Jamshedpur: Come New Year and XLRI will become a melting pot of consumers, market researchers and common citizens during the institute's unique annual market research event, MAXI Fair scheduled to be held on the steel city campus on January 13 and 14.
This year, Marketing Association of XLRI (MAXI), which organises and lends its name to the popular fair, has also decided to harness the power of digital platforms at the two-day event.
During this unique event XLRI students design innovative games through which they collect several market data from visitors. Extending the games to the online platforms will help collect data from a much wider group of people, the organisers believe.
MAXI members who are students of business management of XLRI are currently finalising the companies who would provide them topics forresearch. Simultaneously, MAXI will use its Facebook page to collect and analyse market data.
"We have a good 60,000 likes on the MAXI Facebook page and we shall use that data. Maxi has always used games to study consumer behaviour. On social media too we shall use online games. Gaming apps are already a popular way to collect data on human behaviour," said MAXI secretary Shrirang Devadatt Sinkar.
The fair, which is in its 39th edition this year will have kiosks that are market-research centres in disguise which help students stay connected with the people who walk in to enjoy the fair.
The 38th edition of MAXI fair had witnessed a footfall of 8000 people who took the marketing games. This year too, research will be conducted on 10,000 of attendees who are expected to attend the fest through elaborate and unique games designed by the students themselves.
Conceptualised by senior XLRI faculty Sharad Sarin in 1979, MAXI gives students hands-on opportunity to learn the fundamentals of market research and enables them to come up with insights. So far, corporate giants like Hindustan Unilever, P&G, Cadbury, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Colgate Palmolive, Castrol and others have presented their problems at previous editions of the fair. This year too they have roped in Hindustan Unilever, Cadbury, Marico, Tinplate and Pepsico as research partners.
Apart from the games, the fair also offers recreational activities for youngsters like paintball, zorbing, video games, and fancy dress competition, among others.
The Marketing Association of XLRI was established in 1971 under the Societies Act of India.
