How To Ace The Case Study Competitions

HOW TO ACE THE CASE STUDY COMPETITIONS

A Short & Simple Gyan Session by: Pavan Bhambhani & Chirag Arora

Campus Runner’up @ ITC Interrobang 2014 Campus Winners & National Semi-Finalists @ Pepsi BIAC 2014

HAVE GOOD TEAMMATES AND UMM.. STICK TO THEM

If possible.. For the entire season

We don’t have to look any further than beyond this auditorium for inspiration… THE BAAP ARMY themselves… stuck through the two years out here!

HELPS TO HAVE DIVERSITY IN THE TEAM

But… not at the cost of comfort of working with each other No.. I am not talking about gender diversity or quota system, which everyone absolutely abhors! For example: Interrobang Team – Chirag, Saumya, Neha and Pavan – Complementary in our Roles

DON’T HESITATE TO CALL A SPADE... YOU KNOW WHAT!

Play the Devil’s Advocate!

Cross Question each-other’s idea until the entire idea is completely fleshed out ! Keep your egos aside even if your ideas are being thrashed by a team-mate!

Remember, it is better to be thrashed behind closed doors rather than being thrashed on stage or not winning at all!

READ THE CASE AGAIN.. AND AGAIN..

The devil lies in the … Details!

Think from various perspectives – the market, the economy, the company, the protagonists (sometimes – if the case is given in the form of a story), the current happenings! Don various hats and read between the lines – why is the company asking such questions!

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE IMPORTANCE OF FEASIBILITY OF IDEAS

Ideas are many… few are realistic!

Make sure that your ideas or solutions fit in with the company’s goals, vision and mission statements!

OH YES, THEY ARE NOT CRAP!

Don various hats and read between the lines – why is the company asking such questions!

BREAKING THE MYTH-1 Marketing has no connection whatsoever with numbers! Any marketing competition values hard-work and the eye for detail Getting your hands dirty by going to the market will only help you understand that the case is a reflection of the reality ! The insights you get are … PRICELESS! Faking Primary Research i.e. creating a questionnaire and faking the numbers seldom works.. SHOOTING Because its like .. IN THE DARK!

Primary Research!

BREAKING THE MYTH! – CONTD… Step 1: Come up with a questionnaire – use online, offline modes and capture the data Step 2: We suggest using “Qualtrics” – brilliant tool to analyze the data captured Step 3: Try coming up with a trend/graph/gap in demand –supply etc. based on the data captured

Interrobang – 180 (100+80) surveys – EITHER ON THE STREETS OF INDORE OR THROUGH ONLINE CHANNELS ACROSS INDIA

Moving on to secondary research!

HEARD OF AC NIELSEN? Sadly! you never get those reports for free!

HEARD OF EUROMONITOR… MARKETLINE, ICRA, CAPITALINE? Moving on to secondary research!

You can breathe a sigh of relief.. They are all available in our online library database… so use them!

USING FRAMEWORKS.. THE TEXTBOOK WAY IS CLICHÉD

Not undermining them: Try to come up with the content and structure your thoughts based on them BUT HEY, come up with–your own 2*2 Oranalysis even 3*3! we Example: you ITCcan interrobang based on matrices! the data came up with a positioning matrix

Need Gap Analysis

Customer Preferences

POSITIONING MATRIX THE POSITIONING MATRIX

Step 1: The percentage of respondents for whom the respective cookie satisfied a particular need (hunger, taste etc.) was calculated

Concept Testing

x

Brand Architecture

Stakeholder Speak

Step 2: Within each sub-group obtained in step 1, the occasion wise percentage consumption was calculated

=

Product Product Strategy Strategy

COMPOSITE POSITIONING INDEX SCORE

SUBMISSION OR PRESENTATION? What’s the difference? – You would say! BUT THERE IS!

Example: Pepsi or ITC interrobang

Look… A submission!

The same submission.. Now a Presentation

BREAKING THE MYTH-2 You need to know Photoshop or some Fancy Software to win! Aesthetics are important, it helps but CONTENT IS … the KING! – Some of the people might disagree – but its OK!

STAGE ROUND: PRE-EMPT THE QUESTIONS

More than half the battle is won by the way you deal with the Q&A of the judges

ATTEMPT MANY.. HOPE TO WIN SOME.. BUT... ATTEND ALL!

Make it a point to attend the stage rounds… even if

“Placement Penalty Rules Don’t Apply”

At the end of the day… There is no harm in accepting your deficiencies, learning from your mistakes and applauding your colleagues who would have deserved to be there!

FINALLY.. Enjoy working on the Cases! To cut a long story short, everyone out here is ambitious – more or less comes here hoping for a good placement. We can tell for sure – that all these case competitions are very relevant to the times we are in – thus it gives a lot of talking points in the interviews! Basically, whether you win or not – it HELPS!

AND FINALLY.. ONE SIZE DOESN’T FIT ALL! Maybe what we did right, might not work for everyone… So hoping to see some of you here… Next Year… with some of your own Stories!

ALL THE BEST!