Ace case study competitions

HOW TO ACE THE CASE STUDY COMPETITIONSBy

Pavan Bhambhani

LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/pavanbhambhani

Sravanth VangaraLinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/sravanthvangara

HAVE GOOD TEAM-MATES AND UMM..

STICK TO THEMIf possible.. For the entire season

HELPS TO HAVE DIVERSITY IN THE

TEAMBut… not at the cost of comfort of working with each otherNo.. I am not talking about gender diversity or quota system, which everyone absolutely abhors!

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 UNDER-ESTIMATE THE

IMPORTANCE OF FEASIBILITY OF

IDEASIdeas are many… few are realistic!

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

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

OH YES, THEY ARE NOT CRAP!

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.. Because its like .. SHOOTING IN THE DARK!

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

Primary Research!

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

FINANCIALS – DON’T FORGET THEM AT ANY

COSTImagine hogging at the restaurant only to realize you forgot your wallet at home.

You’d be in similar trouble if you forget including the financials.

It’d be really awkward standing on the stage with empty hands when the panelists ask “So what about the financials?” This is because most of the panelists tend to give a lot of importance to the financial feasibility because at the end of the day, money is what drives the idea.

While you don’t need CFA folks in your team, having a team mate who is good with the basics of Financial Management helps a lot

HEARD OF AC NIELSEN?

Sadly! you never get those reports for free! However, there are other useful reports available for free(from sources like Euro Monitor/Market Line. You just need to search/jugaad them

Moving on to secondary research!

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,

you can come up with your own 2*2 matrices! Or even 3*3!Example: ITC interrobang – based on the data analysis we came up with a positioning matrix

THE POSITIONING MATRIXProduct StrategyNeed Gap Analysis Customer Preferences Concept Testing Brand Architecture Stakeholder Speak

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

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

=xCOMPOSITE POSITIONING INDEX SCORE

POSITIONING MATRIX

SUBMISSION OR PRESENTATION?

What’s the difference? – You would say!

Example: Pepsi or ITC interrobang

BUT THERE IS!

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

QUESTIONSMore 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

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!