Concepts from Classes to the Workplace

This blog is all about how my classes have affected my performance in accomplishing specific tasks at the Marketing Department at Phoenix Children’s. Let me first start off with the more obvious discipline Business. During my studies for Business I have taken a lot of classes relating to Management, Communication but nothing relates as much as my studies in Marketing. Probably the theory that I use the most from my Marketing class to the workplace is concept of “Brand” and “Brand Recognition.” Establishing a good brand is a way for a Business to be better recognized by the consumers in a good way according to an image, logo, slogan, and ext. anything that “represents” a company and receives recognition by our consumers is part of your “brand.” The Sports Pediatric Medicine Program is struggling with brand recognition because it is still new and many people don’t know about it. So if I were to say “PCH Sports Medicine for Young Athletes” you could probably figure it out if you read critically and thought about what it probably means, but if I said “Cherry Pepsi” you know the company, logo, the can design and probably even the exact way that it tastes. That is an example of really good “Brand Recognition.” A lot of people think that Branding is easy but it very carefully monitored and established over a long period of time. This theory is really complex and would require me to go on for pages so I am going to move on. The next theory that is required from me is a unique one. “Guerilla Marketing” is a term to describe Marketing techniques that are “untraditional.” These are extremely important especially with a company that is Non-profit because of the lack of funding available. Low-cost strategies that I have employed since I have been here is drive out to different children sports centers in Arizona and ask for their involvement with them in exchange for free orthopedic services at events and weekly check-ups by our physical therapist.
The next discipline is Creative Writing and the glory of discussing why it is important is because I get to say to myself “Why isn’t this important.” People underestimate the amount of writing that business people do on a daily basis, and it has been my impression that managers complain about the usual lack of editorial and creative use of language many of their employees posses. Therefore, I will list two theories that I have learned in writing, however there are thousands of theories pertaining to the English language which are impossible to cover in this blog.
Audience: Is important because you have to focus what you’re writing to appeal to a certain audience such as announcements at events, commercials and others.
Tone: When writing internal publications especially in today’s market it is important to remember the type of tone that you use and make sure that it is positive.
Again these are only four of the thousands of theories I could apply to what I am doing at my internship.

Sports Pediatric Medicine, Overwhelmingly Interdisciplinary

So my main project this semester as indicated before was to work on marketing the sports medicine program at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. I got some questions about the last blog on “What is a Sport Pediatric Medicine Doctor?” Basically it the same as sports medicine in a regular hospital, i.e. treating sports related injuries, with one huge difference that we specialize in treating “growing” athletes. What many doctors do when the see that a patient has a condition that they are unable to treat properly or afraid to treat it due to their lack of understanding of the growing adolescent is say, “Don’t play this sport anymore.” At Phoenix Children’s Hospital we are focusing our efforts in specialized care so that we don’t have to say “don’t play the sport anymore.” This is amazingly interdisciplinary process marketing for this type of service. What I have done thus far is do a lot of research on what other hospitals are doing with their pediatric sports medicine program, and then applying some but not others ideas to our strategy. I am blessed that we are the only hospital in Arizona with a pediatric sports medicine specialist in staff, because it allows us to say we are the best because we are the only ones in Arizona. I am also blessed by PCH’s overall reputation, because when I talk to several different companies about the program, they hear that it is PCH and they want to get involved, to the point where I have to choose what events are most beneficial for us to either sponsor or provide health coverage.

            This week I did a lot of mix between communication, marketing and business to business sales. Although the sales were not costing anything, I classify relationship building between different businesses sales because a service is exchanged for marketing. I am getting ahead of myself… To back track, this week my supervisor and I decided that we should go and contact different youth related small business in the Phoenix and Mesa areas providing them with information about the program and invite them to contact us for health coverage possibilities and so on and so forth. This was a process which I am learning that everything is a process in this industry. I noticed at first when I started I was ready to go out and just do everything, however, the processes are so time consuming it is unbelievable, and these processes always deal with different disciplines making the overall process very interdisciplinary. On top of these bigger projects again I am utilizing my skills in Creative Writing to write more news releases and paragraphs for internal publications. Nothing about the marketing process that I have experienced can be classified as interdisciplinary.

My First Blog Entry

My name is Matthew Manning and this is my brand new blog. I am doing my applied study site at Phoenix Children’s Hospital at the main campus. My degree is in Creative Writing and Business and I am currently working in the Marketing Department here at PCH. I chose my concentrations because I love to write but decided not to rely on that as my source of income. Luckily for me Creative Writing and Business go really well together in Marketing of which I also enjoy very much.
So far, I have been introduced to my main area of concentration here which is the new Sports Pediatric Medicine program just introduced at the hospital. I propose changes in current marketing strategies and also plan and coordinate new events promoting the new program. This is a big responsibility, of which a lot of research is involved. What has been done so far in promoting the program has been good but it is my job to try and improve the recognition needed by families of the importance of this program. I have also submitted a press release promoting Kendra’s Race in association with Camp Rainbow. The press release in particular is in direct association with my creative writing concentration. The coordinating and responsibilities associated with event planning and promotional ideas are very much associated with the marketing experience obtained through classes in my business concentration. Other than these current projects I have been educating myself with the hospital. Also, at the beginning of this week I was required to go through hospital orientation which was very interesting.
I would love to start working right away after graduation. I love the hospital setting because it offers more thought and creativity due to lack of budget and the type of service or “product” I am marketing. This organization is amazing. They offer so much here and it would be unbelievable to receive a job offer here after graduation but I am blessed to have the opportunity to merely place Phoenix Children’s Hospital on my resume.