Supply Chain:
Before we got to have a great weekend, we had to do another simulation while doing the other one. This one was about a root beer manufacturer. This one was easier to play with but I want to give you some hints on how to win this one. It's not graded, but it will help you.
**DISCLAIMER**
INFORMATION ON THIS BLOG HAS BEEN ALTERED TO PROTECT THE SIMULATION. REFERRING TO THIS INFORMATION IN HOPES TO HAVE AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE IS CHEATING YOUR LEARNING. I DON'T GUARANTEE INFORMATION TO BE ACCURATE AFTER THE DAY OF POSTING!
Understand the rules of the game. There is no communication between people, so there is a lag time to understand. I was the Retailer. I would order and then it would take 4 cycles to actually get that amount. Demand stayed the same through out the game (50,000 cases). And so order only what you will need to have appear in the four week time and then once that order is made, go back to the minimum order to fill demand. DO NOT ORDER MORE THAN YOU NEED MORE THAN ONCE! The concept is called a bull whip. You order more than you need and then when it comes, you'll be sorry. You forget of the lag time. I ordered 1,000,000 twice and when it came, it hurt me so bad. Toward the end I didn't order anything because it took 4 weeks for them to stop sending me more than I needed. What a great lesson. I hop this helps you succeed where other failed.
Finance:
Another bash on our company to start off the day. Makes us feel good. It's time to get started reviewing time money formulas on excel. (PV, FV, PMT, NPER, RATE)
Friday, February 13, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The Price is Right
Marketing:
Today with the case about how to price a furniture store to be competitive, we were all about pricing. For some kicks and giggles I wanted people to view this video of the most confused contestant on the show "Price is Right"
We went over the Workbench case. It was pretty boring, but the discussion afterwords brought out these great notes:
They are kind of stuck on price, try and find a way to build more value outside of price.
Pricing:
Different kinds of pricing strategies:
Skimming: when product comes out, they can charge more than the msrp because of hype.
ex. xbox360, iPod/Phone, Movies
Penetration: when a product comes out, they undercut and get out to everyone.
ex. wii
Prestige: Price it high because you can
ex. Prada, boats, Rolex, Luxury Cars, Segway, Tiffany
Lame: Just price at what will work.
Odd/Even: $3.99 or $4.00 vs. $3.99 or $4.00
Yield Management: Price differentiates by time (Customer segregation)
ex. airlines
Today with the case about how to price a furniture store to be competitive, we were all about pricing. For some kicks and giggles I wanted people to view this video of the most confused contestant on the show "Price is Right"
We went over the Workbench case. It was pretty boring, but the discussion afterwords brought out these great notes:
They are kind of stuck on price, try and find a way to build more value outside of price.
Pricing:
Different kinds of pricing strategies:
Skimming: when product comes out, they can charge more than the msrp because of hype.
ex. xbox360, iPod/Phone, Movies
Penetration: when a product comes out, they undercut and get out to everyone.
ex. wii
Prestige: Price it high because you can
ex. Prada, boats, Rolex, Luxury Cars, Segway, Tiffany
Lame: Just price at what will work.
Odd/Even: $3.99 or $4.00 vs. $3.99 or $4.00
Yield Management: Price differentiates by time (Customer segregation)
ex. airlines
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Littlefield Starts
Supply Chain:
Today we started the Supply Chain simulation, "Littlefield Technologies". We were supposed to watch a video on how the simulation is to be run. I watched it, but it wasn't very helpful. In our team, we looked over the production for the first 50 days. There seemed to be a bottle neck on one machine. We then said we would watch it to see if another bottle neck appeared. And that was that.
Finance:
Brother Andrews loves to grill us on our companies. Watch out for this guy. He'll make fun of your company. I'm pretty sure the only way not to be made fun of is to find out what he really likes and build a business around that. Though it had better be a business that has something more than buying one thing and reselling it to another.
Today we started the Supply Chain simulation, "Littlefield Technologies". We were supposed to watch a video on how the simulation is to be run. I watched it, but it wasn't very helpful. In our team, we looked over the production for the first 50 days. There seemed to be a bottle neck on one machine. We then said we would watch it to see if another bottle neck appeared. And that was that.
Finance:
Brother Andrews loves to grill us on our companies. Watch out for this guy. He'll make fun of your company. I'm pretty sure the only way not to be made fun of is to find out what he really likes and build a business around that. Though it had better be a business that has something more than buying one thing and reselling it to another.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Branded!
Marketing:
I'm just going to put up my notes (that I typed up after Brother Eager told us to close our laptops) for the day:
Rosewood hotels and branding
Who is the target market: rich, famous, like unique, like to be catered to.
Why go with corporate branding: create brand loyalty,
What is Brand?
-signature
-powerful
-reputation
-umbrella (covers many things)
-lifestyle
-distinguishes
-popularity
-trademark
“A brand is a story” = a good brand has a great story behind it.
Where does brand exist? In the mind of the consumer.
Patagonia [tin shed website]
Branding seems to bring to life a concept of who they are.
Involvement Marketing = bring the people/users into the ‘story’.
Outside of Class:
Today we went over our company progress. I still have tons to do and more and more people are getting psyched about the web side of things. I only hope I can deliver on it. I don't think it will be hard to. We will be launching our first poster idea soon. Here's a shot of what it looks like.
I'm just going to put up my notes (that I typed up after Brother Eager told us to close our laptops) for the day:
Rosewood hotels and branding
Who is the target market: rich, famous, like unique, like to be catered to.
Why go with corporate branding: create brand loyalty,
What is Brand?
-signature
-powerful
-reputation
-umbrella (covers many things)
-lifestyle
-distinguishes
-popularity
-trademark
“A brand is a story” = a good brand has a great story behind it.
Where does brand exist? In the mind of the consumer.
Patagonia [tin shed website]
Branding seems to bring to life a concept of who they are.
Involvement Marketing = bring the people/users into the ‘story’.
Outside of Class:
Today we went over our company progress. I still have tons to do and more and more people are getting psyched about the web side of things. I only hope I can deliver on it. I don't think it will be hard to. We will be launching our first poster idea soon. Here's a shot of what it looks like.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Feminine Products
Marketing:
Brother Eager came around outside the classroom, while we were waiting for the class before us to finally move out, and shook our hands and introduced himself. It was his way of saying, "We haven't had class together in a while."
We talked about Consumer Behavior today. We went over the Tivo Case, and that was okay, but the true fun came from his lecture afterwards. The thing that got me the most was a chart he drew up on the white board. It was a usual bell shaped curve, but it was marked with this info.
2.5% innovators – small group think of the ideas or refine it and (geeks)
13.5% Early Adopters – can see a cool idea, take risks.
34% Early Majority – like cool things but don’t like to risk.
34% Late Adapters – Conformists!
16% Laggards – “Just getting microwaves”, DVD’s
He did interrupt his own teaching to relate a story he had of going to buy a car in Sandy Utah. It was funny but it reminded me of this video. There are tricks to buying a car and that video and many on youtube will help you not have his poor experience in buying a new car. But the buying of a new car brings up the steps we take to buy a "big ticket" item.
1. Identify a need/wait/desire
2. Research
a. Internet
b. Friends
c. Consumer Reports
d. Store
e. Ads
3. Narrowing
4. Buy
5. Post Purchase (justification)
The last one we talked on for a good amount, but then it was onto talking about how hard it is to market to, or take people away from, their routine purchases. Examples of routine purchases, or brand loyalty, are type of deodorant, toothpaste, bread, milk, and as I so obviously put "TAMPONS"! For some reason that was uncomfortable to some people. I don't know why, we should be all adults there, but I guess not. Maybe I should have used a more scientific term like, "Feminine Products". Oh boo-hoo!
Finance:
This was quick and painless, we talked about what ratios are, and who they matter to most. We looked at some website that gave the ratios for a couple of companies. That was kind of interesting. I was more interested in making a sweet poster for our Marketing meeting. So that class went by fast and even got out 30 minutes early.
Outside of Class:
So my poster idea was to get people to stop and text the company name "STITCHED" to 41411 and get signed up for our text updates. No one seemed to like my idea much and I guess I didn't follow instructions very well. The goal was to explain what we did and mine was more geared toward getting people to know who we were first and also to get subscribers or fan base. I might be a bit too advanced (technologically speaking) for the majority of the students. Twitter is a completely complex and foreign idea to them. We'll see how things turn out, but I'm pretty sure Stacey (CMO) feels I have too much power and reign. Perhaps I do. I would love to know her thoughts on the matter and help out any way I can. I also have a vision of how we can use our resources to make this company get out there.
Most of my stuff is waiting upon a catalog, and we can't do much else on that front but wait. One thing I'm noticing is that my job may be under marketing, because I work mostly with them, but I am all over the place. With a web business, I need finance to start up a bank account. For the website I need a clear cut order form to coincide with the items we have for sale, so I'm working with supply chain. And everything I do seems to be shown to the CEO right off. Hopefully I don't step on toes and if I do, be ready to apologize.
Brother Eager came around outside the classroom, while we were waiting for the class before us to finally move out, and shook our hands and introduced himself. It was his way of saying, "We haven't had class together in a while."
We talked about Consumer Behavior today. We went over the Tivo Case, and that was okay, but the true fun came from his lecture afterwards. The thing that got me the most was a chart he drew up on the white board. It was a usual bell shaped curve, but it was marked with this info.
2.5% innovators – small group think of the ideas or refine it and (geeks)
13.5% Early Adopters – can see a cool idea, take risks.
34% Early Majority – like cool things but don’t like to risk.
34% Late Adapters – Conformists!
16% Laggards – “Just getting microwaves”, DVD’s
He did interrupt his own teaching to relate a story he had of going to buy a car in Sandy Utah. It was funny but it reminded me of this video. There are tricks to buying a car and that video and many on youtube will help you not have his poor experience in buying a new car. But the buying of a new car brings up the steps we take to buy a "big ticket" item.
1. Identify a need/wait/desire
2. Research
a. Internet
b. Friends
c. Consumer Reports
d. Store
e. Ads
3. Narrowing
4. Buy
5. Post Purchase (justification)
The last one we talked on for a good amount, but then it was onto talking about how hard it is to market to, or take people away from, their routine purchases. Examples of routine purchases, or brand loyalty, are type of deodorant, toothpaste, bread, milk, and as I so obviously put "TAMPONS"! For some reason that was uncomfortable to some people. I don't know why, we should be all adults there, but I guess not. Maybe I should have used a more scientific term like, "Feminine Products". Oh boo-hoo!
Finance:
This was quick and painless, we talked about what ratios are, and who they matter to most. We looked at some website that gave the ratios for a couple of companies. That was kind of interesting. I was more interested in making a sweet poster for our Marketing meeting. So that class went by fast and even got out 30 minutes early.
Outside of Class:
So my poster idea was to get people to stop and text the company name "STITCHED" to 41411 and get signed up for our text updates. No one seemed to like my idea much and I guess I didn't follow instructions very well. The goal was to explain what we did and mine was more geared toward getting people to know who we were first and also to get subscribers or fan base. I might be a bit too advanced (technologically speaking) for the majority of the students. Twitter is a completely complex and foreign idea to them. We'll see how things turn out, but I'm pretty sure Stacey (CMO) feels I have too much power and reign. Perhaps I do. I would love to know her thoughts on the matter and help out any way I can. I also have a vision of how we can use our resources to make this company get out there.
Most of my stuff is waiting upon a catalog, and we can't do much else on that front but wait. One thing I'm noticing is that my job may be under marketing, because I work mostly with them, but I am all over the place. With a web business, I need finance to start up a bank account. For the website I need a clear cut order form to coincide with the items we have for sale, so I'm working with supply chain. And everything I do seems to be shown to the CEO right off. Hopefully I don't step on toes and if I do, be ready to apologize.
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