When i got to know about the LUMS International Marketing Colloquium i got excited to participate in it. Because its one of the mega event where universities from all over Pakistan participate and compete in marketing competitions. And this time it was an international event because a university from Malaysia was also participating and competing in this competition. So, now i would be sharing my experience of the LUMS International Marketing Colloquium 2011.
LIMC was a 2 day event from 26-27 feb. Registration procedure was done till 20th feb but looking the interest of the participants LIMC management decided to provide on spot registration facility as well.
Day1:
The session was inaugurated through an opening ceremony by three members Dr. Arif N. Butt (Dean, Suleman Dawood School of Business), Mr. Jamal Arif (Patron, LUMS Marketing Executive club) and Mr. Saadi Rauf (ex-President LMEC). All of these three speakers came one by one with a great speach on LIMC 2011. A great start was given to the event.
After the first session of one hour Farhad Nadeem (Marketing Manager- Homecare, Unilever, Pakistan) had an interesting session. He discussed the importance of FMCG's. He discussed about the marketing of FMCG's. Discussing the Inside the mind of consumer was really interesting which caught the interest of the students and the professionals who were attending the session. With the interesting lecture of Mr. Farhad Nadeem, the next speaker made the audience more excited when Mr. Saadi Mansuri (Trade Marketing Manager, Nestle) came as a keynote speaker.He also discussed FMCG's Marketing. He discussed how they read what is inside the minds of consumers.
For the topic Brand value and sustainability practices Dr. Azlan Amran (Lecturer, Graduate School of Business, University of Sains Malaysia) was the keynote speaker. He discussed how their president accepted the new economy model. He shared a video of greenhouse effect to the viewers.He discussed how malaysia has achieved progress.He told that now the business landscape has been changed. If you don't go with the new model of business you cannot succeed. Likewise he told that there are four types of refference in business 1-Man on street 2- Friends and family 3- Alternative options 4-Celebrities,etc..
Answering a question he said,"If you response according to your shareholders then you can charge premium prices".
After Dr Azlan, Mr. Omer Sheikh (General Manager-Lubricants,Shell Pakistan Ltd.) was the keynote speaker on the topic B2B Marketing.He entered with such an exciting statement,"I am not an expert of B2B Marketing,I need to disappoint you.". Even he was an expert.He told how Business to Business operations happen. He said its based on two points
1- Creating value through relation
2- People
And with the creation of value you must need to have right people. "If you don't have right people you cannot deliver things properly"
After this interesting session there was a Networking Lunch and Prayer Break
A presentation was given by the students of LUMS flood relief team. they shared their experience and the work done by their team for the flood victims. How they collected the funds and provided the shelter to the flood victims.
This session of the 1st day before Tea and Entertainment night with dinner was the most interesting part of the event. I cant forget such a great session because none other then Mr. Umair Jaliawala was the keynote speaker of this last session. Umair Jaliawala is the Chief Turning Officer of the School of Leadership named "Torque".
Defining Significance he said," If you want to learn something teacher is always there. Teacher could be of any kind anywhere. It would might be your class teacher,may be this chair,may be the apple which fell on the Newton's head,etc.. The universe is ready to teach and give but it need your attention and interest". He said, you can easily tell about a person who is living his life 100%. Its because the persons habits show that he is happy with his life. Picasso, Michael Angelo, saadiquain, Gull Jee are some of the examples of the great artists of the history. Mr. Umair also shared the example of David by Michael Angelo. Its the perfection of creativity.Its said that Angilo was so frustrated after creating 'David' that he tore a finger of David saying why don't you speak. I have given everything to you. Angilo once said, "I didn't do anything.I just replace the pieces of rock".
Mr. Umair said,"Eyesight is limited while mind sight is unlimited". How many of you male participants see Sheela here,pointing to the wall Umair asked to the participants? Nobody answered. He told that if you had no vision in your mind how can you draw it or create it. Those who have vision in their mind achieve it no matter how dull they are.
Restaurant Example:
There is a restaurant where you need to book your time for meal or dinner before a week standing in a long queue. When you enter in the restaurant there is total darkness. A waiter holds you and take to your seat. Takes order in darkness and brings the meal in darkness. You eat the lunch or dinner in the darkness. Pay your bill in darkness and go out. This is the hotel created for the concept of feeling the life of a "blind". This is what branding is.
These were really great examples given by Mr. Umair. These examples really made us think.
He said a fish in a bottle can become to the bottle size but if the same fish in the open river or sea can grow 15 times bigger then that of bottle.
He said Power of brain = 28 Billion computers * 300 P4 computers = 84000,000,000,000 (trillion) computers
You have power of 84 trillion computers what you need is "Glucose + Oxygen".
"Thinking can and must be taught" (Debono)
Playing with the minds of people can really bring difference. How "Potatoes" were introduced in France who didn't eat it as a Royal Dish. How "cookies" brand was replaced with "Diamond Cookies" with no difference except name but people perception changed.
If you want to progress you must be creative. And "Creativity is always painful when you don't know what to do".
With this great session we had a melodious entertainment night with "Saayin Zahoor". With the poetry of Baba Bulleh Shah he sung in such a great way with his great melodius voice that audience was not willing to go for the dinner after having half hour session.But we have to go for dinner so all the participants enjoyed a lot and left for networking dinner.
Day 2:
The second day started with the topic Marketing in the World of Web. Three great speakers Mr Badar Khushnood (Country Consultant Google Pakistan), Monis Rehman (CEO Naseeb Networks) and Haris Nadeem (Youngest Blogger of Pakistan). The speakers got the attention of the participants by introducing Information Technology tools, how they can help to spread a message worldwide and how earning online is possible through internet tools like blogging,freelancing,etc.. Monis Rehman told how Rozee.pk achieved such a position. Badar told how the google products are becoming more and more important with the passage of time. How they are providing the solutions to the users. And Haris Nadeem told how internet tools like blogger, twitter and facbook help to connect to people and how they help earn online.
A Networking Tea session break.
After networking session Dr. Sofri Yahya (Deputy Dean, Graduate School of Business, University of Sains Malaysia) was the guest speaker. He explained the topic "Integrating Accounting into Marketing for value creation". He explained what is value. He said you have to do marketing with accounting in mind. sometime you need to sale the product at discount for different reasons but you have to keep in mind the accounting perspective.
He said,"We are dependent on each other. As we to co-exist for our living. So, co-create calue for your company if you work together with your customers. Customers are agents and you need to incorporate them".
With an interesting session of Dr. Sofri Yahya it was the time for the competition of Brand Wars. A total of 4 contestents were competing after winning the first round. In this session contestents were given a total of 25 questions asked by the person and displayed on the screen as well. And a time of one minute was given to each member.Following is the detail of participants who were competing in the second and final round.
After an interesting competition student of LUMS won the prize of Brand wars which was told at the end of event.
Networking Lunch and Prayer Break
Price Wars in Telecom: Strategy or suicide by Mr. Hamza Mudassar (Head of VAS, Mobilink) was another interesting session. Mr. Hamza shared the Mobilink products and services. He told how the value added services are given to the customers.
Marketing Muscle of Media by Salman Danish (CEO, Media Logic Pakistan) was one of the interesting and informative session. In this session he revealed how technology has made the things easier. He revealed the secrets advertisers and the channels. He shared how the things are becoming more easier as well as more critical for the advertisers and for the channel. He shared PTV was on air in 1964,VCR's and VCP's in late 70's, PTV launched 1998 globally, deregulation of electronic media in 2000. He defined Suppy v/s Demand and told that how the channels are selling and advertisers are buying. He said viewership defines rating point and 1GRP=1% view rate. He told us the viewership measurement hirarchy as 1- In law research 2- Qualitative Research and 3- Diary. He told that the cable channel setup is based on analog system so it can provide only 100 channels.And 80+ channels are there in Pakistan.
He shared some of the important figures with the participants. The top advertisers of 2011 in Pakistan are Unilever, Ufone, Mobilink, Telenor, Zong, P&G, Nestle, Pepsi and Coke. He told that TV insights also play an important role for advertisers. The highest viewership of TV in urban cities of Pakistan is in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. so, advertisers invest in showing Ad's to that place more then other cities. And female watch 10-15% more television then male. The peak viewership is moving from morning and day to midnight because youth watch Television at night, Businessmen watch late night as well as people get free late night so they watch TV at that free time. The highest viewership of TV channels is written in decending order 1-Star Plus 2-GEO News 3-Sony 4-Cartoon Network. He told that when PEMRA enforced ban on foreign channels there was a rise in the viewership of local channels.
The last keynote speaker was Bassam Qureshi (JBM flavours, The Coca cola Export Corporations). He gave a training workshop on advertisement. Which was really very informative.He reveled the secrets of making a successful Advertisement. He told us that Companies are not willing to spend money for making 200 Ad's for different countries but they are investing in creating one Ad that is acceptable worldwide. He shared a case of "Fanta" with the attendees.
So, we need not to act locallly but to execute locally. For Example: A pillow fight day is on April 3 every year it can work for fanta in Pakistan and in any other country as well. Revealing the insights he said: Whether global or local but its important that its relevent or not. At the end he said,"Thinking globally is a good thought but its not neccessarily true.
At the end Mr. Hammad came for the last address to the participants.Thanking to MBA2011-2012 and BBA classes he thanked all the participants who made the event possible and successful. He thanked all the judges, guest speakers, keynote speakers, sponsors, students, LUMS Marketing Executive Club, organisers and the management team.He said that the objective was to provide a platform where the club could bring academia and the industry at a one platform. At the end he said i wish you good luck.
First position of Advertisement compentition was won by IBM Sukhur while runner up team was from IB&M UET.
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