Nissan Motor India recently announced their unique programme for promoting their brand in India, the 2011 Nissan Student Brand Manager Programme. This programme is now in its second year and has invited applications from around 150 colleges across 15 Indian cities.
Nissan is aims to appoint 20 NSBM’s from the 1,200 target entries. The programme has a tenure of six months beginning July to December, 2011. The selected 20 Student Brand Managers have an important role bringing the brand closer to the general public and the Indian student community via creative marketing initiatives. Following training, these students are to work with the company officials in a number of projects.
Apart from working on different projects, the students will develop unique events for creating a buzz around their brand in the student community. A few of the short listed colleges are S.P. Jain MIR, Mumbai; K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai; IIFT, Delhi; IIM – Kolkata; IIM – Ahmedabad; University Business School, Chandigarh; Christ University, Department of Business Studies, Bangalore; and Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai.
Hover Auto India’s CEO, Dinesh Jain, said addressing K.J. Somaiya students that this programme will provide a unique opportunity for students to develop niche for themselves as well as raising their standards for the future. The notion behind this programme is to be able to channelize creative minds of young people in the finest manner possible.
It will also present them with the opportunity of learning many real life jobs with the best minds in the industry. Judging by the response they received last year, they expect an even better feedback this year. For this year’s programme, the jury includes automotive and advertising greats like Ad Guru, Prahlad Kakkar of Genesis Films, Autocar India Magazine Editor, Hormazd Sorabjee and Harish Bijoor Consults Incorporated CEO, Harish Bijoor.
To be eligible to participate, the students have to have completed their first year in their respective course. They can participate by assuming a small task given by Nissan. Students have to register themselves, online, at the company’s website, submitting their proposal based on the theme given by the jury in either a PDF or PPT format till around 5MB data.
Out of this, around 20 to 25 entries will be short listed according to different regions, who will then be called to participate in zonal rounds to be held in Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai before the jury, for selection. 10 students from the four zones will then head to Mumbai for their final presentation to be selected. Out of the final round, only 20 students will be selected from 15 cities.
These students will then receive training by experts at Nissan for a 6 month programme. The NSBM will be an honorary position with Nissan Motors India and does not imply employment with the company. Each of the students will receive a stipend of Rs.30,000 along with Rs.20,000 for their marketing budget to execute their initiatives in this project.
Apart from this, students will also be trained by a corporate trainer from the company, a and will receive a kit comprising of a visiting card, a digital camera, a jacket and a T-shirt, to equip them to carry out their initiatives with professionalism. Based on their requirements, the students will also receive a Nissan Micra car to help them understand an auto brand’s marketing activities.
