Marketing Week 9

Pharmasim

This week we have spent a lot of time working in groups to develop the Pharmasim strategy for the next few periods.  Pharmasim has been an interesting challenge during the semester.  I've done simulations for classes before, but never a marketing one like this. The last one I did was an auditor simulation for accounting.  I have learned a lot of different ways to analyze data and the relationships between various data points.  It has been a good experience as a way to try out different strategies with 'pretend' money and see what happens when you make major or minor adjustments or what happens when you make no adjustments at all.
 

One of the challenges was the limited amount of options in the simulation.  Although there are so many different ways to analyze the data and make adjustments, there are also limits on the changes that can be made.  Sometimes there is information that makes you want to change something that isn't able to be changed. 

Another challenge was working together with the team to make changes and move onto the next round.  Just coordinating timing of conference calls around everyone's schedules has been difficult.  Being in a course where everyone has careers and priorities outside of class makes quick turnarounds tough as a team. 

Also this week we read an article about marketing metrics.  The article discussed knowing your market and customer before making any decisions on metrics.  This can definitely be applied to what we have been working on so far within the simulation.  When I first started working in the practice rounds I just looked at random data and made adjustments based on what I thought about as a consumer.  I didn't take the time to really think about an overall strategy and how changes impact the upcoming rounds.  Once we got into a team setting, it was more important to make sure we were all on the same page and begin to work on how we wanted to make decisions.  These metrics became an important part of any decision, especially when you have to convince others that your decision makes sense.  I think we have begun to work on the portfolio and metrics that make sense and will adjust as we continue further into the process.

Other Blogs

This week we were asked to also review another three classmate blogs.  I reviewed Aleena's, Marcin's, and Kristin's blogs. 

I started with Aleena's blog which gave a good first impression before I even started reading because it looked creative and pretty and fun.  And that impression was right!  It was a fun blog that was written in a very casual style.  There were random cartoon or comics throughout and she related the class information to completely unrelated items which made it different and interesting.  I'm glad I picked this one to review this week. 

Next I looked at Marcin's blog.  It also included some cute little clipart related to the push and pull strategy.  I learned right away that Marcin works at an accounting firm, which was relatable as I previously worked in public accounting.  I agree with all the comments related to the accounting firm strategy having had experiences in that industry as well.  There were also interesting simulation comments in there that had lead to some ideas for analyses in my own group for the next couple of weeks. 

Lastly, I looked at Kristin's blog.  Turns out last week she had reviewed mine!  It was nice to see some good feedback on my own blog and some comments there.  She takes the Pharmasim analysis and relates it to Drucker readings and ties everything together.  She mentions that she might not be that good of a marketer yet, but I think she's probably better than she thinks since she's tying things together from all different aspects.