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The ABCs of Marketing for the Future Engineer

Ube National College of Technology

C: There are five departments, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical and Biological Engineering. Hiroaki is from this one here, Intelligent System Engineering. And finally, Business Administration.

B: Chihiro and I are from this Department of Business Administration. It's a unique department found only in Ube, among all colleges of technology in Japan. So, we are happy to be here today, to tell you about this unique department, and our favorite subject, marketing. We'll also show you how engineers can benefit from learning the basics of marketing.

C: First of all, let me show you what kind of subjects we have in Business Administration. We have classes in information science, such as programming, system design, and database system. In management, we study marketing, accounting, and business administration. Our focus today is on this one, marketing. Why?

B: I tell you why. Marketing is not a common subject for engineering students, like Hiroaki here. But, in fact, marketing can be very useful for future engineers. Colleges of technology, KOSEN, produce creative engineers. They always go for making a technically better product. That's a good thing, but I think if they learn about marketing, they will become even better engineers who can make products consumers really want.

A: You mean, if engineers have marketing background, we can make products to satisfy the customers, right?

B/C: That's right!

A: Sounds great! Please let me know more about marketing.

C: OK. In short, marketing is to find customer needs, and then combine some key factors such as product features, distribution, advertising, and pricing, to fit the needs. This combination is called the 4Ps of marketing. The 4Ps are: product, place, promotion, and price. Simply put, it's important to decide what features the product should have, where to sell, how to promote sales, and what the price should be. This is just the basics of marketing. Do you understand? No? OK. Let's take a familiar example for you.

A: My classmates and I were opening a food stall at the school festival, the biggest event at our college. Our goal was to make a profit of 30,000 yen. In order to succeed, I asked Mariko and Chihiro for advice. That's when I first learned about some basic ideas of marketing. Based on their advice, my classmates and I planned out what would fit our customers' needs, and what we could do to sell as much as possible.

First, we thought about what to sell. As you know, most KOSEN students are boys, and speaking from experience, foods sell most at around lunchtime. For lunch, boys would want to eat a rice dish rather than sweet snacks, don't you think? So, we came up with this!

A/B/C: Ta-dah. Fried rice!!

B: The 4Ps for his fried rice are as follows. The first P, product.

A: To find out what kind of fried rice would best fit our customers' needs, we did some research at a fancy Chinese restaurant. The fried rice there was delicious, but for us college boys, it was expensive, and the portions were small. So, we decided the fried rice for our customers must be quick, tasty, cheap, and big.

C: The second P is place, the school festival. The stall was set right at the main site of the festival. You could either eat there or take it to go. A delivery service was also available anywhere on the campus.

B: The third P, promotion. It was done by fliers, posters, and a stunt on the main stage. The fourth P is price. The target customers were poor students. So the price must be low. There was also a discount service. By bringing their own plates, they could get a 50-yen discount.

C: This was the first time to apply a marketing strategy like this for a food stall at the school festival. The festival was held in November. Now, let's take a look at the sales performance of his fried rice.

A: We achieved our target!

B/C: Fantastic! You did it!

A: Thank you.

B: Now he knows the importance of marketing strategy. By applying the 4Ps of marketing, Product, Place, Promotion, and Price, his fried rice stall became one of the most successful stalls at the festival.

A: Yes, actually, this experience has given me a new insight into my graduation research. I've been developing a kind of gear with a company.

B/C: What, a gear?

A: Yes, a gear. The performance of my gear was very good, but they didn't like it, just because it made some noise at a certain rotational speed. I didn't understand why it was such a big deal.

C: Oh, I see. You were not really thinking about your client's needs.

B: You just wanted to make a high-tec product for yourself, didn't you?

A: Right. But now I know better. I will try to reduce the noise first to meet their need.

B/C: That's the spirit! I'm sure you'll make a great engineer!

A: Thanks, I will.

B: You see, even engineers need marketing point of view before making a product. So now, it's your turn. If you are going to become an engineer, why don't you learn some basics of marketing?

C: Then, you will be able to make best-selling and high-performing products as a KOSEN-educated super engineer in the future.