An XIMB student plays the bongo at a village to promote a tea brand. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 2: For a management student, the setting seemed quaint. As Snehasish Sinha, a rural management student of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) played the bongo at a village on the outskirts of the capital, a small crowd of children gathered around him.

Soon, his classmates, clad in jeans and kurtas, took over. Flashing red-coloured packets, the group of students staged what appeared to be a commercial advertisement. They were trying to promote a new tea brand here. This activity took place ahead of Gramotsava-2011, a rural marketing fair, organised every year by the Rural Managers' Association of XIMB (RMax) – a group of rural management students who engage in on-field marketing and data collection to supplement theoretical lessons with practical experience.

The Gramotsava-2011 would be a three-day affair, starting from October 13. Organisations such as Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra and Mahindra among others, have decided to join the Gramotsava bandwagon, said Abhishek Samanta, the coordinator of RMax.

“As part of their pre-fair activities, students have been given live projects including a brand activation exercise for a tea brand and mapping the customer base for a mini tractor. As many as 180 students are involved in both the projects. They have covered nearly 50 villages around Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri,” said Abhishek.

For these projects, the students followed a specific methodology. “A team of interested students from first and second year batches was selected to work on the projects. They came up with different ideas to promote the given brands. The students were then divided into teams consisting of a majority of first-year students. A particular course of action and strategy was adopted for the specific projects,” said Dipali Panda, a second-year student.

In order to generate interest among the targeted group, street plays that highlighted the benefits of the tea were staged. “It was followed by the filling up of questionnaires by villagers that were aimed at mapping their tea consumption habits and preferences, along with their awareness about the particular product,” said Abhishek.

A focussed group discussion was also conducted either with interested members of the community or self-help groups. “The same methodology was adopted for a project of the Mahindra and Mahindra with the intention of identifying the suitable customer segment for the company,” he said.

The official mascot for Gramotsava is Bonnie Bhaina, an olive ridley turtle.

For a management student, the setting seemed quaint. As Snehasish Sinha, a rural management student of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) played the bongo in a village on the outskirts of the capital, a small crowd of children gathered around him.

Soon, his classmates, clad in jeans and kurtas, took over. Flashing red-coloured packets, the group of students staged what appeared to be a commercial ad – they were trying to promote a new tea brand here. This activity took place ahead of Gramotsava-2011, a rural marketing fair, organised every year by the Rural Managers Association of XIMB (RMax) – a group of rural management students who engage in on-field marketing and data collection to supplement theoretical lessons with practical experience.

This year, the Gramotsava-2011 would be a three-day affair, starting from October 13. Organisations such as Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra and Mahindra among others have decided to join the Gramotsava bandwagon, said Abhishek Samanta, the coordinator of RMax.

“As part of their pre-fair activities, students have been given live projects including a brand activation exercise for a tea brand and mapping the customer base for a mini tractor. For both projects, 180 students are involved and nearly 50 villages have been covered around Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri,” Abhishek said.

For these projects, the students followed a specific methodology. “A team of interested students from first and second year batches was selected to work on the projects and came up with different ideas to promote the given brands. The students were then divided into teams consisting of a majority of first year students. A particular course of action and strategy was adopted for the specific projects,” a second year student, Dipali Panda said.

In order to generate interest among the targeted group, street plays that highlighted the benefits of the tea were staged. “It was followed by the filling up of questionnaires by the villagers that were aimed at mapping the tea consumption habits and preferences of the customers along with their awareness about the particular product,” Abhishek said.

A focused group discussion was also conducted either with interested members of the community or self help groups. “The same methodology was adopted for the Mahindra project with the intention of identifying the suitable customer segment for the company,” he added.

The official mascot for Gramotsava is Bonnie Bhaina, an olive ridley turtle.