| MUMBAI:
L’Oréal, the global leader in cosmetics today announced the winners
of the National finals of Brandstorm 2009, a unique competition on branding and
marketing communication that provides select B-school students with the opportunity
to work on brand building and creating marketing strategies. This year the competing
students were assigned the task of creating a fragrance by Maybelline for Maybelline
New York, Consumer Products Division, L’Oréal. Sweeping
away the award for Brandstorm 2009 were Team Nouveau from the Symbiosis Center
of Management & HRD – Pune with their idea for Maybelline’s fragrance-
Maybelline NY W6. The three winners were Hirachna Pandya, Preeti Rajput and Shruti
Jaiprakash. With
just fifteen minutes each to showcase their ideas, the six teams team battled
it out with innovative and exciting strategies on how they would introduce cosmetics
brand Maybelline, into the fragrance segment. When the time came to decide, the
judges ruled it as a close call it between the Mican Mavericks from MICA Ahmedabad,
and Nouveau from SCMHRD, Pune. Judging
all the talent were Managing Director L’Oréal India – Jacques
Challes, Director Human Resources – Sujata Tyagi, Director Consumer Products
Division- Vismay Sharma ,Marketing Manager- Maybelline NY – Rupika Raman
and Govind Pandey- President Advertising and Head of McCann Erickson Mumbai
L’Oréal
invited registrations from its partner B-schools and involved the marketing professors
to coach and guide the teams through the competition. After a gruelling round
of eliminations, the top 6 teams were selected for the National Finals. This year,
the Indian chapter of Brandstorm began in November 2008, with the battle of premier
B-Schools like Mudra Institute of Communications, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of
Management Studies, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Symbiosis Institute
of Business Management, Symbiosis Center of Management & HRD – Pune and
SP Jain Institute of Management and Research. Of them, the six teams who made
it to the final for Brandstorm 2009 in India were MICA, SP Jain (2 teams), SCMHRD,
SIBM and JBIMS. These
teams then analysed and prepared a presentation on the case study, allowing them
to put classroom theory to practice. Deeply committed to this endeavour, L’Oréal
has been involved with this project from the very beginning, providing them with
the chance to learn firsthand from experts within the L’Oréal family.
The students take on the role of ‘Brand Manager’, analyze existing L’Oréal
brands and present their innovative strategies to a panel of L’Oréal
managers. L’Oréal
initiated ‘Brandstorm’ internationally in 1993 with 2 fundamental strategic
priorities: -
To identify and attract the best branding and marketing talent,
- To
contribute to the world of academia by using the medium of the existing brands
to create a simulation environment for the students to learn in
Speaking on
the occasion, Sujata Tyagi, Director Human Resources said, “L’Oréal’s
HR strategy on campus involves building relationships with our partner campuses
through the development of students and professors. In its hundred years of brand
building, L’Oréal has developed a strong bank of case studies that
is actively used by universities to develop functional expertise. Our Business
games Brandstorm, Ingenius and Estrat follows this approach and provides a platform
to students to work with L’Oréal managers and experience the cosmetic
industry firsthand” Since
its launch, L’Oréal Brandstorm has attracted over 31000 students,
reaching out to more than 270 universities and embracing 38 countries in 2008.
In 2009 we count on the participation of 41 countries making this the biggest
and most dynamic edition ever! | 