I think the only thing in this week's reading that surprised me was the use of co-marketing and banner ads and their usefulness. I did not realize there was co-marketing on the internet. I know I have seen it with products on the shelves in stores, but not with marketing on internet.
I am mildly confused as to why anyone would want to use the secondary data, when it can be old information and really may not entail the demographics needed for my business.
My questions I would ask Kuratko:
1. Why don't entrepreneurs just adopt the consumer driven philosophy right off the bat if they want continued success?
2. When is it appropriate to surpass the recommended 10% or less of revenue for marketing expense? Or as a rule of thumb should this be followed through lifetime of firm?
3. What are the author's thought on email marketing? I'm interested on his position for or against because I know I find it useful for businesses I frequent, but then I do hate spam.
With this week's reading there was nothing I necessarily disagreed with because most of what I read was already confirmed in previous marketing classes.
Hmmm, to really take the time to talk about me (my favorite subject) and define what I think makes me different in only five examples:
1. I believe someone has something to offer and I believe stepping back and reassessing the individual (even those you do not care for at all) you can find that value. I make every attempt to do such in my life
2. I make attempts to ensure all people feel included at work, social settings, or whatever environment. Even if it is my first encounter of the event or individual.
3. I consider "no" to a position, as an opportunity to improve and overcome that obstacle for the next go round.
4. In my professional life as a woman, I am not afraid to ask for what I want, such as more money, more responsibility, whatever it takes to help me reach my goals.
5. I believe in nurturing and developing those that come behind me. I want someone to want my job. I like ambition, I am not afraid to share my knowledge because that means there is someone who can take my place and thus should not hinder me from moving to the next level..
My daughter, Alexus, sees me as driven. Her idea of me is that I go out of my way to help other people even without having to ask. Good and bad, I am heartfelt and emotional. In her opinion at times not so warranted.
My friend Kerry actually has known me for 14 years and sees me as genuine. She states I would give the shirt off my back and have the ability to make someone feel they are the only person in the room.
I never met a stranger. I am trusting, but usually a good judge of character.
Jana has worked with me for 13 years, not the twelve she mentions. She thinks what makes me unique is my ability to see both sides of a situation and be objective. I don't jump to conclusions or make knee jerk reactions. She thinks at times I have a tendency to be too nice, but that has not hindered me.
Lisa is my friend who I have known for over 20+ years. Her thoughts on what makes me different is my power of persuasion. She states I am detailed and want to do my research prior to acting. Not sure if this is a good thing or bad, but she described me also as "strong willed". Heartfelt and sincere were words she utilized to describe me and honestly, who am I to disagree.
Nadine has known me for 15 years. Power of negotiation and ability to get teams to work together is what she thinks makes me unique. Ability to look at all sides or the whole picture
Mahal is my friend that has known me for 15 years. She describes me as passionate and it comes out in my work. My belief in people and give many chances, and after they fail I give them many more (sounds like a weakness when she said it out loud). I invest in people to get what I need.
I had early on decided what kind of person I wanted to be and always believe in treating others as how I would want to be treated. In my life and due to my age, I have had lots of opportunities to self-examine and it would seem, that my family, friends, and co-workers and I are on the same page.
I can step back and relate to what Mahal stated in her video and that is "our greatest strengths can also be our greatest weakness". I am at times an overly positive individual about others and want to always hope for a brighter tomorrow (that sounds corny-like it came from Annie).
In any case, I think you now know more about me than you ever wanted to know, but don't blame me, blame Dr. Pryor.
Just because I put an idea on this napkin doesn't mean that change is imminent. This is just a canvas for ideation. It's what I do next that counts. Brian Solis
I am individual that always attempts to find the good in any situation. Even if I have associates that say something negative about an action plan, I believe there must be something we can do to improve the process. It may not change significantly, but enough that the associates see that management is hearing their concerns and are willing to make some concessions. This is what I see will also be helpful with my business.
Too many families are being told or think they lack the needed tools for owning their own home. I want to show these lower and middle income working families that homes are within their reach. Not bottom of the barrel homes, but a real home that is in a safe neighborhood, close to shopping and schools. Just because they lack the understanding of education of the home buying process should not exclude them from reaching this goal.
My business, Trans-It-Home (transition to your forever home) will first just start as a service offering assistance in overall home education as well as meeting the financial requirements for our lenders. We will require two hour classes to be taken for two weeks in which we educate about green resources and the benefits of spending more money up front for lighting and other tangibles in order to lower utility costs. We will educate about recycling, composting, and upkeep of home such as filter changing and keeping the air conditioner and heater serviced at least twice a year. Ways to clean the dryer vent yourself to ensure the appliance is not having to overwork (which adds to utility costs). These families need to have an understanding of the total cost in owning a home, not just the principle and interest.
Our families work hard to get by every day. These families have aspirations for their children to do better than them. Their hope is they work hard so their children do not have to work as hard to reach their goals. These lower income and middle income families have pride in their work ethic and everyone in the family has a part to play in order to keep them cohesive. These are the families that will be successful in our program and will value the service offerings.
We are not a brokerage firm, we offer a service to assist these families in reaching a goal. The lending companies (only a handful) we work with are the partners that pay most of our fees because we are providing them with families with stable working environments and certifications of what they can really afford and automatic payments for assurance of payments. Our families will have a fee to pay, but what they do not know is this will be put away for an excursion of shopping for their new home they were approved at course completion. We are not just going to educate, but we are going to examine and ensure they understand the concepts taught.
Feedback memo-
1. Limited lenders to a few in order to gain best pricing for clients
2. Starting the business off with a limited service offering for now and then expand ideas as we go along
3. It was not clear how we will make money without hurting the families we are attempting to assist. I believe the above has cleared that up
4. Confusion how we will actually differentiate ourselves from a broker
5. Most feedback I received was positive of the clientele I am serving and there is a need for this offering that is cost effective to our customers.
The only thing I was surprised to read was that commercial banks tend not to lend to start-ups and overall even for established firms will more than likely do short term loans than intermediate terms and seldom long term loans.
The confusing part of this week's reading was the part about the success of social lending has contributed to the weakening of the economy. I understand commercial lenders have tighten their purse strings due to regulations and such, but since social lending has now opened the door to more entrepreneurs, how has the economy weakened?
I was also confused by the Figure 8.2. I am not quite sure what this is reflecting? Meaning, I don't understand how the grading works or how to really read it.
What type of investor would Warren Buffet be considered? Reading over the descriptions it would seem he would be an Enthusiast, but just wondering. He is not a venture capitalist and is it that he really wants to own and include in his portfolio?
I wonder what the actual return has been for angel investors? Wondering if their instinct plays a big part in their decision of investing.
There was not anything I necessarily disagreed with the author, I was just fascinated about the intricacies of raising capital.
Made it half-way through this class and truthfully it has been quite a roller coaster. I am an online student who works full time and participates in organizations outside of work and home.
I have had to carve out time from work and volunteerism to ensure I can keep up with the requirements of the class. It is hard stepping back and actually going to a mall to complete exercises required for the course. If I am to be honest, right off the bat I was wishing I had taken the course in the Fall because I would have rather taken exams. Life happened and I had to delay taking this class and here we are.
I think what has gotten me through to this point is that I am finding a usefulness in these exercises that I thought were futile. As I began to embrace the facts that exams were not in my future in this class, I realized the real test (exam) was really what I was made of with regards to my ability to step out of my comfort zone and immerse myself into this project to discover what entrepreneurial values and abilities could I develop and hone for whatever I want to do when I grow up (hehe).
There are going to be many times you will want to just step back and drop the class because it is a lot a steps required and by George, you do have life outside of ENT3003! You wonder if Dr. Pryor realizes there are students with other classes and now you want me to actually go to people with a made up idea and interview them??? Yep, this will cross your mind, but breathe. He wants you to experience what entrepreneurs experience. A lot fail, because the pressure is way too much, but you don't have to "fail". You can choose to persevere and push through and be the accidental entrepreneur.
Review the syllabus and plan your week on how you can accomplish tasks. Some tasks will be hard to complete, but it takes planning. Interesting huh, so does creating your business.
The last thing I suggest is try to enjoy the class and the process. Dr. Pryor has had guests speakers that are quite diverse. It really seems he is really trying to find individuals that hopefully each of us can connect and find ourselves in them that will hopefully reflect a possibility of success as an entrepreneur.
Hold on' for the ride of your life! It is definitely one with a gamut of emotions that allow you to tap into some hidden areas of possibility within yourself. I can see there is a ripple effect from these exercises that will enhance my life moving forward.
I think the biggest surprise for me was the significance of how firms focused more on market segmentation versus customer needs to gear their marketing efforts. It would seem these firms thought identifying with their current market base would assist them in growing market share.
I was more confused by the continuous mentioning of segmentation being bad and good. Is this really the information he was trying to relay or just the point of the reliance of segmentation is bad?
One question would be, market segmentation information should be re-evaluated how often and in conjunction with keeping the pulse on the customer (new and current)?
Is it necessary to gain assistance from outside firms to complete market segmentation or can the firm complete this themselves?
I tried to find any part of the reading that I disagreed with the author, but because of previous marketing classes and what we have continuously been advised in this class, I could not find anything I disagreed. You cannot just be reliant upon market segmentation and hoping to identify with those you are marketing and hope your product will sell. You have to stay abreast on what your customer needs are and what they currently do not like about what your product or a competitor product offers. As times changes, the product offering has to be relevant.
I was apprehensive about this project and did a dry run (no recording) and took a friend to see what my results would be. I just wanted to give the dollars away as a random act of kindness and for someone to have a soda or coffee on me. I had four individuals take the dollar (one leary) and the fifth objecting to such because she was raised not to take money or anything from strangers. I would say this last individual was easily in her 60's.
So for my idea I bounced if I should ask a trivia question for a dollar or stand on a corner in a public place and just hand them out.
I chose to go to a place in which I thought the dollar would be most welcomed and that was at a Dollar Tree shopping center. I gave my dollars away with just one simple statement "just because you are you". Four individuals were appreciative and thanked me, one was a bit concerned and had a questionable look and said "no thank you", I still kept the dollar out and said,"no, please take it just because you are you and have a good one".
In all five attempts I was successful in giving the money away. I approached more with confidence in this run versus the dry run. I had a smile on my face and feel this conveyed warmness. It took me 47 seconds to complete this one versus my dry run.
