Week 9 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

• The biggest surprise I had from the reading definitely came from the consumer characteristics charts that represented segmentation. I've heard segmentation talked about a lot in business classes but I've never seen it graphically laid out by adopter stage as it is in the book. Since I'm writing a business plan right now, this is something that I can use in my plan.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

• One part that was confusing was the identifying the difference between marketing objectives and goals in designing the marketing plan. I wish the text had gone further in describing the difference.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

• Why exactly do customers not buy goods that don't have prices on them? 
• Mainly because I'm curious and also because I feel like understanding the psychology behind why pricing is necessary would help better price goods.
• Are there ways to make doing primary market research more affordable? And how much primary research does an entrepreneur really need? 
• I've heard a lot of entrepreneurs say that you just need to get out and sell your product or service if you want to make it work. I'm curious about how people who have degrees in entrepreneurship would react to this lack of market planning in the production of a product or service.

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

• There was nothing I really disagreed with in this chapter but I did have an addition to a particular section. In the factors affecting the value of a marketing system, the issue of data relevancy is mentioned but I don't think the book goes in depth enough to describe the enormity of the evolving issue in data collection whereby huge amounts of data are being produced each year and it is becoming harder and harder to sift through the crap to find the value. This issue is relevant to entrepreneurs who have very little money to spend on marketing and may find themselves spending money for useless information if they aren't careful.