HOW TO ACE

THE CASE
STUDY
COMPETITIONS

A Short & Simple Gyan Session by:

Pavan Bhambhani & Chirag Arora

Campus Runnerup @ 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 dont 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

DONT HESITATE
TO CALL A
SPADE... YOU
KNOW WHAT!

Play the Devils Advocate!

Cross Question each-others 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!

DONT UNDERESTIMATE THE

IMPORTANCE OF
FEASIBILITY OF
IDEAS

Ideas are many few are realistic!

Make sure that your ideas or solutions fit in with the companys 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 CLICHD

Not undermining them: Try to come up with the content and structure your thoughts based on
them
BUT HEY,
come up withyour
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

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?
Whats 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 Dont 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 DOESNT 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!