Marketing Madness

Hi, y'all. I want you to know that this could get long, but please read it. And I hope it doesn't sound like I am irritated, I just want you to see how I saw things. Plus, I get my thoughts out better written down than verbally.

First of all, now that I have found my composure, I want to say thank you for saying something last night. I wish you had said something earlier. I really didn't realize you didn't feel I was contributing at all. I know Julia was doing more than she should, but I thought I was trying to do what I could. Please accept my apologies and know that my contribution or lack thereof wasn't conscious or planned Ð'- things have just happened.

You are right, I should have asked about the research proposal and offered to write up your notes, but I really thought y'all were writing the whole thing that Saturday. And I was planning on meeting with you until you postponed and didn't want to do it Sunday, when I could do it. Then I got caught up in my midterm exam, paper and presentation so didn't really think to find out about the proposal because I knew you had it under control.

As for the focus group, I had asked for the notes as early as possible, but didn't get them until late afternoon on Friday when I had said I wouldn't be able to write anything on Saturday. So, Sunday was it. You gave me a bunch of notes so I tried to include everything I could, including my ideas, to be edited down later. I could have edited it down myself. I said it was a rough draft Ð'- I asked in my email for you to tell me what changes to make and to email me back about it but Julia went ahead and did it. I didn't realize you wanted a finished project Ð'- I figured you would want some say so in it. Which, it was obvious you did since ideas I had added were removed. And, I did ask people to come to the focus group Ð'- they just didn't come because they didn't have that Saturday afternoon free. And they were probably people who go out a lot. Plus, I attended the focus group and took notes. All three of us couldn't have been on camera anyway.

This past week was pretty much out of my control. I came to our meetings and formatted a lot of the excel sheet and got the questions to flow. After Monday, I thought everything was under control Ð'- just doing the cover letter and making the notes nice. Then I had to go out of town again.

Anyway, I look to have a fresh start after break. We definitely need to communicate better (not just through phone v. email, but laying things on the line up front). And, I would like to ask a few things of you as well.

First, and most importantly, I don't understand why everything I say Ð'- comments, corrections, or ideas- are challenged then rejected or ignored completely. I don't think I have heard one thing I have said accepted. And, there are a few things that I would have been right on Ð'- the sampling frame in the research proposal, for example. In my comments while proofing I mentioned that, but it wasn't changed. And, no, I didn't change it myself for fear that you would just change it back because you disagreed with me Ð'- then you would find a way to be annoyed with me that way. I also came to the first focus group meeting with about 30 questions I had thought about beforehand, but y'all pretty much ignored those and just wrote questions, many similar to mine, some not included, as if I hadn't done those. And, even though we just added the "over 21" attribute to the list of ranking favorites, I think that the way it is worded will not apply well to those under 21 and we will get a false negative. I think we are missing that big part of 18-20, the majority of undergraduates, who won't go somewhere because they can't drink, if they don't have a fake ID, regardless of how many flyers they see. I know HOB can't change the drinking age, but they might have to decide NOT to target undergraduates, if drinking age enforcement is a draw or deterrent. But I haven't been able