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India's leading information technology (IT) education company the National Institute of Information Technology Ltd. (NIIT) launched an aggressive marketing campaign to spread awareness among college students about the necessity of strong IT fundamentals and the need for developing new skills in the IT field. The company also launched a television campaign featuring its brand ambassador Vishwanathan Anand (Anand), world chess champion. The advertisement highlighted the importance of a 'right' IT training institute and how NIIT met all the required standards. This television campaign was supported by an outdoor campaign as well. In addition, NIIT conducted various workshops to interact with prospective students and their parents. Analysts felt that this was the first time that an IT education player had undertaken such an elaborate, nationwide campaign using divergent communication media. In January 2002, NIIT launched another nationwide campaign for its GNIIT career program. The ad campaign promised students, '100% job assurance or money back.' This was the first time that the company had launched such a campaign to attract students.
Though most of the regional and national IT education players offered job guarantee schemes to attract students, NIIT had till then refrained from making such offers. Industry observers pointed out that the company did not have many options. The slowdown in the IT education business and the low student enrolments had badly affected its financial performance. NIIT's education revenues, as a percentage to its total revenues, had dropped to 20% for 2005 compared to 45% in 2004. Moreover, net profits declined by 57% from Rs 2.24 billion in 2005 to Rs 960 million in 2005. NIIT's mar ...