INTRODUCING THE MARKETING PORTFOLIO IN MY LOCAL REALITY

My city, my city of joy, of culture, of spirit, of happiness. My city, Kolkata. This city is sure famous for the rich cultural heritage but this richness lacks in the education standards and opportunity for the youth in the city of Kolkata. The city has many college and some of them being as old as the 19th century but none of them except St Xavier’s College has proved to be a frontrunner in the best institutions in the country. Here, our target market (the youth) generally choose to go outside the city to study and those who stay back belong to:

1. St. Xavier’s College 2. Bhawanipur education society college 3. JD birla institute of management(BBA) 4. JD birla institute of management(B.com) 5. Shri Shikshayatan college. 6. Institute of engineering and management 7. Scottish church college 8. Techno india college 9. IIPM

10.MCKV 11. heritage institute of technology

These are the few colleges where we can find the type of students that can opt for either international internship or membership in the local committee. These colleges have been consistently supporting AIESEC in their institution and AIESEC has held sessions here. But, the tough part is that the students in half these colleges are either pursuing CA or CS and do not have the inclination to do anything out of it and neither do they have the space to do it. More than 70% of the commerce students in Kolkata are pursuing CA or CS that kills are market directly but even then the brand AIESEC manages to bring these students on board but very few are retained because of their strict time commitment for the course. Engineering students have been very interested in AIESEC and the number of engineers joining AIESEC and going for internships is quite high and this year we chose to expand our market in such areas and explored more engineering colleges in 2014.

The brand created in the city of AIESEC in the past years was confused and the

youth never knew that AIESEC was an organization that facilitates internships.

This time special care was taken that even during recruitment sessions the focus

was on YGEP more than AIESEC’s promotion as a brand. The brand so created this

year is solely on the basis of leadership through student exchange.

The city is also very conservative and is not open to new things. Parents decide

the future for their kids and even till graduation parents are the one who take

decisions on behalf of their children. This is the reason why conversions from

information seminars and empowerment sessions because even though the

message is being communicated right the conversion is low because of lack of

independence of students. Parents like to stick to the traditional and conventional

form of education.

State of the portfolio in the past 4 years(2011 to 2014)

The year 2011(The year marketing happened to AIESEC in Kolkata)

Ritansha bagaria took charge of the portfolio in the year 2011 and the

state of the portfolio in the LC was such that no one knew what was to

be done here. Ritansha here then took charge and started to

understand the portfolio better. The state was such like where a new

member in the organization is asked to do RMR without any induction

or training. Ritansha being from a marketing background pursuing her

BBA started to research and learn what actually had to be done in the

portfolio. The state of the LC improved in the year 2011 and we jumped

to cluster 2 this year. The base was set and ritansha knew there was too

much still left to do)

The year 2012(the year the identity of the marketing portfolio was

made, most progressive marketing)

This year with Ritansha Bagaria reterming the portfolio jumped leaps

and bounds and from this point on there was no turning back and graph

kept increasing from the 1st of January 2012 itself. The outreach soared

higher than ever and the brand of AIESEC was established this year on

and the brand recall value of the organization was astonishing. Relevant

and smart partnerships were struck. Right kind of onground activities

were undertaken and media appearances grew. Social media saw a

great impact and the outreach of the page increased like never before.

This year the marketing portfolio won the Most progressive marketing

award.

The year 2013(jumping clusters, Evolution)

Siddhant Jain was the one who took over marketing from here.The year

2013 was ought to grow further with such an amazing base set. The

events were a huge success and the outreach soar yet again. The event

“global youth forum” was so successful and it saw a turnout of over 600

people and everyone started talking about the organization. Word of

mouth promotion was solid. But, negative marketing soared in the year

too where after a successful recruitment in august the retention fell

and the negative image of the organization spread. Also, the

organization was promoted well but there were harldy any conversions

from the creation of brand. PR was amazing in the LC but the

conversion from PR activities and conversion to ELD was poor.

The year 2014(the year when ELD was focus and PR was right)

I, shreyansh rohatgi took over the marketing portfolio in 2014 and from

the starting of the year the year my focus was always on ELD. Whatever

we do whatever we promote we should breathe, eat, sleep,drink ELD

and that’s what resulted in brand creation in the city market that was

just right. The AIESEC that students knew in the past years changed and

students now remember AIESEC as the organization that facilitates

student exchange programs. Project were taken up and OCs were setup

that focused on ELD and not branding.

1. Proper segregation was done for the activities that resulted in Branding and the ones that

resulted in conversion to ELD.

2. Newer markets were explored and engineering colleges were explored which resulted in good

results.

3. ICX promotions were basically raising drives to create a rapid yet sustainable impact in the

corporate and social market. These raising drives had OCs made and the drives were planned

and resulted in good ELD.

4. Campus ambassador programs resulted in good word of mouth promotion and right message

being circulated in the city.

5. Café partnerships utilized just right by creative AIESEC globes posters etc.

6. A behavior for marketing was created in the LC that was strong and brave.

The marketing portfolio in Kolkata is recognized as a leadership factory. Ritansha

became an LCP and now an MCVP. I gave 2 leaders to my EB along with myself

and 3 members from department are a part of the EB of 2015. A behavior started

in 2011 continues and will continue for the years to come.

Key project:

1. EP RECUITMENT:

This seminar was organised for recruitment applicants and the internship applicants. The attendance was of around 57 students. The concept was such that the people who have

bought the forms for recruitment were called after their GD and PI for a seminar on YGEP.

There were 2 such EP recruitment sessions done. During recruitments the students were

only told about the YGEP program and then at the end were told that they can also be a

part of AIESEC but the journey will only be successful if they go for an internship. The

students who were interested even after the their GD and PI for membership were called for

such extensive session on YGEP and we got many raises for OGCDP from such an activity.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:

1. Branding for YGEP in the city market. 2. Raises for oGCDP- 12 raises. 3. No. of IXPs rose. 4. Buzz of YGEP in the city.

FAILURES:

1. Should have been repeated in august recruitments.

INTERNSHIP BOXES

The Marketing department of AIESEC in Kolkata

decided to put up internship boxes at the

different café partnerships we have. These

boxes are in the shape of a globe, symbolizing

globalization. The main objective to keep these

boxes at the counters is to attract the crowd to

something unique. The globes have, “Do you

want to go for an international internship?”

Written on them, with a plane on the top

stating, “Give in

your name and number”. Paper and pen is also

provided at the counter, so that whoever is

interested can just put in their names and at the

end of every week we’ll go and collect these

papers and contact the people interested. Further

these names were transferred to a tracker and

then the OGX department started contacting

them.

Key achievements:

1. 8 raises

2. YGEP brand creation.

3. Brand promotion.

Key failures:

Not all cafes allowed us for such activities.

AIESEC School of language

This project is known to everyone. Here we were promoting ASL on our page we

got registrations but not enough to sustain the investment we were planning to

make in the project. We raised 8 forms on system. We matched and realized them

as well. We got 32 students to come for it.

Key achievements:

Contribution to raises and numbers of IGIP

Key failures:

1. Investment planning

2. Loss on realization

3. Failed to bring in students.

4. Bad CRM.

IGIP raising drive:

A synergy with marketing and iGIP. Marketing came up with a brilliant idea of making the

corporate companies of kolkata aware of aiesec and how it functions. 200 pamphlets were made

where all the possible details of hiring an intern was mentioned. The plan was to drop those

pamphlets in the company's letter boxes so as to spread knowledge about the functioning of iGIP

and why one should go for it. The sectors which were covered were IT companies in sector 5 and

newtown, fmcg in DLF newtown and the Chatterjee International Building, Park Street which is

mixed market corporate house. Out of 200 pamphlets distributed, response from 20 was

received and 5 companies converted. The whole idea was to improve the brand of AIESEC

amongst quality companies and making iGIP happen in a more effective way.

Key achievements:

1. Brand in the corporate market.

2. Raises for IGIP.

3. Brand recall value of corporates.

4. Good return on investment.

Failures:

1. Should have tried in more corporate houses but by then need for raises was

gone.

CAMPUS AMBASSADORS:

AIESEC in Kolkata took the initiative of recruiting Campus ambassadors from different colleges and class representatives. They were inducted and trained to spread the message of YGEP among the students and act as a medium of communication between the both. this initiative helped us get 13 raises for the winter cycle which looks promising and was taken up to go deep into untapped markets using these ambassadors.

KEY achievements:

1. AIESEC brand was built. 2. 13 raises. 3. YGEP branding. 4. 3 raises for ogcdp.

KEY failures: none. It was a successful project.

PROMOTIONS

•THE PROMOTION FOR THE CAMPUS AMBASSADOR INTERNSHIP WAS DONE THROUGH FACEBOOK AS WELL AS THROUGH OFFLINE SOURCES LIKE WHATSAPP AND OTHERS.

•THE PROMOTION WERE MAINLY DONE THROUGH POSTERS WHILE WE HAD LOADS OF CALLINGS TO DO FROM VARIOUS LISTS.

INDUCTION

•EACH AND EVERY MEMBER WHO HAD COME FOR THE CAMPUS AMBASSADOR WAS INDUCTED ABOUT THE ORGNISATION AND ITS WORKING.

•VIDEOS WERE ALSO SHOWN DURING THE INDUCTION LIKE WHAT WE DO AND WHY WE DO, GLOBAL VILLAGE AND OTHERS.

INTERVIEW

•THE INTERVIEW WAS TAKEN EITHER BY CHEYUS, AAMIR, TANISHQ OE RIA. THE QUESTIONS WERE ASKED DEPENDING ON WHAT THE PERSON HAD FILLED IN THE APPLICATION

•AN ACTIVITY WAS DONE THAT THE PERSON HAD TO CALL UP HIS OR HER FRIEND AND CONVINCE THEM TO APPLY FOR THE ROLE OF CAMPUS AMBASSADOR. MANY FAILED TO DO SO.

This project was created with the aim of impacting & bringing

about a change in all those social sectors relevant to the city.

The Organizing Committee started off with issue segmentation post

which raising started.

As a result, we partnered with the following NGOs

1. Hamari Muskan – This NGO deals with empowerment of trafficked

women and their children. Kolkata’s ‘Sonagachi’ being the world’s

largest red light area, partnering with this NGO made utmost sense.

We have been given 4 raises from the organization. It’s website is

www.hamarimuskan.org, more details & MOU can be accessed here

For matching the following poster was used

2. Behala Shantinalay Welfare Society – This NGO deals with

Old Age Women Care. Its not just any old age women care, but

care for those women who have been abandoned or have lost

their family in tragic accidents.

Again with Kolkata having maximum old age population in the

country, such a partnership is relevant.

More details and MOU can be accessed here

Following posters were used for matching

3. Paripurnata – This NGO partnership again is very

relevant to the city scenario. Paripurnata deals with care

and counseling of women suffering with dementia and

those who are mentally ill. These women come from

various walks of life, those women who have bssn

traumatized and need psychological care and counseling.

The official website of the NGO is www.paripurnata.org

More details & MOU can be accessed here. This NGO

provided us with 5 raises.

The following posters were used for matching

4. Care & Counseling

5. Sir Sayed School

Both the above NGOs/Schools partnered deal with a similar

issue, i.e, Care & Teaching of Less Privileged Disabled Children.

This issue is again relevant to the city because Kolkata as a city

has a high number of children being trafficked and afflicted

with physical harm. Both the partnerships are good starts to

impact these issues.

Further details & MOU can be accessed here & here.

No specific posters were made for matching these projects.

Apart from above partnerships, and 17 raises from them, we

achieved 3 raises from old clients in field of dancing.

For matching 2 Matching Mania’s were held. They’re as follows

Although there were no conversions from the

Matching Manias they did attract the EPs for later matches.

A lot of effort was put in Facebook/Offline matching. But

because of Timeline delays & GIS shift, much wasn’t achieved.

All in all the City Issues Project has established itself strongly to

become a Local Project in 2015 for the LC.

Total raises- 35

SUCCESSFUL PROJECT

Teams that contributed majorly to my term as a

Chief Marketing Officer

1. My Executive board UDAAN

If they were not there I would have lost my patience by

now.

2. My department ‘The Marketeers’

My support system. My life. They defined my AIESEC

journey.

3. The godfather family: this Y2B and GV OC taught

me what learning from mistakes is. my planning for

the event I thought was correct and I did whatever I

could but I later realized that I can never always be

right. Biggest learning phase in my life till today.

They taught me what hitting rock bottom is when

you see 150 people sitting in the audience where

your target was 1000. They taught me what failing is.

My MANAGEMENT BODIES:

1. TOTAL TABAHI

2. THE S TEAM

3. MARKOS

CONTACT DETAILS:

NAME SHREYANSH ROHATGI

EMAIL Shreyansh.rohatgi@aiesec.net

PHONE 9830153821

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/shreyansh.rohatgi