Date: 29th Aug 2009 Five BBA students, Asangla Walling, Nasreen Khan, Md. Shahbaaz Khan, Sumit Prakash, Megha Shree attended a marketing seminar on 29th August, 2009 at S.P. Jain Auditorium, South Campus, Delhi University. The theme of the Seminar was ‘Next Generation Marketing: New Mantras for a Changing Marketplace’.

Eminent panel of speakers comprising academicians and industry experts addressed students on various contemporary aspects of marketing. The speakers included Mr. Abhinash Manghani (Head Sales and Marketing, Fortune Hotels Ltd, ITC), Mr. Premjeet Sodhi (Executive Vice President and Chief Panning Officer – Lintas Media Group), Mr. G.V.S Rao (Marketing Consultant to various Indian & global FMCG Cos), Mr. Anoop Das (Senior Brand Communications Manager, Monte Carlo) and Mr. Rajeev Bhatia- (GM, Marketing, Simbhali Sugar).

Mr. Premjeet Sodhi presented his analysis on the book- Future Shock (by Alvin Toffler), about “too much change in too short a period of time”, and deals with the manner in which the world is moving progressively toward a future that no one can fully control and very few can even partly predict. In large part, this change is derived from fast pace of technological change and related development in all fields. He concluded that marketing is a social science which is never definitive. Mr. Anoop Das shared his view on Creative Brief where he talked how lack of open conversation kills Companies.

Mr. Abhinash Manghani opined that Brands are created and delivered by what organisation do, not what they say. He stretched on the importance of brand positioning, brand attributes and advertising. Mr. Rajeev Bhatia took the example of ‘TRUST’ sugar – as a case study of brand building of a commodity and explained its strength, potential opportunity, volumes, profitability and what his organization has done to promote their products to retailers and consumers. Mr. G.V.S Rao, presented his views on the future of marketing is being human.

Marketing has always been unpredictable, due to the dynamism in the market place. The rapid pace of changes is triggered by improvement in technology, global competition, innovation and changing lifestyles. Often business houses make great efforts and incur huge expenditure to develop marketing plans only to find out that they have not been able to read the changes properly to align themselves.appropriately. The seminar provided a very good insight into the subject as the speakers analyzed various key issues and brought out new perspectives. The session concluded with an interactive question and answer session. It was a great learning experience.”