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It was a season of MBA placement carnival for the batch 2001. Different MBA stalls were set up with all possible glitz and glitter to attract the customers (the recruiters). The MBA shops came up with the best possible marketing mix, that is , the 4Ps namely Product- the
Pull , Price-the Package, Place-the presentation.
Big shops like IIMs, FMS, MDI etc. were boasting of their premium products to lure the high-end job
market. Already having an excellent positioning in that precious
place, that is , the minds of the customers, they could demand an attractive package. The Premium customers were most willing to take away the best of the quality product . These shows had
elite ness attached with it. The ambience of the shops was sophisticated .The customers were hovering around these shops and the products were taken away like hot cakes.
On the other hand, the small MBA stalls were also having a good low-end market
and the fight was here. But the cakes were not hot. Aggressive promotion tools were applied ..............
A loud speaker resounds " MBA le lo Bhai MBA......, 15 K ('000)mein harek maal. Engineer chahiye ...... engineer
milienge. Daam wahi do , kaam chahe jitna kara lo."
The low-end market may be bigger but the brand loyalty in this segment is low and consequently the involvement of the customers. This is the reason why these MBA stalls have started using short term, competitive and aggressive promotion tools to gain the attention of the passing customers and push their products to the customers. Unlike the big shops which believe in quality , service, commitment , value and long term relationship ( if the small shops could also think
of this ....)
At times the aggressiveness becomes so mean that you could see the small MBA
stall wallahs virtually pulling the customers to their own stalls. One pulling his one hand, the other ....the other hand. Some pulling
him by his tie, some pulling him by his belt....... And the situation becomes derogatory. They even
went for hard selling for those customers who don't even have a penny to spend.
Result is - The customer decides to buy from some shop other than these hooligans. Needless to say , the relationship part of marketing is shattered into pieces.
The me- too MBA ( Main Bhi Aaya ) stalls create enough of tension to the customers to make them shift to the product in
vogue. They move to the stalls with the banner Main Crorepati America
Mein .....(MCA) . This product has become the in-thing for
many customers. They believe that it will help them to have a better standard of living by adorning their
houses (company) with this digital -electronic good comprising with the different configurations of the state of the art technologies like Java , C-sharp ,Oracle 9-I etc. Looking at the shift in the trend of the market , even the MBA product has added a product line (and this line is growing longer and longer day by day ) in the form of MBA systems. In two years of production process it promises two attractive utilities . And the promotion goes...... "Take one Manager and get one Programmer free"
But the customers found the programmer part of the package more attractive. Yet there was a profitable sales volume observed for this product line. As the other MBA product line particularly finance and H.R. are biting dust where as the product line marketing is seeing some greener pastures now and then.
The carnival is approaching its closing stage. The stallwallahs have lost their enthusiasm and energy with which they had started. The left products are still optimistically anticipating that loving touch of the customers which they had felt several times earlier but the touch could not turn into an embrace . Sometimes because they had already bought in plenty and sometimes because the products were not matching their requirement.
These products are awaiting the right match for them. A distant loudspeaker resounds "MBA le lo
bhai, MBA…".Any takers…
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