Week 3 X501 Post

I found the material in this week's section on micro-segmentation to be fascinating and especially noteworthy, given I am in the mass production industry as part of P&G.  We certainly have been working to change our direction, but any change this fundamental will certainly take time.  The Bloomberg link below does a nice job outlining the challenges P&G and other legacy mass marketers face as they follow the increasing segmentation.  As someone that currently works in manufacturing, where high fixed costs are everywhere, this change to more specialized and targeted products can be frustrating as these large plants work best when they produce a lot of a certain type of product.  We do not have the ability to customize your baby's diaper with their name and favorite Sesame Street character.  This is a paradigm shift forces a transition of how our work in manufacturing is done.  Many close to the manufacturing operation view this with skepticism as shorter runs and higher change overs drives up costs through downtime and increases in unplanned stops.  However, it is the right shift long-term as it will enable P&G to have a broader portfolio of products with many markets vs. the one large mass market. 

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2004-07-11/the-vanishing-mass-market

Week 2 Reflection

First,  let me apologize for the brevity of this post.  I was at Kelley Connect week and am not traveling for work to a plant via car.  Not much time to get around to the posting!

The biggest take away I have is that the Internet has opened up a huge array of options for a business to communicate to their consumers.  The key for business is that they must earn the trust of the consumer (i.e. New York Times and their pay wall) while still properly communicating their message.  I like your week 2 title, "Empowering the consumer" as this is exactly the path to success in the digital space.  It forces companies to really step up their game in terms of product and promotion as your competitor is just one click away.  Empowering to consumer allows the message to be communicated in a way that feels in the best interest of the consumer to consume it.

X501 Reflection for the Week of 08 JUN

I was able to read a good deal of the material this week, with the exception of the textbook (mine hasn’t arrived yet) and I find the material to be fascinating.  First, it is always in interesting experience to review the changes in the internet and associated technologies since the snap shot in the article.  The rate at which some of these sites have fallen to the wayside is unprecedented.  However, I did notice that journalism covers technology in the same way today as they did years ago.  There is a lot of lusting towards the “good times” of the past and a hesitance to embrace the new technology, or there is great excitement and grand predictions of how the system will change the world.  This sort of reporting is understandably difficult as it is incredibly hard to fully understand what a new technology will actually be used for.  The Katie Couric discussion on what the internet is reminded me of the conversations I have had with my parents about Facebook, Twitter, etc.  I am very excited to dig into this material further to understand the latest tools and trends around Marketing in the Digital Age.

I come to this course via P&G, which many people call a Marketing Company.  That is certainly the understanding I had as I finished my Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering, and at times can be frustrating to hear when there is so much work done outside of marketing at the firm.  I have always had an interest in Marketing (the field where my Mother worked), and have enjoyed the visibility I have to the vast Marketing work done to promote our products (link below).  I look forward to exploring this in our quarter together so that I may better understand the work done at my company and across the industry.

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2013/09/digital-marketing-is-dead-pg.html?page=all