Day 297 - 23rd August 2011

Back to a full day of classes after a long time! Had two SBM lectures in the morning. They were the last set of lectures for the course. We mainly discussed brand extensions and under what circumstances do they happen. A lot of examples were also given by the prof. and I have to admit I wasn’t aware of a majority of them! Had a 2 hour break after that during which I managed to get some clothes washed, the sun came out after a long time today, ideal time to get clothes dried :P

Had our first set of lectures on sports marketing today. The context was set by the course today by the prof, the same person who helped me out with my summer internship at FIF1. The topic of discussion mainly revolved around what makes sports marketing so different from marketing of other products. We also have some good visiting faculty lined up for the course which is something to look forward to. FIF1 work kept me busy post lectures. We will be conducting speed nights at MICA and IIM-A, had to set up the branding for that on campus and had to also go to IIM-A to hand over their branding, Rajat also came along to help with that. Came back to campus by 945, mess food didn’t look too inviting, so Chota it was! MQC had the India Quiz in the night, not a topic that I am too comfortable with, not that I am a champion quizzer :P Got done with that at by 130, too tired to do anything after that, will crash in a bit.

Day 284 - 3rd August 2011

Had our first 2 sessions of SBM today. It mainly dealt with what is the difference between luxury and premium brands with a few examples. We also discussed how pharmaceuticals are branded and how that affects purchase behaviour. Some pretty interesting stuff. Class got done at 3 after which MCSA work took over. Had to meet the admin regarding space for MICARE, once that was sorted FIF1 work took over. I will be travelling to Hyderabad and Goa over the next 6 days. Hyderabad for the wild card round and Goa for a reccee for the national finals for my summer internship project. That took a couple of hours to finish. Had a little free time in the night so went to Havmor for dinner, although its pure veg. they serve really good food.

Had a pgp-2 batch meet in the night to discuss certain issues that needed to be sorted, after that was done there was an encore of the Parijat dance that was put up during the freshers' night. Post that did tp, didnt sleep since I had to leave for the airport at 4 in the morning. Will be off the blog until Im back on campus. Until then, adios!

Day 283 - 2nd August 2011

Had a rest day today, most of which went in the budget meeting for committees. The college assigns a lump sum for student activities. This amount needs to be distributed amongst all committees on campus in an equitable manner. The associate director, head of accounts and the MCSA sit with committees one by one. The committees pitch for funding based on the activities they have planned out for the year, negotiations happen across the table and the MCSA steps in where required. At the end of the negotiations an amount which is mutually agreed upon is frozen for the committee's activities for that year. Its a tough balancing act to carry out, but there is a tremendous amount of learning involved. The entire meeting took close to 4 hours with 15 committees presenting their budgets.

In the evening, had nothing much to do, the meeting was enough work for the day :P So much for having a rest day in the schedule! Have Strategic Brand Management (SBM) starting from tomorrow, hope it turns out to be a good course.