As a senior business major, studying supply chain & marketing, focusing in on bringing my classwork and internships together I can touch on what these industries have in common. These industries are all about predictions, looking into the future, figuring out what is next to come, as well as doing the work efficiently, organized, and timely. Heading back to sophomore year, marketing 1000, let's take a look at the 4 Ps of marketing: Price, Place, Product, and Promotion.

Price

Price is a marketable characteristic for any business selling a product or service. There are many simple formulas to figure out what to list your product or service to stay alive, make a profit, or have the competitive advantage of the industry. To predict what your competitors are going to list their price at is when things get tricky, working with demand, inventory and hire fire costs, calculating moving averages is a big part of supply chain work. Now taking these numbers and making them appeal to customers is what brings supply chain back to marketing. The rules of .99 prices can make products seem cheap, so figuring out a target audience and a correct price point for them to view is critical to making the sale.

Place

Supply Chain is an industry of distribution. If the product is not distributed to the correct audience, at the correct time, in an eye-catching place, sales can get messy. Part of my internship at Red Shark is to work on Geofencing lists, to figure out where potential customers will be when advertising a product or service. This is critical, as budgets can go straight out the door on marketing to the wrong people in the wrong place. Knowing where to distribute a product to is half the battle of making a sale.

Product

Production and branding are two parts of the equation of a successful business. This is where I can see both sides of the industry, as the branding, and digital marketing of the sales are completed at my internship with Red Shark, and I work with product production, materials management, and inventory costs in classwork with supply chain courses. Having the product up to standards is half the battle, as marketing it to the correct audience is the other.

Promotion:

Promotion ties in with sales, price, and predictions, as there is always a quota or rate which must be achieved to have a business stay afloat. Working on supply chain analytical programs in class, have learned calculations which can determine if promotions, sales, and coupons are or will be effective at all, on which product lines, or on which seasons of the year. As every promotion can be calculated to determine the most efficient amount and time, it is up to marketing to inform the customers, making sure they can see the promotion and take full advantage.Learning about marketing to several different industries at Red Shark Digital, allows me to integrate what I learn from my internship into the coursework of my supply chain management degree. Having knowledge of both industries allows me to look at things from work and the classroom from two different sides, helping to realize how integrated all parts of a successful business really are.