XLRI, Jamshedpur to Host 31st Annual Marketing Fair

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XLRI, Jamshedpur to Host 31st Annual Marketing Fair
The Marketing Association of XLRI, popularly known as MAXI, is set to organize its Annual MAXI Fair on the 17th of January, 2010. Started in 1979, the MAXI Fair is a unique and innovative approach to conduct Market Research in a fun format.

The idea was conceptualized 31 years ago, much ahead of its time, by Sharad Sarin, Professor of Marketing at XLRI and a visionary. Year after year since then, major Indian corporate houses bring their market research problems to the students of XLRI, who design elaborate games around them. These games are hosted in the XLRI grounds, and are open to public who visit the fair and have a good time apart from winning prizes. The students, on the other hand, get useful data about public preferences, which they then analyze to solve the problems faced by the companies. This makes the task of conducting the otherwise boring and mundane research easier and interesting.

This year, Hindustan Unilever(HUL) and Tata Main Hospital (TMH) are taking part in the MAXI Fair. While HUL wants to understand consumer behavior and preferences in its Face Care category, TMH wants to determine the factors which drive or inhibit the people from visiting their hospital.

HUL and other companies from the Tata Group, among many others, have been taking part in the Fair in previous years also, which provides a testimony to the quality of the research conducted at the Fair. In fact, the idea has been so popular and effective that it has been replicated and implemented by business schools all over India.

The magnitude of the Fair can be estimated by the fact that the number of people gathering in the XLRI grounds runs into thousands, in a span of just one day. The footfalls last year were over 2000, which are expected to increase by 50 percent this year, to over 3000 people.

The popular game stalls last year were ‘Bhutiya Haveli’, helping Tata Steelium determine consumer preferences in furniture, and the ‘Wonderland’ which took the visitors on a joy ride to the land of Alice and Genies, facilitating Spencer’s to judge its brand image relative to other retail stores. This year as well, the preparations for the Fair are up in full swing in the XLRI campus, with everything being done and managed by the students. Let us see what experiences Maxi Fair has in store for the public this year.