After a huge response and competitive battle of knowledge in agro branding, "EWU MarquePrey 2.0" has concluded its second season with the glory of success. The competition was organised by the East West University Agro Industrialisation Club with the objectives of creating a realisation of the importance of agro based branding and enhancing the knowledge of agro branding among the youth. While the whole world is dealing with an enemy that they don't know how to get rid of, EWU Agro Industrialisation club has decided to launch the event virtually with lots of anticipation.
The event was launched in the first week of August and within a very short time, the event got a huge exposure on social media. About 328 teams registered from more than 39 public and private universities in order to witness an unbelievable journey of agro branding. The President of the club Shihab Ahsan stated, "We never thought that we would be overwhelmed with such an amazing amount of responses even while going through a global pandemic, but this is a positive insight that we are not letting the pandemic take control over our minds and desires."
As Bangladesh is gifted with a land of golden soil, agriculture still has the highest potential to grow and contribute a huge amount in the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. For this reason, the branding of agro products or agro industry is really important to boost the economy into a very good position. This industry has to be promoted with intensive care in order to develop a self-dependent economy. EWU Agro Industrialisation Club has realised the facts and planned this event to engage the youth with the agro based branding. By this competition, students from different universities and from different backgrounds had the opportunity to interact with the experts and gain a real-life experience of agro branding.
The students were provided different types of problem-based cases so that they can realise the challenges, limitations as well as opportunities of doing agro branding. The competition consisted of three competitive rounds. In the first round, participants were asked to make a marketing plan of one year for mushroom pickle that is not very common in a country like Bangladesh. However, the case was designed keeping the fact in mind that mushrooms are being grown in many areas of Bangladesh. And the results were just amazing.
Participants came up with such innovation and creativity of their own that the package design, the brand names and overall plan were out of the box. The results of the first round led 42 teams into the second round where they were given another task where they had to work with another demanded industry of the nation, pasteurised milk. Providing the fact that ultra-pasteurised milk kills all the germs in the milk, yet they are boiled again in Bangladeshi homes. So, on the second round they were asked to position a pasteurised milk brand in such a way so that people may know that it is drinkable from the package itself and not required to boil again. In this round the participants came up with many seemingly effective ideas and finally eight teams were chosen for the grand finale.
The first two round's task was to develop a brand whereas the final round was all about launching their own agro industrialised brand. The top eight teams came up with such innovative ideas that judges had a very hard time choosing only three winners. Banana chips, jute tea, fruit jam, packaged pitha cake and many more incredible ideas were presented in front of the judges.
'Stranger Teams' consisting of Faiyaz Labib, Nafis Kazi and Shafkat Tanjeem Ahmad from Bangladesh University of Professionals became the champion of the second season of EWU MarquePrey. 'Business 101' consisting of Mohammad Ayman Hazary, Nusrat Nahar and Adib Ahmed Arnoband became the first runners up from the same university. "Team DIY" from Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka confirmed their position as the second runners up; the team included Nafis Mubarrat, Ayman Chowdhury and Ibtesam Bin Sahid. The top three winning teams were provided with a total prize money of Tk 50,000.
Their ideas were evaluated live by experienced corporate judges including Galib Bin Mohammad who is currently serving as the head of marketing of Arla Foods, Kazi Mohiuddin, general manager-Brand of Meghna Group of Industries and, Mirza Muhammad Ileush, founder and CEO of Brand Practitioners Bangladesh. Galib said that the teams were very good and that too at such a young age that he would love to work with them in future.
Nafis Kazi, one of the members of the champion team, wrote "I have loved the entire event and the fact that the entire organiser committee was considerate of the situations. Hopefully, we will be able to experience one of your physical events in the upcoming days."
The club has successfully been able to engage a huge number of youths and give them a realistic platform to enhance their knowledge and skills regarding agro based branding. "That is what the main objectives of the event was," stated an executive member of the panel.
The writer is studying BBA majoring in marketing at East West University. He can be reached at [email protected]
