Week Two

The second week of the term was just as delightful as the second week of the term.  My grades are available to view on Blackboard, and I am proud to say that I have an A in the course thus far. Things could change, although I doubt it.  I’m loving this course and am really digging the content. 

This week we started talking about analyzing the marketing environment. When assessing the Macroenvironment, we talked a great deal about demographics as this is something that is a factor that is easily predictable unlike technology.  Yeah. Blah blah blah. 

When discussing demographics, we started talking about Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y.  According to the materials, I am in Generation Y, or Millennials: born between 1977 and 2000.  This would have put me in the same generation as my classmates.  However, I had learned previously that Generation X was early 60’s to early 80’s, thus making me a Generation X-er.  For me, this seems more accurate as I identify more with that generation.  These dates are debatable.

Although, when talking about the Baby Boomers, Dr. Elton compared Susan Sarandon, who was born in 1946, to Drew Carey, who was born in 1958.  Both are considered Baby Boomers, but are a decade a part. The two are very different as they lived their teen lives in two somewhat different decades. As a Baby Boomer himself, Dr. Elton identifies more with the Drew Carey era. My parents are Susan Sarandon’s era of Baby Boomers.  The only way I’d say that my parents are like Drew Carey, is that they are also from the Midwest.  Susan Sarandon was born in New York City. Geography is another demographic to consider though. 

The whole point in this rambling is that I want to distance myself from my classmates.  I am claiming Generation X!

When moving right along we began discussing how to manage marketing information.  Market research.  I became more of a nerd because we were talking about two things I love: marketing and databases.

I LOVE DATA!

I love collecting data.  I love analyzing data.  I love reporting data.

Yes, I’m going to like this new career path I have chosen and could see myself becoming more engrained in market research. I am writing this in my blog now so that years from now when I hate it, I will be reminded that I once enjoyed it.