Week Fifteen:

Marketing is all around us and I would like to continue to take marketing classes to further become aware of marketing in my surroundings. From marketing a product or service to marketing yourself the value of it is essential. I'm glad that I could take MGT 3500 to broaden my understanding of marketing.

Week Fourteen:

I enjoyed learning about a book Professor Allen talked about in regards to networking. Something to the effect of "Provide benefits to others,...that will eventually bring benefits." In my own life, I often ask people what I can do to help and honestly most don't take me up on it but the thought that I would help them means somethings. And it really is fun to help others when you get the chance.

I learned that price skimming is a high introductory price, often followed by a decrease.

Learning about value is important. Value was talked about in class as product quality, delivery, price, etc. If you don't know what value is and don't have it, you probably won't be that successful. I am going to try to find the valuables in my life.

Class Thirteen:

I appreciate Professor Allen going over hubspot.com. I need to remember this website to learn things like how to create a Facebook business page.

Going along with publicity, I found a link that I liked that said PR was you making an effort to advertise. Publicity is getting someone else to want to write about you, etc. (Seth's Blog sethgodin.typepad.com)

I enjoyed learning about personal selling and the benefits of it. Personal selling is so important!

Talking about the Vans videos I have learned that they make sure they are appealing to their customers.

Class Twelve:

I was interested in the Burger King case that we read about. Someone made the comment that no publicity is bad publicity. I've been thinking a lot about publicity and how if your goal is to get your name out maybe there isn't bad publicity, unless you care about people talking about you poorly. Haha.

I was so shocked when I heard that 75% of Facebook users are outside of the US. CRAZY! Marketing is global and I'm curious how you reach that global market and if the US is moving at as fast a rate as others.

Entrepreneurship Week:

This week I actually took my spring vacation and went to San Francisco! It was beautiful and so much fun! I was able to see the beach, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Muir redWoods, and eat at so many delicious places! I did not look over several marketing approaches that were used on this trip. It was brought to my attention that at Pier 39 at a yummy bread restaurant, they actually pipe out the smells from their bakery to entice customers to come in. GENIUS! When we visited Alcatraz they had a mirror set up before we got on the ferry because they take your picture. Marketing in action. Marketing is everywhere and I love that I'm picking up on it now!

Class Eleven:

I thought it was interesting learning about different business approaches to shoplifting. I recently worked in retail and we had a problem with this. Enough that if we caught someone shoplifting we got something like $100 bonus. Sometimes we even had people chase shoplifters. Talking with fellow classmates, Rebecca was saying that she had a friend that worked at Famouse Footwear and they had a complete different approach to shoplifters. Their attitude was to ignore shoplifting and leave the situation alone. One of the reasons Walmart has greeters to try to prevent this problem. Because you are less likely to steal if you have been individually greeted.

I like the quote, "Few goods or services can survive in the marketplace without effective promotion."

Another thing that was brought up was that multi-tasking is a myth. SHOOT! I'm always trying to multi-task. Even at this moment I'm trying to watch tv and blog. I feel lazy if I'm only doing one thing at a time. But as I try to really just focus on one thing, I think I do that better and get it done faster.

We also went over in class the four elements that are used in promotion is advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and personal selling.

Class Ten:
I loved the concept of the fitting puzzle pieces with one saying; market need and the other saying; new product. It's as easy as that. There has to be a market need for your product or your product has to be something that convinces people that they need it.

Youtube videos are a big part of today's marketing strategy and watching the clip for the Samsung Galaxy was legit. I couldn't believe when I found out that it had only been up for one week and had already received 4 million views. That is INCREDIBLE marketing!!!!!

Talking about why WalMart doesn't manufacture products but is better at moving/purchasing inventory made me think about comparative advantage. You should do what you are better at and excel in that area of expertise.

Going over agents and brokers helped clarify things for me a lot! With the example that real estate agents don't have to buy the house to sell it, I now understand the different intermediaries and the legal difference with obtaining titles.

SPRING BREAK:
So, I don't really feel like I got much of a spring break. I had about five papers to write with research to do, other homework assignments and I worked. I did manage to get out on a hike with some friends to enjoy the beautiful weather we had. I was okay with my working spring break though because I'm headed to San Francisco in a couple of weeks!!! I'm so excited to explore this great city! Luckily it's the week that we don't have MGT class because of Entrepreneurship Week so it works out great!

Class Nine:
Learning about the Product Life Cycle (Introductory, Growth, Maturity, Decline) was a good refresher. I think it's important to understand this cycle both as a consumer and working with marketing because the product is what you are either purchasing or selling.

Learning the four out of five new products fail was a slight shock to me. I understood that it was hard to have products succeed but I didn't think that many would fail. From this, I learned that being in business you have to understand that you will probably fail at times. It's important to keep trying to make sure that you also get that success as well.

Class Eight:
We didn't have class this week because we took our midterm. I am grateful that we could use our notes etc because without them I know I wouldn't have done as well. I still had to understand concepts to know where to look for the answers. Which I believe in this situation that understanding concepts is huge!

Class Seven:
I know that learning the difference between brand name (numbers, letters), brand mark (image), brand equity (value of company), and global brand (at least 20% is sold abroad) will be beneficial throughout my life. You see logos everywhere and being able to differientiate and call them the appropriate names is something I know I will use in my life.

Week Six: I continue to see how the marketing mix is vital to a company. This week I learned that often people think the most important piece of the marketing mix is the price, although it really doesn't account for more than 10%.

Although it seems simple I have to think and remind myself the difference between demographic: age, gender and geographic: location. It's just one of those things in segmentation that I have to double check to make sure I'm right.

I enjoyed learning about the difference between marketing research and market research. I know that before I would use these terms interchangeably. Now I know that marketing research refers to the big picture and market research if more narrow.

Week Five:

We don't have mgt class this week but I can't help but think of all of the marketing done in the SuperBowl this past Sunday. Millions of dollars are spent on the commercials for a fraction of time. That goes to show just how important marketing is. While reading the Code Zero case I was excited to learn that "...its aspartame-sweetened aftertaste" is the taste that I despise so much when drinking Diet Coke. I'm all for the 'real' stuff.

Week Four:

1.30.13
I learned in marketing today that understanding consumer behavior is important because it= how consumers make purchases and how consumers use and dispose of products. As a consumer I can't help but reflect on my purchasing decisions. I'm part of the generation Y and right now anytime I spend money I think I'm going to die and starve and never be able to own a car let alone a house. Even though I am fortunate enough to not have expenses right now, I can't help but think about the future and my lack of a continuous income. And with one of my jobs, I pretty much spend my pay check at the store. I am starting a savings plan that I saw on pinterest that is to never spend a five dollar bill. So far I think I've got ten dollars and I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Week Three:

1.23.13
I liked how my professor of my marketing class used the analogy of basketball and marketing. Just like in basketball the goal is to win. But in order to win you have to have a few elements. Scoring, your defense, and rebounds are all important things to reach your target goal of winning the game. In marketing the goal is to sell. But you can't really do that unless you successfully have the correct marketing mix, which includes: product, price, promotion, and place. I knew the marketing mix was going to be real important. :)

Week Two:

1.16.13 Learned in class how important the marketing mix is including: product, place, promotion, price. Going throughout the semester I can tell that this is going to be a very important process to remember. There might not be one completely right way, but bits of each will make a good way.

Week One:

I went to my marketing class for the first time on 1.9.13 and felt pretty good about it. I learned about the Huntsman School Pillars: Entrepreneurship, Global Vision, Analytical Rigor, and Ethical Leadership. These were cool to learn about because I've been in the Huntsman School of Business at USU for about three years and never even knew they existed!!! I wonder how many other things I could know about...I'm going to try and find out.