The Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Innovation and Commercialization Centre (UTMICC) with the collaboration from the Marketing Research Group (MRG) of Azman Hashim International Business School (AHIBS) and UTM Library had organized the Go To Market (GTM) Plan Competition 2020.

The final presentation session was held at Sultanah Zanariah Library (PSZ), UTM Johor Bahru campus on January 6th, 2020 involving 50 students who took the Marketing for Innovative Products or SHAF3043. They presented 11 comprehensive and intensive marketing plans and strategies for UTM products.

The event started with a product exhibition followed by a pitching session and finally concluded with the award-winning ceremony, enlivened with the speech by the representative of the ICC Director, Dr. Noorsidi Aizuddin Mat Noor. In his speech, Dr. Noorsidi emphasized how GTM provided the opportunities for marketing students to collaborate in the marketing initiatives, as well as being a platform for gaining real experience in commercializing real commercial products.

“The collaborative effort amongst the students, their mentors as well as the product inventors have given a huge impact on this program,” said Dr. Noorsidi who later handed the prizes to the winning groups who participated in this presentation.

The group who presented the product of the ‘Autonomous Fish Trap For Coastal Fisheries’, rebranded into ‘The Coral’ appears to be the best marketing plan in the program which later won RM1,000.00  Grand Prize. Following that, the ‘Dual-Function Sizing Agent From Anionic Tapioca Starch’ project presented by the ‘Arora-CS’ declared as the first-runner up, winning RM750.00 cash prize. The Second-Runner Up winner with the project ‘Meal-2-Heal Food For Emergency Relief’ won RM500.00 cash prize and a few consolation prize winners won RM200.00 cash prizes.

All cash prizes were sponsored by ICC as part of its product commercialization effort for UTM, together with UTM Library as the co-sponsor who prepared the venue for the final event, and the Marketing Research Group (MRG), and AHIBS, in the form of lecturing and coaching part.

The program is hoped to be conducted frequently to sustain the momentum of collaboration and product marketing efforts. Congratulations to all winning groups and all product inventors!