Marketing: Learning the ropes

Here in the marketing department at the BCC we use ‘Google alerts’ to closely monitor all of our staff so that, in the unlikely circumstances that a staff member makes the news, we can forward the story around the office and ensure the person does not get away unnoticed!

Unfortunately this meant that on Friday afternoon when Massey posted an article about the Level three Marketing Planning class, my name arrived in the inbox…

As part of my marketing major at Massey, I was required to complete 156.334 Marketing Planning. The great thing about this paper was that it combined theory from prior marketing papers as well as new concepts, into a very hands-on learning program. The aim of the paper was to produce a professional marketing plan for a local company or organization; our client was the YMCA .

We conducted a thorough situation analysis of both the internal and external environment of the organization, developed a SWOT analysis of the YMCA, developed a set of marketing strategies and objectives, and finally presented a series of tactics that could be implemented to achieve each objective.

The project was no walk in the park; not only were we required to learn a number of marketing theories, but we were required to work professionally with clients, understand the structure and nature of a marketing plan, develop appropriate writing skills, prepare a 20 minute formal presentation, while at the same time developing and managing relationships with the two or three ‘strangers’ who had been assigned to the group.

The final product was a 60 page report that was handed to over with mixed emotions of love, hate, relief and satisfaction.  Each of the 7 plans were marked and the highest graded report was rewarded and presented to YMCA management. While we were very pleased with the results of our plan, we didn’t manage to take out the top award. However Kelsy and I received special awards for our presentation.

This project has been one of the best learning experiences during my time at university; it really reinforces the idea that often the best way to learn is by ‘doing’. What’s even more rewarding is that the YMCA have already taken on several of our recommendations and are planning to implement them in 2012.

Phoebe.