New Shoes Simulation Review

Charlie Merry

Prof. Popovich

Blog #12

Marketing

New Shoes Simulation Review

            For the past few months our class has been involved with the New Shoes simulation. This simulation split our class up into separate groups of three or four students. Each group assumed the role of a shoe company that’s trying to sell their product in different markets. This simulation helped us further understand the financial side of marketing and how decisions are made. Furthermore, it helped us learn how to better work in a group environment. My group included John Mielke and Luke Barkowski and we worked together to make new decisions each period.

            Each week our group would usually have to make two decisions for two new periods. My group had to decide how much to spend on things such as advertising, consumer promotions, and market research. Also, we had to make decisions regarding our involvement in the foreign market and whether or not we should enter this market at all. There were a few disagreements during the simulation but our group worked through these problems in a democratic fashion. The New Shoes simulation wasn’t easy, and we sometimes made decisions that could have used more thought. However, we learned from the issues we encountered during the simulation used this information to make new decisions.

            Another aspect of the New Shoes simulation was the Excel spreadsheet portion. Excel is a program that allows users to input information and formulas into cells that will help produce answers on a large scale. Learning how to properly use Excel is an extremely important skill to have in today’s world of business. Many companies wouldn’t even consider hiring you if you don’t have a command over Excel. Throughout the New Shoes simulation we were supposed to be constantly inputting our information into a spreadsheet after each period’s decisions. Our group waited until the last second to complete our Excels. While I did learn a great deal about Excel, it would have definitely benefitted my group if we had completed our Excel’s earlier.

Overall, I thought that the New Shoes simulation was an important assignment that I learned a lot from. I didn’t feel as if it was too hard or too easy, but it found a good balance. There were some aspects of the simulation that I didn’t like. I thought that there might have been an overload of information in the simulation, making it hard to locate specific figures. Another problem was just finding enough time to make decisions before the 9PM cutoff time. Despite these problems, I thought that I learned a lot of relevant things from the New Shoes simulation.