Immersion 2009: Marketing: Day 1- The Ins and Outs of Marketing

Drew Parrish, Class of 2010- Today was the first day of the trip. We were scheduled to visit Monon Coffee, but unfortunately the company bailed on the visit. Among other first day activity, we had the pleasure of meeting Roland, our “teacher” for the program. We learned that Roland is a Wabash alumn, and that he thought of the name of the delicious ice cream treat the McFleury. Our guest speaker of the day was Vice President of Business Development and Marketing for My Health Care Manager, Jim Kerr ’92. He stressed the difference between marketing and sales. We concluded the day by doing an exercise where we marketed a specific business. We were instructed to go through the “four p’s of marketing’: product, price, place, and promotion. The presentations proved to be entertaining to say the least.

Although today consisted of a long day in the classroom, we can look forward to a few fun trips in the week ahead. Tomorrow is another long classroom day, as we were assigned a hearty-sized Wabash workload, but after that, we get to venture out into the “real world.” We will have the opportunity to put this entire information overload into perspective as we get to see how marketing really works. I look forward to the rest of the experience!