Final Post: Reflection

Hi everyone! This will be my final blog post for BU-215 Marketing. I will use this post as a reflection on the lessons I learned in this course, and connect what I learned to the course outcomes and objectives.

1) To set personal and professional goals and positively contribute in an engaged class.

I set both personal and professional goals for this marketing course. As for personal goals, I hoped to become more aware of business and marketing news. The marketing news presentations and discussions were very interesting and informative for me. These presentations and discussions made me more aware of the events happening in the business world. I achieved this personal goal by reading news on Business Insider and the New York Times that informed of the issues or developments that businesses were making every day. As I continued to find marketing news, I would share the news and actively contribute to the class discussions. One piece of marketing news I found interesting was the opening of a Chipotle like fast-food place called Blaze Pizza, but instead of making your own burrito, you make your own pizza. I have a feeling that this could be a very successful chain since millennials like efficiency and cheap food, and pizza is always a popular food product.
  

As for professional goals, my Marketing for a Cause team had the goal of hosting a successful dodgeball tournament to raise money for our non-profit organization. The event was very successful, and $218 was raised for our non-profit, VABIR. The success of this event was achieved by having enthusiastic participants and team that worked well together to plan, organize, and carry out the event.

2) To have the opportunity to put marketing into action via team and individual projects, research, reports and presentations

   I was in charge of the advertising campaign for the Marketing for a Cause project. The advertising campaign included a poster that was hung over campus, a Facebook event, three postings in the Daily Digest, a posting in the SMC Events Calendar, and tabling in Alliot. All five of these elements successfully promoted the Dodgeball Tournament that my group was hosting, and allowed me to gain marketing experience by working individually for the advertising campaign, but using this campaign as part of the Marketing for a Cause group project. I had to do marketing research to find out what forms of advertising would be most effective to the target audience, and I determined that a poster and Facebook event would be most effective since millennials are active social media users, and prefer posters that are simple and to the point. I wrote about the advertising campaign in the Final Report for Marketing for a Cause, and was able to explain what I did and how it was effective, and will present the advertising campaign in the Marketing for a Cause final presentation.

  3) To explore ethical issues confronting marketing managers

   

   In Chapter 11 (Pricing Products and Services), I learned about the legal and ethical considerations that marketing managers face when pricing a product. These considerations include: price fixing, price discrimination, deceptive pricing, and predatory pricing. Since today is Black Friday, I find it very relevant to discuss the Bait and Switch technique used under deceptive pricing. Bait and Switch is when a firm offers a low price on a product (the bait) to attract customers to a store. Once in the store, the consumer is persuaded to purchase a higher priced item (switch) using tricks as degrading promoted item and not having enough of the promised item in stock. On Black Friday, stores advertise as having the lowest prices of the year, and therefore attract many consumers to the store. However, sometimes consumers are persuaded by sales people to purchase a higher produced item or the item they were searching for is out of stock, so they must purchase the higher product product. These ethical issues are very controversial in the business world, and I learned that if a company is unethical, customers will turn away from purchasing products or services from that company.

4) To examine and convey basic and emerging marketing concepts and terminologies

This class included two ad presentation from the 1950s-1960s. The presentations included the discussion of the four p's in the advertisement (product, place, price, promotion), the target market, how the ad differs from today's ads, and a specific marketing concept from the ad. The presentations allowed me to examine the ad to find and explain the marketing concepts and terms within the ad, and also allowed me to practice my oral presentation skills and convey the marketing terms to the class. 

Ads I presented in class from the 1950s and 1960s.

5) Use written and oral skills to persuade a target audience

The Ted Talk assignment allowed me to use my oral skills to persuade a target audience. I presented a Ted Talk entitled "What's next in service for the hostility industry, a culture of care." I presented this Ted Talk and used marketing terminology to explain to the class how important fostering a culture of care within a business results in happier, friendlier, and more efficient employees, and therefore a more successful business. A great example is a restaurant; If a manager cares for their employees, then the employees will show care and friendliness towards your customers at the restaurant, and therefore the customers will be pleased since although the product (the food) might be good, customers care more about the service they received.

As for written skills, this blog also allowed me to convey marketing concepts and terminologies and use them to persuade a target audience (the readers of my blog). This blog made me more aware of marketing news, as well as helped me to explain the marketing concepts I learned about in marketing news, and explain and develop my own ideas based on the articles I read. I was able to transfer what I learned in class into action on this blog, and give my opinion on a piece of marketing news in hopes of influencing my target audience.

6) Participate and communicate as an effective member of a team

The Marketing for a Cause project allowed me to participate and communicate as an effective member of a team over the course of the semester. The Marketing for a Cause assignment involved working with a group of seven other people. With a large group, it was difficult to find a common time to meet to work on the event. However, my group was able to meet almost every Monday night to plan the event and work on the final report. It was important in this project to participate and communicate to be an effective team member. The team meetings went well, because I was able to lead a discussion with the  updates of the advertising campaign, as well as participate in the other discussions held by other members of the team. This project showed how important it is to be an effective team member, and that being on top of organization and time management is very important. If I was not an active member of the team and didn't put effort in, then the event would not have been a success. It takes all eight members putting all their effort into a project in order to make it a success. 

Six members of the Marketing for a Cause team

Overall:

The course objectives and learning outcomes were met through the chapter readings, blog posts, class discussions, oral presentations (marketing news, Ted Talks, ad  presentations), and group projects (Financial Analysis Report and Marketing for a Cause). I was able to achieve nearly every course objective and learning outcome by being an active participant in class and putting the highest amount of effort into every assignment throughout the course.

Sources:
http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/54dce1e26bb3f7fa7c8b4568-1200-1200/assembly-line%20format.jpg
http://file.vintageadbrowser.com/nh8fr9bbucyapv.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/88/1f/51/881f5117f5671bede58966484d6ae745.jpg
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Whats-next-in-service-for-the-h