Week #1

I’ve always been interested in marketing, as I think it touches all of us on a day-to-day basis.  You can’t go outside of your house, or even turn on the radio or television inside your house, without being bombarded with commercials, billboards, newspapers, magazines, etc. that are trying to establish some sort of relationship between you (the customer) and a business.  My background in engineering has been understandably light in marketing coursework, but I have dabbled in marketing my own photography business and find the topic to be fascinating.  I also work at General Motors, where I have had lots of interaction with our customers.  I’m eager to begin this course and get a more in-depth understanding of marketing, and how I can use it in both my professional and personal activities.

Reading Chapter 1 in the text was an excellent way to get started with the class.  I enjoyed the refresher on the 4 P’s (Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion) and the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).  The video from Jeff Bezos was, likewise, very good.  I enjoyed his initial comment on their first website mistake – allowing customers to order a negative quantity of books and then crediting the account!  In all seriousness, I wrote down his short-list to keep in my office at work, because I think it can apply to many other aspects of a business in addition to marketing:

1)      Obsess over the customer, not competitors (although keep your eye on the competitors)

2)      Invent

3)      Think long term

4)      It’s always “Day 1”

As an engineer at General Motors, I design, develop, and fine-tune the suspensions in our vehicles.  Therefore, I have the ability to alter the attributes that customers experience every day – how does the vehicle ride, how does it handle, is it maneuverable, does it meet the quality and value expectations for that vehicle class/segment, and how is the long-term durability and reliability?  I do get input from marketing, and I use it when making my decisions.  I think this relationship can be expanded, however, as I have access to quite a lot of customer data.  I’m looking forward to learning more as the semester goes on.