Thursday, January 3, 2013

Markathon January 2013 Edition


 
 

Dear Readers,

We are waking up to a brand new year, and as we reflect on the year that was, 2012 was a year most of us would never forget! Even as December 21, 2012 went by uneventfully, inhuman atrocities like that inflicted on the girl whose only innocent crime was to take a bus home have been touted to be the end of humanity. Markathon pays tribute to the brave girl! On another sad note, the cricketing legend called Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar retired from One day format of the game, much to the despair of thousands of fans who worshipped him as the God of Cricket. A fan aptly quotes “The Mayans were right after all, without Sachin the world has truly ended!”

The year also saw some major happenings in the world of Politics, with Obama and Modi retaining their thrones, the Kasab trial finally coming to a close, and the E-citizens making their voices heard when posting on Facebook became a supposedly punishable offence. For us in the field of business, it was indeed an end of an era with Mr. Ratan Tata passing on the reigns of Tata Empire to youngster Mr. Cyrus Mistry. Only time will tell how well he fits into the big man’s shoes!

That said we have all come to the consensus that “this too shall pass” and are waiting to ring in the coming year. It is once again that time of the year where festive discounts and sales are at their peak, and customers make a beeline to the stores, be it offline or with the growing popularity of e-tailing, online stores. Team Markathon has a brilliant analysis of the impact of festivals and special occasions on consumer behavior in this month’s cover story. We bring you detailed insights into the exact reasons behind this trend. The cover story also compares and contrasts the strategies used by Indian vis-à-vis global companies.

In our Vartalaap for this month we have with us young Mr. Karthik Venkat, Founder of eSparSha online merchandiser. Karthik started eSparSha with his friends who shared similar passion to do something of their own after graduating from MNNIT Allahabad. He heads the Sales and Distribution division of eSparSha and shares insights about online retailing and the genesis of eSparSha.

To make the New Year’s edition as special as your coming year, we have incorporated all the special sections in this month’s magazine. We are hopeful that the read will be enjoyable, interesting as well as insightful this time too!

As always, do send in your feedback/suggestions to markathon.iims@gmail.com.

Sit back and enjoy this issue!
 
Happy Reading
Team Markathon