The management students of Loyola Institute of Business Administration, as part of their market research project, hosted an annual bazaar — LIBA Bazaar. This year, the fest gathered an approximate count of 6,000 people. Corporates and companies present a problem, for which, the management students were required to create solutions. Choosing disguised marketing as the tool, the students created the bazaar.
Bazaar area
Elaborating more about the project, the student co-ordinator Vimal Raja reveals, “To conduct our research, we needed a large and a mixed crowd with all age groups. Like anticipated, kids, youngsters and adults turned up, as we had activities that interest ed all age groups.” With features like food stalls, textile and jewellery stalls, a unique and organic farmers’ market, games and more, the LIBAzaar 2017 also hosted guests like Super Singer fame Diwagar for a music concert, Eruma Saani fame Vijay and actor Vinay for judging a short film competition.
Organic honey stall
Talking about a few highlighted stalls, Vimal adds, “The farmers’ stall had an incredible response as the produce was fully organic — and unlike usual stalls, we also had organically cultivated cheese, chocolates, honey and more, apart from fruits and vegetables. It also provided a good platform to those farmers, who were looking to do B2C (Business to Customer) and directly approach the customers, eliminating the need for distributors and reducing the risk of damage to the perishable goods.”
Assistant co-ordinator Vivek Mark added on Vimal’s lines saying, “The Game of Thrones quiz, which welcomed a lot of college-goers was a super-hit too. Activities like drawing competitions were also conducted on parallel and short films were being judged. Since the winners were entitled for great internship opportunities, cash awards and vouchers, GOT merchandise and much more, a lot was at stake and there was a good competition.”
With a mutual benefit for many start-ups, the bazaar proved as a platform for them to market their company as well.
“There was a company Cake Machi, that launched at the bazaar and many people got to taste interesting desserts like nitrogen ice-creams, which will make them go back to the food joint again,” Vimal adds.
Thanking his team for their support, Vimal concludes, “The team was alert at all times, as they had their research on their mind, apart from having fun. Our sponsors were great to collaborate with too. More than internships, such on-field project, which we can get our hands on, teach us better about how an organisation works. It was indeed like a thiruvizha in Chennai and we all loved being the creators of it!”
