Thursday, February 23, 2012

Fourth Interview Questions

Interviewee: Mrs. Bonus, CEO of AEON Medical Equipment and Supplies Inc.

1. Why did you take on this job and this business?
2. Did anyone introduce you or help you out when you were first getting into this business? How did they do so?
3. Do you train other marketers, or do any sort of training? What do you teach them about?
4. How do you establish these relationships between other doctors, suppliers, and manufacturers?
5. Has there been any situations in which there relationships have benefited both the company and the client?
6. Why do you set up the prices that the way that they are, other than MAP resons?
7. What happens if there was a client that came by and couldn't pay for anything (for whatever reason possible.)
8. How do you determine which manufacturers to do business with?
9. How do you pick, from a variety of products that serve the same purpose, which one to receive from the manufacturer?
10. When is it appropriate to involve the family members of your client in the purchase?
11. Do you train your employees in regards as to how to treat you clients? What do you instruct them to do?
12. What is the most important role of a medical equipment and supply company?
13. Do you really need to have a marketing background to be able to market medical supplies? What kind of background or knowledge should you have when marketing medical supplies?
14. What kind of skills should a person in your field have in order to do an effective job?
15. When do you feel as if you've done your job properly?
16. Have there been any marketing tactics or strategies that you've tried, but they didn't work out?
17. Do you have a different way of marketing mobility supplies versus mobility supplies?
18. What do you think is most important when marketing medical supplies?
19. How much of a responsibility do you feel you have for your clients?
20. What is your goal when marketing medical supplies?

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Independent Component 2 Plan Approval

CONTENT:
(1) Write a description of what you plan on doing for your independent study component.
(2) Describe in detail how you think your plan will meet the 30 hours work requirement.
(3) How does your independent study component relate to your EQ?

1. For my second independent study component, I will be analyzing the different ways sales people in the medical supplies business market their products: either from manufacturer to supplier, or supplier to doctor/hospital. I will be analyzing the materials used for these presentations and see what makes it an effective tool for them to market their product, as well as determine whether or not there can be something done to improve it.
2. Each meeting lasts about 45 minutes, and then I will take about 15 minutes asking questions and analyzing the presentation and materials given. I have already witnessed two of them, and will only need to watch at least 28 more. If I'm not at the office that day, and if someone comes by and they leave behind materials, then I will take half an hour to ask about the person and analyze the materials left behind. This should all be completed by the end of April.
3. What I am studying for this independent component is what happens when marketers/sales people market their medical supplies. In order to get word of their product out there, sales reps and marketers visit the places that they sell their product to and try to sell their product and make their consumers aware of their presence. This component will give me a chance to witness first-hand what happens when medical suplies are being marketed, and will hopefully give me a possible, more direct answer to my EQ.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Independent Component 1

Literal:
a) I, Stefanie Paz, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents thirty hours of work.
b) I enrolled in an "Introduction to MicroEconomics" class taught by Prof. Amrik Dua at Cal Poly Pomona, every Tuesday and Thursday, from 1-3PM. I have also completed all assignments and all (except one) extra credit assignment for the class, and all three test dates and the final for the class.
Calendar:


Assignments 1 and 2


Assignments 3 (original misplaced, scored 13/15) and 4

Extra Credit Assignments 1, 2 and 3

(Notebook used for class will be in senior project binder)



Interpretive:
Each two-hour class is spent reviewing and discussing the concepts of MicroEconomics- the basis of Economics. There are also homework assignments to be completed outside of the classroom, and I've taken an extra hour studying for a test or final. The twenty sessions alone represent approximately forty hours, and the twelve study sessions that  I'm recording have taken approximately fourteen hours, leading to a total of fifty-four hours.

Applied:
This class introduced me to the basic structure of economics, and helped me understand some of the logic behind profitable businesses. The knowledge that I've gained from this class has given me this answer for my Essential Question: What is most important when marketing medical supplies is understanding the market in that which the supplies are being sold.
In addition to following MAP policies set by the manufacturers, suppliers have to figure out if there is a demand of their product is in order to set their prices accordingly and attract business (law of demand). Since medical supplies are elastic goods, any price change will greatly affect the demand for the good. Based on what I have learned in the class, medical suppliers are what keep the distributors from becoming large monopolies.
Economics is the study of how people satisfy their wants by using their limited means to obtain whatever can give them the most satisfaction. Microeconomics is the branch of economics that focuses on the individual's financial choices. It also is one of the introductory classes for economics, as it is usually recommended that Microeconomics be taken before Macroeconomics (another economic introductory class that focuses on how countries and big groups make financial decisions). Because effective marketing targets a specific audience or type of individual, it is even more important for the supplier to understand the market that their consumer has become a part of and appeal to their needs.