Blog One

          When it comes to building a consumer based company, marketing is an important component to creating and maintaining a successful business. According to Kerin Eleventh Edition Marketing textbook, "marketing is the activity for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that benefit its customers, the organization, its stakeholders, and society at large." Since an early age, I have been involved in many marketing decisions, but mostly from the consumer side. Hopefully by taking this course, I will gain experience and knowledge when it comes to the selling side of marketing. The thing that makes marketing so valuable is that it effects, "all individuals, all organizations, all industries, and all countries"(Kerin, pg. 4).
          In our first two weeks of class, we were introduced to the basics of marketing and how it can make or break a company. First and foremost, as we learned in BU 113, we were reintroduced to the marketing mix, or in other words the four Ps of marketing:

1. Product: A good, service, or idea to satisfy the consumer's needs.
2. Price: What is exchanged for the product.
3. Promotion: A means of communication between the seller and buyer.
4. Place: A means of getting the product to the consumer.

These controllable factors are used by organizations and their marketing department to solve marketing problems within their business that will help benefit their consumers. Without these four marketing mix factors, a company will not be able to succeed when it comes to introducing their product to the public. If an effective marketing plan is built, a company can use it as a "road map" when they approach their different marketing activity strategies and issues. In class, we have gone over chapters one and two in the textbook, made small marketing plans in small groups, and have talked about what types of marketing we have seen/experienced in our every day lives. We have also just made groups and are about to start an online simulation building our own backpacks and logo. Hands on and interactive group projects have always been my favorite types of assignments in my prior business courses. I am very eager to get started on this project, it seems like it will be a great learning experience.
          So far, most of my business classes have been numerical based courses such as accounting, statistics, and economics. I am excited for this course because it introduces you to a whole new world of business that I have not yet touched base on other than BU 113. I am looking forward to enhancing my public speaking through the multiple presentations we have to do (ad presentations, ted talks, group presentations). I have always been anxious and uncomfortable presenting to large groups so with this amount of practice, I believe I will gain some helpful experience. My main goal this semester is to take away all I can from my business courses. Instead of just doing the work to complete it, I need to begin to retain more of the knowledge I'm gaining in these courses, seeing that these are my upper level business courses for my major. I am looking forward to keeping this blog and posting about my progress in this course, thanks for reading.