Journal Reflection: Marketing and Consulting

Surveying and Analysis

In the subject of surveys and the analysis of those surveys, I learned that focus groups can be
vital to market research if done correctly. Because of our limited resources and limited amounts
of people, we could only rely on the focus group research so much. A good focus group has a
decent sized sample that is diverse and representative of the respective population. Our focus
group was good a decent representation of our writing class alone, but if we were to use that
market research for the rest of the UC Merced population, there would be large discrepancies
in many areas of the study. If these efforts are done correctly, it would be very useful in
strategic planning because you obtain information about your audience, and can then adjust
your marketing and advertising strategies.

Report Writing
Writing reports in an organized and professional manner is crucial to any field, whether it be
professional writing, or psychology and biology. Organization takes away the burden of having
to track every fragment of information based on searching alone. Subject headings separate
things into their respective categories and allow the reader to find things with ease, sort of like
a miniature on-page index. I find that organized reports would also be favorable in the eyes of
professionals, as it would show more effort and merit on the writer’s part.

Marketing
Marketing is one of the most important things to think about when doing any proposal or
business plan. Marketing is targeting your audience, knowing your audience, but also
manipulating and tipping certain scales in your favor. In this project, we used the focus group to
see what it was that we could use to cater to a wider audience. We also had to take the
opinions of the client in this process. Some things that we thought fit the project as a whole had
to be changed because the client did not like them.

Marketing involves certain aspects of writing, critical thinking, psychology, and sociology.
Writing is crucial when doing market research, as the organization, technique, and style
ultimately determines how effective your communication is within your report. You must also
think critically about the results found in your market research, as some results may simply be
due to people fooling around on surveys or simply giving irrational or irrelevant responses. You
have to have the ability to decide what effective market research is and ultimately, what isn’t.
In making that decision, you also start gearing toward certain marketing strategies and subtle
arguments, and whether you want to appeal to logic, emotion, or ethics. The psychology of
marketing is much like knowing when to strike or when to come out with the punch line. One
should know emotional triggers, such as things that will make someone laugh, or things that
will make someone cry, but one must also know when to use these triggers, and when these
triggers cross the line. Marketing on the borderline of certain emotions presents much risk
simply because of where it lies—on the borderline. There is no way of knowing in which
direction that marketing strategy will take you—this is when you use what you know about
basic human emotions to make a useful decision on which marketing is most effective. Social
aspects of marketing involve some basic principles: bandwagon, appeal to emotion, appeal to
authority and more. It is in human nature to want a sense of belonging, and so, sociology comes
into play—you have to know what basic human tendencies are in a social setting. Will they hop
on the bandwagon if the said marketing strategy hooks many of their friends and peers? Or will
an authorative figure such as a famous actor or actress do the trick? There are so many aspects
to marketing—so many that they are virtually impossible to cover a single semester.

Advertisements are the leaves on the marketing tree, as their energy-source and propeller
stems from the roots of market research and beyond. One must use all the principles
mentioned above to create effective advertisements. From our focus group research, we
learned that bright colors and neat templates attract more attention and look more
professional. The standard “S” format also attracts people, as it gives the eye a road-map to
follow, until it hits the main point of the ad.

Collaboration and Team Dynamics

Working with groups is an excellent way to gather different viewpoints. It also allows for
friendly criticism and debate, while maintaining a civilized atmosphere, due to the nature of
how the groups were formed. Group work allows for blind spots in certain ideas to be closed
because one person may bring up a point that no one else would have seen. It also eases the
amount of writing and work that one has to do, simply because the density of the workload is
diffused among its members.

Different viewpoints, while beneficial, are also a double-edged sword, as some members of the
group may not agree with others. Group work is also challenging because you have to
accommodate everyone’s schedule, as some members have different things going on at
different times of the day.

As a whole, we are a group that functions relatively well, and I don’t believe we need to carry
any lessons over to the next project, as each one of us did our part and did it well. We have a
good structure, as our group leader Chantal has done an excellent job in taking charge.