Final Takeaways for the Semester - Saturday/Sunday 1 & 2 June

Over the weekend we're preparing for our last two exams: Genesis and Marketing.

Genesis refers to the actual process we have been going through in setting up our businesses at university and the action-learning process.

The marketing exam is an overview of the mainstream theories and practices of modern day marketers.

The two seem to blend quite well.

What seems to be a marketing principle that we've learnt upon many occasions is the importance of the customer experience. The idea is to exceed customer expectations and delight them to the degree that they stay loyal to the brand, produce positive word-of-mouth messages and develop a relationship with the brand. One of the reasons why this is so important is due to the fact that the cost of acquiring a new customer is far greater than extending the lifetime relationship of those who have already been converted.

From the start of our Genesis activities, we have aimed to more than satisfy our customers at Cake Sale, and put in place the necessary steps to develop our customer relationships. We did this by collecting email addresses right from the beginning of the year and entering people into raffles when they bought from us. Now that our product launch day is getting close, we have a list of people who are familiar with us and will likely be interested in attending our launch on campus.

While it nice to see where we have implemented good practice, it is also good to reflect on where we could have improved and begin doing some of those things while we have the opportunity in the up-coming holidays. Most notably, I would say is getting to know each other as a group! This is crucial as whatever dynamic is in place will also mediate how stress is expressed and experienced by different members of the group when it shows up.

I look forward to these holidays and having one or two great 'jols' with my team! :)

Chat to you next blog-shift,
Craig