Whenever people talk about business competitions in Bangladesh, one of the first few names that comes to mind is Brandwitz. The flagship event of the Institute of Business Administration Communication Club (IBACC), IBA-University of Dhaka, Brandwitz, tests the skills of participants in solving cases, designing marketing campaigns, branding products/services, etc. In recent time, IBACC in association with BRAC Bank Limited successfully organised the ninth edition of Brandwitz.
Brandwitz 2017 and road to the finale
The ninth edition of Brandwitz kicked off with the online round where 344 teams from different universities registered. In the online round, the teams had to solve a business case and submit their solutions within a given period. The case solutions were critically evaluated based on certain factors such as feasibility, the merit of recommendations, plan of action, etc. From all the submissions, the best 42 teams proceeded to the first round.
The organisers arranged a workshop at IBA auditorium before the first round to assist the qualified teams and give them an idea about the upcoming rounds. The task for both the first and second round teams was to brand different types of services of BRAC Bank. In both the rounds, the teams were required to find suitable branding solutions for promoting the relevant services of the bank and strike a balance between designing and branding their proposed solutions.
In the first round, the qualified 42 teams were divided into six groups of seven teams each, and all the groups had different topics like Premium Banking, NRB Banking, E-Banking, etc. The top 18 teams made it through to the second round, where they were further divided into three groups of six teams each and had to work with topics like Package for Students, Package for SME Owners, etc. Following an intense competition, the best six teams moved on to the grand finale of Brandwitz 2017.
The grand finale
The grand final took place on January 28, 2018 at Utshab Hall of Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden. Nasrul Hamid Bipu MP, state minister, Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources was the chief guest, the special guest was SM Moniruzzaman, deputy governor, Bangladesh Bank. Dr AKM Saiful Majid, director, IBA-University of Dhaka acted as the president of the session.
The task for the grand finalists was to brand sustainable banking for a particular bank. The finalists were judged by their big idea, plan of action and implementation, creativity and innovation, etc. After an intense round of presentations and Q & A sessions, the much-anticipated results were announced. Team Trix from IBA-University of Dhaka emerged as the champions of Brandwitz 2017 and won Taka 250,000 as the cash prize. Team Submarines from Bangladesh University of Professionals and Brains of Castamere from IBA-University of Dhaka were declared first runners-up and second runners-up respectively. While the first runners-up bagged Taka 150,000 as the cash prize, the second runners-up were awarded Taka 100,000.
Words from the champions
The champions, Team Trix, consisting of Afnan Bin Ashraf, Rehnuma Sabrin, Md Rafidur Rob and Nahian Rashid Urbee shared their experience about Brandwitz 2017.
Rehnuma Sabrin felt that this year's Brandwitz was more than just branding and it taught them about marketing in the banking industry. She said, "While our primary focus was on branding, an important aspect was trying to design the most relevant and effective package for the target customers. An industry which very much depends on word-of-mouth advertisement and relationship-based model in acquiring customers, it was intriguing to decide which channels should be used to reach our target customers."
All the rounds of Brandwitz were full of challenges and the teams had to be at their very best to stand out from the others. Besides, the fact that there is little to no differentiation between the services offered by different banks which makes it difficult for a bank to stand out in the competition made the teams think and work harder on coming up with the suitable solutions. Afnan Bin Ashraf added, "Our main challenge was to think beyond the regular services offered and deliver uniquely designed packages catered for the unanswered needs of the customer group, and hence ensure banking sustainability."
Md Rafidur Rob, another member of the winning team, also stressed on the immense and diverse learning scopes that Brandwitz offers. He said, "All four of us now have vivid ideas as to how we can pave the way for sustainable banking keeping specific pillars in mind. We learned that just like corporate social responsibility is an important addition to any bank's operation, it is equally important to include green banking and ensure financial inclusion to facilitate change."
Words from the organisers
IBACC, from the very beginning, always tried to create a memorable and learning experience for the participants through all their events. Living up to the expectations of the participants and other concerned partners is certainly not easy. However, Meftahul Arnob, president-IBA Communication Club (IBACC), expressed his satisfaction over the work of his club and respected partners in organising this particular event. He said, "This year Brandwitz has brought unique challenges to the participants. I think they have been able to take away constructive feedback and knowledge from this experience. This experience is a sure start of a path of being better learners and marketers."
Apart from the platinum sponsor--BRAC Bank Limited, Brandwitz 2017 was organised in collaboration with Bangla Trac Communications Limited (silver sponsor), Concito PR (PR partner), Purplebot Digital Limited (digital partner), Rabbithole BD (digital media partner), GTV (TV media partner) and Dhaka FM 90.4 (radio partner).
The writer is a final year student of BBA programme at Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka. He can be reached at
nishanrakesh20@gmail.com