Students of Patna Women’s College serve dosa to food minister Shyam Rajak at the workshop in Patna on Friday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Jan. 7: A two-day workshop was organised by advertisement in sales promotion and sales departments in collaboration with the bachelor of business administration department of Patna Women’s College on its premises.

Students were given tips on marketing techniques on the first day of the workshop.

Students of the two departments were busy planning their marketing strategies and coming up with their plans and offers to woo the customers at the 30 stalls made with the combined efforts of different brands like Tanishq, Vodafone, The Institute of Company Secretaries of India, IIPM and others.

The title of the workshop was ‘Brands 2011’. Students, along with brand representatives, came up with various schemes like lucky draws, question-answer session among others, to promote their brands and increase their profit margin.

“We have entered our 16th year of brand promotional workshops. Through this workshop, we are helping our sales and management students to imbibe the practical skills. We want to develop their insight into the various ways of sales management. The primary objective of this workshop is to give the students a practical exposure of the sales and marketing,” said Subroto Guha, professor of advertisement and sales management in the college.

He pointed out that earlier only the department of advertisement in sales promotion and sales management used to organise the workshop, but this year even the BBA students have taken part in it.

The workshop was inaugurated by food and civil supplies minister Shyam Rajak. Speaking on the occasion Rajak pointed out that planning is the most important part in marketing.

“Planning becomes a very important part for the management students and practical training is far better than just theory. This is a great effort by the college to give the students a first hand exposure to the students,” he said.

He stressed on the trust factor, which often becomes a key issue in marketing and sales management.

The students sounded happy with the workshop and the arrangements.

“I never thought that I would experience such an atmosphere during my course. This is my first year in college and I am happy that I have started learning the values and the art of marketing right from the beginning,” said Ankita, a first year student.

“The workshop is not only helping me learn the techniques, but also helping me to understand my strengths. This would help me come up with new ideas in future,” said Saba Shahim, a student of bachelor of advertisement.