Week 3

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS!

Boy is that an understatement!  This week we reviewed a broad range of topics and a TON of detail.  All I can say is that after reading over 150 pages of assigned texts, watching 4 chalk talks, 11 videos, a three hour class (more like 5 for me because my internet connection kept crashing), reading the questions AND blogs submitted by my classmates so I could include these in my blog.... I think I can absolutely say that there are alot of details to cover this week and it's a bit overwhelming.  

THE READING:

     So, where to begin?  Let's start with the reading.  I'll confess that reading is my weakness.  Between my job responsibilities and keeping up with e-mails, reading is difficult to get motivated for.  This week's reading culminated around being able to create a Marketing Plan.  Lehman Chapter 3 starts with a reviewing how to complete an Industry Analysis.  It is essential for a Marketing Manager to understand the factors that affect the Industry he/she is participating in order to decide whether or not the industry is attractive enough to participate. Lehmann goes on to describe a "Market Analysis" that he terms "Category Attractiveness Analysis". He breaks down the factors into three main groups: Aggregate Factors- factors that are related to the product itself; Category Factors- factors related to external influences such as competitors, suppliers and buyers; and Environmental Factors- external influences related to things like technology or regulatory factors. Below is a summary of impact  of Category factors on Attractiveness.  Not all firms find the same factors attractive as this is influenced by each firms unique business as it is valuable to review these factors with your firm's goals and objectives in mind.

	High	Low
Aggregate factors:
Category size	+	-
Category growth	+	-
Stage in product life cycle	-	+
Sales cyclicity	-	+
Seasonality	+	-
Profits	+	-
Category factors:
Threat of new entrants	-	+
Bargaining power of buyers	-	+
Bargaining power of suppliers	-	+
Current category rivalry	-	+
Pressure from substitutes	-	+
Category capacity	-	+
Environmental factors:
Technological	-	+
Political	-	+
Economic	-	+
Regulatory	-	+
Social	-	+

Chapter 6 in Lehmann goes on in great detail to discuss how to create a Market Forecast.  This starts with understanding Market Potential and then requires a firm understanding of the importance of forecast accuracy. 

The concept of Forecast Accuracy is discussed by my classmate, Ashley Les, when she asks:

  

"Uncertainty is a part of marketing forecasting but uncertainty is also found in other parts of a company too.  In relationship to other aspects of companies, where does marketing uncertainty rank in the sense of the biggest impact to the company if the forecast was really off?"

This question is insightful as she is implying that a plan is only as accurate as it's forecast.  A good Marketing Manager will find the way to manage accuracy without taking too long to generate timely forecasts.

The texts on Drucker wen on to discuss "How to Do Marketing Research the Drucker Way" and "Exploiting Demographic Change".  The Drucker text seems to be very popular in these blogs so I won't discuss it much. However, I did find on question asked interesting.  Brian Michaud reviews Chapter 16 in which he states: 

        

".....Drucker put a significant emphasis on not necessarily the total population, but more on the age distribution and the make-up of that population  .... Can anyone else think of such a specific example of a company advertising directly to one demographic or one target market?"

This question is interesting because it seems to me that most memorable ads are noticed because they effectively market to a demographic.  An obvious one would be the Axe deodorant ads.

 These Ads are obviously targeting young single men with the message that if you use their product that the girls will fall all over you.  See the attached article for reference  

http://www.businessinsider.com/axe-advertising-unilever-brandwashed-2011-10

Even my pre-teen son (who barely sweats) was convinced to buy this product so it is an effective ad, even to pre-teens.

THE BLOGS:

    I also spent a decent amount of time reading my classmates blogs this week.  In Megan MacKenzie's Week 2 Post: "Marketing Help or Self Help?", she discusses the "8 principles of leadership": 

1. Maintain Absolute Integrity
2. Know your stuff
3. Declare your expectations
4. Show uncommon commitment
5. Expect positive results
6. Take care of your people
7. Put duty before self
8. Get out in front. 

I have always believed strongly in these principles.  I think that even the best marketing plans will fail without good leadership.  I completely agree with Megan when she states:

"......that marketing is leadership and vice versa" 

However, good Leadership alone is not enough.  One needs a good vision or mission statement.  This is where Kelvin's Week 2 Post: "The Marketing Plan" supports Megan's.  In it Kelvin reviews: 

“5 Most Important Questions you Will Ever Ask About Your Organization.” 

1. What is our mission?

2. Who is our customer?

3. What does our customer value?

4. What are our results?

5. What is our plan?

A good Marketing plan needs a good Leader and a good Leader needs a clearly defined mission.  Reviewing these questions is a big step towards defining your mission and beginning a sound marketing plan.

PHARMISM SIMULATION:

     Well, I can honestly say that with all the other work (and Oh yeah, regular life), that my play time in the simulator suffered.  I had hoped to improve this week but my stock is still falling.  I now know that I need to take advantage of the market research and feedback that's available and form a strategy to address the concepts uncovered.  To date, my decisions have been mostly random to test out the simulator and to learn by experience.  This is actually not to different than many businesses in the real world unfortunately.  In the lecture  we were asked to summarize the Total cost of All Research vs. Total Marketing Budget.  In my simulator, the total Marketing Budget is $31M as shown on the "Budget Allocation" chart.  The Research is made up of the following reports:

Report                    Cost

Advertising               $35

channel sales           $25

pricing                     $20

shopping habits        $15

Sales force              $20

Promotion                $35

Shelf Space             $25

Recommendations    $20

Cojoint                   $100

Purchase Survey    $100

Total                     $395

NOW WHAT?

Now it's time to absorb all this learning and apply it!  I hope to make some real progress in Pharmasim this week... even if I have to start all over!