2) Charissa Top of Form How I plan to develop professionally. “I plan to use the module project as a key method of development, applying what we continue to learn in the collaborations and with the internal and external resources provided by UOL as well as reading external industry relevant material such as IAAPA website: Marketing plans for attractions: Beyond the basics. [online] Accessed from http://www.iaapa.org/docs/default-source/Education-Handout-Archive/marketing-plans-for-attractions-beyond-the-basics.pdf?sfvrsn=0 Belge, McCarthy, Osman, Saranathan(2011) Service marketing in themeparks[online] Accessed from: https://isites.harvard.edu/fs/…/Services%20Marketing%20in%20Theme%20Parks%20v6.doc “(Coughlan, PDP) Key areas I would like to focus on developing are Customer Relationship Management, Relationship marketing, Marketing intelligence, and Pricing strategies and eCommerce and experience marketing. the reasons i have chosen these area’s is that they are currently the main areas where Technology and Marketing are overlapping in my current professional role and already through this module i have understood the value of segmentation, targeting and relationship marketing and why we need to know as much information as possible about our customers. Why co creation of value is essential and the technology that allows this to happen easily. “There are many areas of marketing that have a key focus on technology, and as such often causes friction between marketing and IT. I am hoping by developing a greater understanding of marketing concepts it will help me to improve the synergies between our departments. The module project of completing a Strategic Plan for a new experience/product is really interesting as this is something I have never done before and taking off my IT hat and replacing it with a marketer hat, is an eye opening exercise. Sometimes you can’t fully appreciate the complexity of someone else’s responsibilities until you walk in their shoes”(Coughlan, PDP). I believe using the module project for my development will be invaluable. From an IT perspective I plan to be more receptive to suppliers and account managers as I understand how important these relationships are now how business partnering can work in the best interests of both organisations. Another area I see for professional development, is understanding that internal marketing is critical and that marketing is the responsibility of the whole organisation.(Kotler and Keller, 2011). As a member of the executive team I plan to embrace this concept and actively take part in the training of colleagues and the messages that are passed on to our teams, ulitmaltely making me a more effective leader. Personal From a personal perspective I have found the buyer decision making process and the impact of brands and postioning invaluable to understanding why I buy certain brands/products. I will use my newly developed knowledge to become a more informed consumer and hopefully make more rational purchase decsions. During the course of my research of this module I came across a branding expert; Martin Lindstrom and as part of developing I plan to read his books, in particular ‘Buy.ology. Truth and lies about what we buy”(Lindstrom, 2010). Finally later in life I plan to open a small business in South African and I plan to apply what I have learnt in the is module in my decision making process as to what business and in what location, selling to who? I believe marketing is essential to getting the right product/service to the right market and will ultimately define the success or failure of the venture. References: Internal Kotler, P. & Keller, K.L. (2011) Framework for marketing management, 5th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall Coughlan, C(2017) Professional Development plan 2nd submission to UOL Bottom of Form Bottom of Form