Month: March 2013

What I learned about teams, myself and marketing:
I realize how important teamwork is in a business setting. Employers want employees who work well together. Therefore, it only makes sense to have been assigned a group project in Marketing class. I learned that brainstorming is key, and although we had different schedules and some of us also had part time jobs, we made it work and found time to meet in person (which we found was more effective in getting things done). I discovered how much of a team player I really am and by building a strong relationship with each other, we got the job done. This is really the goal in marketing. By communicating well and building strong relationships, value is enhanced.

Skills I enhanced and developed:
I would say that I’ve definitely enhanced my communication skills as I had to convey my thoughts in a clear and effective manner to my group members as well as listen to the important things that they had to say. I also enhanced my editing skills when I proofread my group’s work. In addition, I’ve learned to be flexible. All my team members had different ideas on how we saw the layout of the papers and the video, so I really had to consider all ideas, not just our own. I believe that the end result actually turns out better when different opinions and thoughts are incorporated.

 What would I do differently:
I would have liked to have met up for longer periods of time when collaborating, but we did the best we could with the different schedules we all had.

 My top takeaways:
– Two (or four in this case) heads are better than one
– All the elements in a marketing plan are important and relate to each other
– Marketing is exciting and completely relatable

(Picture source: http://coachgiorgio.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/teamwork4.jpg

One of the four P’s of the marketing mix is Pricing, which deals with how much a consumer is willing to pay for a product or service (supply and demand). It has an enormous effect on the consumer’s perception of the attractiveness of the product. Consumer surplus can be extracted and turned into extra revenue when businesses price discriminate (charge different prices to different consumers).

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Airlines do just that when they “get personal” with their flight prices, as this article states. How they decide who gets charged what is astonishing and it would vary from “how regularly they fly, where they live and the kind of trip they are taking.” Delta Airlines would be an example of an airline that would overcharge frequent fliers. Their defense to such biased pricing is so that they can “better tailor their services to the needs of their customers.” Even so, they know what they’re doing.

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Since it’s almost Spring Break, airlines know that the demand to just get away from it all will increase, so they’ll be willing to spend a bit more. “Airfare for spring break is up almost double digits from last year”  Have no fear, however, because the article also mentions how you’ll be able to find a few bargain destinations, including Hawaii, which has dropped between 1 and 4% since last year. This just goes to show that pricing is an extremely complicated marketing mix factor. However, you can be sure that there is a reason behind every price tag.

Picture sources:

Airlines (http://www.tnooz.com/2012/10/02/news/what-do-airlines-really-know-about-using-social-media-in-2012/))

Hawaii (http://www.destination.myuniversals.com/hawaii.php)