Week 15

We've made it!! The year is coming to a close and all that is standing between us and summer is our final mind map exam, team ratings, and a marketing consultant case.  These fifteen weeks have gone by so quickly, and I feel as though I have truly learned a lot about the marketing concepts we have discussed.  The combination of our mind maps, these blog posts, our SMART Project: OK2DRIVE, the Shark Plan, and our class discussions have really furthered my understanding of what marketing involves.  Going into this class, I assumed marketing was only advertisements like fliers, commercials, and billboards. Now I realize it is so much more than that.  Marketing involves distribution channels, knowing your target market, conducting research both on and with your market, understanding your product, as well as knowing where to sell it, for how much, and how to promote it, and so much more. Our Shark Plan and 4 P's assessment was able to bring a lot of this together, and these assignments were able to show what knowledge of marketing we have accumulated this past year. 

On Tuesday in class, we were given the 4 P's assessment. In a one page case, we were to connect an example business to each aspect of the 4 P's: Product Place, Price, Promotion. We were then to give recommendations and suggestions to Mr. McMillian on how he should market his company. 







On Thursday, we were finally able to show off what we have been working on all semester.  We had practiced our pitch, made business card, printed out out fact sheets, borrowed beer goggles from Public Safety, completed our memos, and created our final memo in our binder.  From 9:30 to 12:30 in the HLC, our group along with many other Engineering groups, pitched our product to three judges.  Other students, people from the public, and professor came by to learn more about our product, as well.  We were hit with challenging questions and ere forced to provide answers on our feet.  This Expo really showed ow much knowledge we have on our product, and I think that we all impressed ourselves.  We had worked so hard developing our product, and understanding it and our target market, tat it was nice to see everything finally come together, although we did not win. Both us and the engineering students in our group came across confidently and were able to speak about our product with ease, because we truly believe in it. Many people that came by seemed genuinely interested in what we had to say and what value our product provided to the our consumer, and to the safety of our communities, as well. 

Leading up to our final meeting/exam on Tuesday of this week, we were given instructions to make one huge final mind map, of everything we have covered thus far.  This includes our Shark Plan, Shark Tank Videos, class discussions, and any concepts from our textbooks.  As of now, I am about half way done created this mind map, and it is proving to be a struggle.  Choosing the most important concepts to fit on this piece of paper is difficult, especially since they all connect one way or another.  But just like these mind maps, Marketing and its concepts all connect one way or another. This course was able to teach me more than just concepts, but also how they relate, and how I can use these skills i different aspects of my life.  Even if I am not pursuing a career in marketing, being able to work with people who think differently than I do will surely arise. Working with the engineers, although difficult, has proven worthwhile ,and I feel more readily equipped to work on projects like this in the future.  It has been a great 15 weeks! Thank you to Dr. Spotts!