better. Talk about gaining competitive advantage!

The other games the less said the better. However, must say that the event was organised well. But the concept sucks big time. Events like these are all relationship building exercises. And this is not restricted to MDI. All insitutes do it. So confirms my friend from a reputed Mumbai based institute. So what are we doing here. In the quest for relationship building do we teach students what is happening at in the real market. You should see the confidence with which people were willing to swear by the MR. Brings me back to the point I raised a few weeks ago that we are generating managers with lack of practicality. God save us!!!

Anyways I gotta prepare for the mid terms beginging tomo...Wish me luck.