What is Markfest?

An event where participating teams will create, launch, market, present/demonstrate and may
even sell the product/service in the campus; the emphasis is on innovative (30%), marketing
including presentation (60%) and business viability (10%).

Markfest helps to build competencies in the participants, in marketing domain by giving them a
plate-form to develop an innovative product/service and innovatively market them; the
execution will be in a festive mood and fun filled atmosphere, the IGNITE 2026.

Who will be the Winner?

The participating teams will be judged on five categories viz., Best Product, Best Pricing, Best
Distribution & Supply Chain, Best Advertising Campaign and Best Stall. The winning team
of Markfest is one who gets the highest combined score in the five categories and in the
presentation, innovation and business viability. The team which gets the next highest score will
be the runner-up. Summary is given below in the Table 01 and Table 02.

Table 01: The Winners

Best Product …..Highest score in product strategy

Best Pricing ….. Highest score in pricing strategy

Best Distribution & Supply Chain …..Highest score in Distribution & Supply Chain Strategy

Best Advertising Campaign …..Highest score in A& SP strategy

Best Stall ….. Highest score on stall management & presentation

Winners …..Highest combined score; above and in innovation,

Business Viability and Presentation

Runners-up ……Second highest combined score as above

What is expected from the Participants?

Evaluation: Evaluation criteria are- marketing including presentation, innovation in new

product/service development and marketing process and business viability. The
groups will present marketing plan of a new product/ service, an exercise in New
Product Development (NPD). Emphasis is on innovation in the product/service,
marketing strategies/plans and the strength of arguments in the defense of the
business venture. In addition to this, the teams are strongly advised to perfect
presentation skills because they will need to convincingly answer the judges who
will visit the stall with searching questions on the entire projects. The groups are
 expected to enact a skit and dramatically present the product/service need, features,
benefits, pricing, distribution, customer satisfaction etc.

To put it briefly, the evaluation is based on interaction with a panel of judges at the
stall and through the skit and, defend their thinking, plans, programs, strategies in
a structured way on the criteria and sub-criteria listed below:

Table 02: Evaluation Criteria and Sub-criteria Max Points Evaluation @

1 Marketing Strategy … 40 Stall & Skit

a Product Strategy & STP …10

b Pricing Strategy & STP …10

c Promotion Strategy & STP …10

d Distribution, Supply Chain Strategy and STP …10

2 Presentation … 20 Stall & Skit

a At the Stall, including its management and ambience …10

b Thru’ the skit, the drama, the wow! Effect …10

3 Innovation … 30 Stall

a Ideation …10

b Innovation in product/service …10

c Innovation in the marketing process …10

4 Business Viability …. 10 Stall

TOTAL 100

Criteria and Sub-criteria: Some Details

Ideation:

It refers to the process of coming up with the idea of a new and viable product/service….
underlying arguments, supported by research…. which, makes the team believe, albeit broadly
they have an innovative product/service…because it meets an existing/latent need.

Successful ideation is to find the gap between the need and the offer made by the existing
products/services meeting the need, if any. Then, assets if the gap will widen; the latter will provide
valuable insight into growth of the market therefore, to go ahead with the idea or abandon it. For
this, we strongly recommend research with secondary data from the net and/or library resources
.This is the foundation for the entire project.

Product/Service innovation:

The idea generated from the earlier viz., ideation is now ready to be converted into
product/service concept. Now, further investigation is needed about consumer acceptance viz.,
product concept testing; this is an integral part of NPD viz., concept development and testing. Text
books carry detailed literature on this.

Marketing Process/Strategy Innovation:

Basic controllable areas of marketing process are four-Ps. Innovative strategies in each of the four
Ps are therefore, marketing process innovation. Robust marketing strategies yield desired results
because they are directed to a well defined target markets(s). The target market(s) are selection of
homogeneous groups from a heterogeneous universe viz., the market place; this is segmentation.

It is said that brands are born in the mind and they live, grow and thrive in the mind .Therefore, all
the competing brands endeavor to take up a unique position in the mind-space of the customer.
We expect that the team will base their marketing strategies on well thought out and researched
segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) exercise; text books carry plenty of examples.

Business Viability:

Marketing and other discipline support the purpose of the business, therefore, the team will be
judged for a viable business plan. We strongly recommend the following two aspects:

✓ Business Analysis – This should include a brief business plan, which should consist of
assessment of major external factors effecting the industry of the product/service chosen,
growth of the industry, competition, analysis of the competitors, demand analysis-all this
should be the prelude to the market share goals in the short and medium term.
✓ Financial Analysis – This should contain costs, operating expenses, break-even,
investment and projected source- and –application of funds, balance-sheet, income-
statement, cash-flows etc. a three year projection is an ideal one.

Presentation:

The best in communication comes out when one takes a holistic approach of the available
medium and techniques/tools for communication.

At the stall, the participants may like to use power point presentation to explain the innovation,
business plans and marketing strategies; this is in addition to handling over the document
containing the details. The judges will quiz you at the stall, therefore, we suggest designate
different members to field questions on marketing, finance, etc. separately. Stall management
including name of the company on the façade, inside decoration, display, lighting, music,
promotion /launch jingle, if any etc. are important areas for detailing.

Through the skit the team may like to establish the need for the product/ service, its attributes,
benefits, pricing and distribution strategies. What steals the show in a skit is the drama, the surprise,
the wow effect….use this characteristics of the skit…. the entire open-air theater including the
stage is there for the participating teams to use.

Faculty-in-charge of the Markfest Event

1. Prof. Pratap Kumar Pati, Contact No. 9437137022

2. Prof. Diptimayee Samal, Contact No. 7327003545