Principles of Marketing
Reflection
Professor Fialho, or the Big Kahuna, is a challenging instructor. Had I taken his class earlier I certainly would have become a marketing major. I can not speak for everyone but I had to raise my game academically to keep up in this class. The Big Kahuna split the class into two teams and we had to compete in two different assignments. The final assignment was for both groups to do "something" with Yuban Coffee, a tired old brand. We were free to do anything we wanted to do including changing the name, creating new products, marks, advertising, etc. The only stipulation was that we had to make a business case for our project. Right away I suggested that we create a ready to drink (RTD) beverage so that we could have a high margin product, like a Starbucks drink enjoys. Team member Craig came up with the design for a product we called Yuban Premium Rush, a beverage that could be enjoyed hot or cold and that had a flavored cream capsule the consumer adds to the product before enjoying. We spent about 90 hours on this project forsaking most of our free time. During the process of creating our marketing plan I insisted that we include pro forma business documents. I had to fight to do this as most of the group, except for Doug, thought it was a waste of time to do anything besides focusing on creative. While responsible for a great deal of the work in our final marketing plan, I was solely responsible for the Unit Cost Computation, the Variable Costing computation, Marginal Revenue Analysis, and a Four year Projected Net Income Statement. When it came time to do the presentation the other team was much smoother in delivery than we were, but they also lacked focus and did not make a business case for their ideas. The competition was judged by our instructor and independent business owners from our community. Our group won because our idea was better and we made a business case. The Big Kahuna stated that the most important difference in the two presentations was our pro forma numbers. He said that the work we did was worthy of his Master's level class. Our work was not perfect but I include it below for your enjoyment.