Getting to know you, getting to know all about you

Because I have a big mouth and I need material, I volunteered to be interviewed by GSB. I gotta say, definitely interesting questions. Probably better than what Craig Kilborn could have come up with.

1) Please name and describe the four P's of the marketing mix, and choose a fifth P that you would consider to be important in your own marketing plan.

Dadgummit, I'm taking the semester off right now, but here goes:

Product - What you sell
Place - Where you sell/how to get the product to the customer
Price - How much you sell it for and making sure you price it right
Promotion - How you let people know what you have for sale and encouraging them to buy it

A fifth "P"? I'll say "People" because without people you won't really be able to accomplish any of the other four items - determing the right price, making the product, promoting the product, or buying the product.

At least, that's what is drilled into our heads here on a daily basis when we aren't passing out printouts telling us ways to save on paper. That's my Dilbert moment of the day.

2) Assess the business, political, and social implications of recent maneuvers by Bank of America to provide credit cards to individuals without government identification (ostensibly, illegal immigrants) and take a position on the increasing consolidation of the finance and banking sectors in the United States.

This is a misnomer, as Bank of America is NOT providing credit cards to individuals without government identification. The program which garned such publicity offers cards to LEGAL immigrants only, with valid and proper identification as listed in federal laws i.e. the Patriot Act.

As for industry consolidation, I don't feel there can be much more beyond this point without a change in federal laws and guidelines. As to purchases up to this point, if a bank was operating in a profitable, serviceable, and admirable position, it wouldn't have been in the position to be bought out/taken over/merged in the first place. Successful banks don't sell themselves out. The removal of weak entities from the marketplace only serves to make the market stronger and laws are in place to keep any bank (Cash, Citi, BAC) from establishing any sort of monopoly power over any specific area. Oligopolistic power isn't even possible among such large entities because of the geographic distribution across the country - it is rare that even two of the megabanks are in the same market, let alone three (New York may be the only one that has all three). There is nothing prohibitive about using any of the megabanks competitors for any product - credit cards, checking accounts, CD's, loans, mortgages, investment accounts - so I do not see consolidation to this point as bad thing, nor do I think it would be bad if such consolidation went even a little further. There is a break point, but I don't think we're anywhere close to it.

3) After you die, you are given a chance to be reborn and chose your gender. Would you be the same sex you are now?

Hm. Tough one. I'd say since I'd already lived a full life as a guy, I'd probably choose the other one. Variety is always interesting. I would probably be a lot more manipulative, too.

4) If you knew that there would be a nuclear war in one week, what would you do?

Move to Aruba or some other tropical isle so that we're not in range of the fallout.

Wait, is this the secret of Lost? Wow. Now I'm free Wednesday nights again. I totally didn't get that from the last few episodes.

5) Fill in the blank: Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox has been known to ________ his wife.

Do the same thing that the Braves have been doing to the Mets this year.

Now, if you want to be interviewed too, here's what ya gotta do:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your weblog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in thesame post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.