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Amended Marketing Plan Project Information

2010-05-19T06:53:00.000-07:00

Amended Marketing Plan Project
110 points
Due June 9th, 2010
**Graded plan will be submitted back to you at the final exam

Task: Assemble the components of a marketing plan for your first year of practice as listed below using the provided samples and structured format. Due to the removal of the expense requirement data, you will now have a budget limit of $10,000. Your plan should reflect spending that is approximate to that amount. (For example, a full-on media blitz with 30-second TV commercials, print ads, yellow page ads, radio spots and weekly community events would NOT fall within that $10,000 budget for one year.)

Please refer to each individual section handout for specific layout and format.

I. Executive Summary – 10 points

II. Business Overview & Target Market Identification – 30 points

III. Target Marketing Strategy– 20 points

IV. Marketing Plan Implementation Strategy – 25 points

V. Progress Measurement & Monitoring – 25 points

Any questions? Please send me an email or blog it! Have a great day.

Changes to the Marketing Plan Project

2010-05-18T09:39:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone,

As of the end of business yesterday I finished the decision making process on how to update the Marketing Plan Project as we discussed in class last Friday.

To that end, please note the following changes:

The Marketing Plan Project is now worth 110 points NOT 205 points.
The following sections of the plan have remained:

I. Executive Summary
II. Business Overview (Situation Analysis)
III. Target Market Description
IV. Marketing Plan & Implementation Strategy
V. Progress Measurement & Monitoring

An updated handout regarding the project will be provided in class tomorrow. The due date remains the same.

In addition, each of these sections will be explicitly described and developed during class so that you have an exact model to follow when constructing your own plan to submission. Please view the previous post to review the amended course outline for topics and dates.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Updated Course Outline

2010-05-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

Please review the following dates for an amended course outline schedule:

5/19: Review of Executive Summary & Business Overview; Target Market

5/21: Marketing Plan Implementation Strategy

5/26: Progress Measurement & Monitoring; Infomercial & Health Care Class Project Due**

5/28: Building Consumer Relationships/Customer Service

6/2: Internal Marketing Ideas

6/4: External Marketing Ideas

6/9: Summary & Final Exam Review; Marketing Plan due**

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Class on 5/14!! Guest speaker: Katie Hoyt!!

2010-05-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

As a reminder: Katie Hoyt from the Marketing & PR Department on campus will be making a guest appearance to talk about advertising: what does it cost, where to do it, working with ad agencies, etc.

Officially her position on campus is "Public Relations & Event Specialist", but she has been processing the advertising for college for the past 5 years as well. She has worked with the Quad City Times, Radish, QC Magazine, River Cities Reader, QC Family Focus Magazine, Chamber of Commerce, multiple phone books in addition to helping with the advertising in the West and Florida campus markets. She will also be available to answer your questions as well so come prepared!

Take Care of Yourself

2009-06-15T15:51:00.000-07:00

On my desk is a bright and cheerful greeting card from a couple of recently made friends that says, "Take Care of Yourself There's a time for helping and giving, and there's a time for slowing down and pulling back..." As I was considering what to blog about today it struck me that these 4 simple words are the very bain of most people's existence. It's like, "Yeah right, I'll do that right after the other 50 million things I've got to get done."

I think to myself that I could really do my best work if that was all I had to worry about, if I could be focused on that like it was my full-time job. Or, maybe if I had a chef or a personal masseuse or could wave a magic fairy wand and the laundry would just be done. It's like dusting or doing dishes or putting gas in the car. It just keeps needing to be done.

This can be very frustrating.

This can be exceptionally maddening.

It gets worse when something or someone won't cooperate with you. Life. Sigh.

And yet, we take a licking and keep on ticking. Have you ever thought about the miracle in that? I don't think that I know even one person that has devoted themselves completely to the growth, maintenance and perfection of their body, mind and spirit. If you happen to know of anyone, I'd like to know about them because I'd like to see the results of such a venture.

Truth is, the reality is that for most of us taking care of ourselves is nothing more than an afterthought. It comes fleetingly around the moment that you're trying to put all of the things you wanted to do but didn't get to do but really need to do out of your head for the moment so that you can just get a little sleep before the next wave hits. I wonder if that is any way to live and I wonder how the human body can manage it every day. Under the worst of circumstances sometimes the body keeps going, keeps working for us, keeps us moving through whatever we choose to do in a day.

It makes me wonder just how much really needs to "be done".

I'm a list maker. I love lists. I think better when I have something on a list. I have fear that unless it is written physically somewhere that I will forget about it.

Sometimes I wonder though why I have such a compulsion to check things off my list.

I remember a seminar I once went to and I can see the person talking so clearly in my head about day planners or some such thing and about how for some of us we love seeing things marked off lists so much that even if we did something that wasn't on the original list that we'll write it down on the list only to immediately mark it off. I've done that. I need help.

I suppose that ultimately one has to ask themselves what is the "living" of the moment really for? What does taking care of yourself mean and what could really be done each day toward that end? So what if you can't or won't or don't devote yourself full-time to care of self each day. What are 3 things or 5 things, even just 1 thing for that matter that you could do for yourself each day to make "you" better?

There's a time for helping and giving, and there's a time for slowing down and pulling back.............

Thoughts Are Things

2009-06-12T09:29:00.000-07:00

I started finding this morning that was mind was wandering down roads that weren't good for me. I knew they weren't good me and yet....off I went. When it occurred to me I said the following out loud, in my car, with no cell phone up to my ear to even hint at the suggestion that I was talking to anyone but myself: "Thoughts are things."

My Aunt Glenna has said it to me so many times that it's become branded forever in my mind. It's application though has far reach because it hints at the power that we all have no matter who we are to plot the course of our day, our moments, our own lives.

It wasn't that the thought I was having was extreme or anything close to it. Rather, it was that it was counter-productive to who I want to be and what I want to experience in my life and I found myself catching it and redirecting it which made me wonder about a few things.

When it comes to how to we "live" our lives throughout each day there are so many hundreds of choices that it numbs the mind sometimes. Do I drink that glass of water? Do I eat this or that? How could it be 11:30 in the morning and I haven't eaten anything yet when I know that I'm not supposed to skip meals? How DOES that happen? (By the way, I am enjoying what I feel is the single most delicious cup of coffee that I might have experienced in my life! I stopped at the Red Band Coffee Shop on the way to work this morning for the first time and upon meeting up with several students there was led to the New Orleans iced coffee. I'm not sure what's in it exactly and I don't care. It's incredible and I've sipped it slowly to make it last even longer. For a girl that's in love with her White Chocolate Mochas from Starbucks and experienced near nirvana in Rome at a coffee shop good enough to be listed in the book "1000 Places to Visit Before You Die", this is saying something. I know how to appreciate these things. If you ever have an inkling to visit our little coffee shop in what many call the "hood", you won't be disappointed if you select the New Orleans iced coffee. I would not lead you astray!)

The point of this conjecture is to put the idea on the table for your consideration that you must take care of your thoughts just as you would take care of anything else. I can suggest any number of nutritional protocols, testing, books or anything else to any of my patients, but in the end the power to heal, to do anything really, comes from your own hands, from my own hands. It's a reality check for us all I think. How about you?

My Gracie Girl

2009-06-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

I was recently reminded of this video and thought that I would post it here because in my opinion it really sums up the often mystical nature or connection between animals and humans.

The timing of viewing it again for me is good because my little Gracie girl has really been giving me a run for my money lately. She's just so darn cute that it's hard to get mad at her no matter what she does. I may excuse it as her being a "diva" or what have you, but I know that the truth is that I didn't train her properly to begin with. We've been having a problem lately with finding little "presents" all over the house that our dear little Gracie has left us along with numerous cords that have been chewed even though she has an entire toy box full of toys to chew at her very disposal. I have called in the big guns for a consultation tomorrow night. The trainer from the puppy class is coming over for a little mommy assistance.

I'm writing this because of my new specialty in the care of animals and my own new found adventures in having a pet from puppyhood. It's really something....something great that is!

Antonia, the Personal Trainer

2009-03-09T19:51:00.000-07:00

I have always been intimidated by working out. It's been awkward for me. There was a time in my life when I was younger, (under the age of 30), and was fortunate enough to not have to worry about weight gain no matter what I ate. I didn't have to work out that hard and although active I would never have considered my athletic.

It is something that I've always wanted to have as part of my life however. As I near the age of 40 there seems to be an especially compelling notion to get my act together and get to a place of physical strength and fitness that I've never had before. I want to be one of those people that gets into the best shape of my life long after it would be expected to do so. I know I've been putting it off, but I also know that if I'm going to support my patients in their own transformation of health, I've got to do it myself. There's no way around that.

One of my patients has been working with a local personal trainer that she likens to Jillian on the Biggest Loser show on NBC. Jillian is scary. She likes being scary. I'm scared of her. I think my husband is scared of her. Her reach goes far and wide, but God love her, she gets results and that's what I need.

I need someone to work with me long enough so that I'm comfortable with what I'm doing and I've achieved something incredible that I've never been able to do before.

We met today for the first time and I could understand why my patient made the comparison. A real heart of gold is how I would describe her, in addition to saying that I believe that she could kick the hind end of just about every person I've ever known. She begins to tell me that she spent some time doing full contact fighting and can kickbox and she throws a great punch. "What would I like to do?" she asks. I pause for a moment considering how smart of me it might be to be completely honest with her and upon taking a deep breath figure it's now or never. If I'm not honest, I won't get anywhere.

"I've always wanted to be able to run." I tell her. It seems so elementary, but I've always felt so odd when running. I've just not ever been able to find my groove. "No problem." She tells me as she simultaneously asks me what else I want to know. So, I've decided to mix in a little Zumba, weight training, pilates, kickboxing and of course, before it's all said I want to know how to throw a great punch. Why not? You never know when you might need to have that in your back pocket. It's very empowering she's said and so I'm all about giving it a try.

We will start in a couple of weeks by meeting so that I can go through a series of tests for her to be able to see what my level of fitness is now, in addition to taking measurements of various places and pictures of my in a bathing suit. That part isn't something I'm looking forward to, but she assured me that after 8 weeks I will be so happy that I took those beginning stats that I won't mind. I'm trusting her on that. We'll meet twice a week for 8 weeks at 5:30 in the morning.

I'm excited.

I'm scared to death.

I know it's time to do this.

I'm still scared to death.

I can't wait to see the "me" that develops through this process.

Stay tuned.....

Welcome to my new blog...

2009-03-08T20:03:00.000-07:00

Adding a blog to my new website wasn't something that I had considered until it was nearly completed. However, I realized through the creative process that I often come across new ideas and I'm sure those closest to me would say that I'm always willing to share them.

I decided to begin with a picture of my son and I. It always strikes me when I look at this picture that as his mother I have so much responsibility to make the best decisions for him that I can. I also have a responsibility to take care of myself so that I can be there for him when he needs me. Even though I have the education that I do it isn't always easy to know what to do. I know that I'm not alone. There are many others out there that feel the same way that I do and are searching for answers. One of my friends at work has three young boys and I see her constantly struggling to make sure that she knows what's happening with them. This blog will be not only about expressing myself and sharing what I know, but sharing what I've learned from my patients as they go through their own process. Let's begin...