| FROM: Ann Houston, Communications and Marketing Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education 1500 W. Seventh Ave., Stillwater, OK 74074 Phone: 405-743-5112 Fax: 405-743-5541 e-mail:ahous@okcareertech.org |
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Lessons About the Real World of Marketing Masking tape, imagination, collaboration and an entrepreneurial spirit are essential tools when building a “shopping mall.” That’s what 38 marketing education students from Oklahoma high schools and technology centers discovered at the first Leadership Development Academy’s entrepreneurship simulation activity provided during the 60th DECA Career Development Conference, held recently in Oklahoma City.
The “mall” building activity was designed to give students an experience of what it takes to own, and operate, a mall store. Although students worked within invisible walls outlined on the floor with masking tape, the challenges they faced were a glimpse into reality, said Gene Warner, state marketing education program administrator for the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education. The students had
to decide what kind of store they would have that would appeal to their
targeted audience: customers in the 16-35 year age range.
Darin Dredge, consultant and facilitator for the Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas led the mall-building activity. Dredge asked the students how they might know if they have an entrepreneurial spirit. “Are you independent? Self disciplined? Creative? Do you have drive, desire, and confidence? Are you a risk taker?” he asked. “Having people and communication skills are every bit as important as technical skills when you own your own business,” Dredge said. “You’ve got to sell yourself before you can sell your product.” A successful entrepreneur needs to surround him/herself with those who can assist with personnel selection, store design, advertising, and bill paying. Throughout the day, business people who volunteered as judges for DECA competitions, observed the five randomly selected “owner” teams to see how they interact and work together. “Teams are randomly selected, because in real life you can’t always pick teammates. The lesson is to be flexible,” Dredge said. The judges have
a list of criteria that includes cooperation with “partners”
that the students may have never met before. “It’s very important for business people to serve as judges,” Warner said. “Students learn valuable lessons about the real world of marketing from interacting with business and industry leaders.” One of those is Ed Luskey, a Fort Worth (Tex.) businessman, and former DECA state officer. Luskey is a perennial volunteer judge at the state DECA conference, because he believes so strongly in the value of high school marketing education programs. Luskey said that during his 14-year corporate marketing career, he’s made several career changes. His high school marketing education program not only taught him the fundamental skills of marketing, he said, it also prepared him well for those career changes. “It taught me that I have many skills sets that add to my marketability,” he said. posted 4/8l03
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DECA
is the CareerTech student organization supporting marketing education,
and provides students the opportunity to building vital leadership and
teamwork skills as well as the option to compete in a wide variety of
skill building competitive activities. More than 1,000 students participated
in 33 competitive events during the conference, in categories such as
sports and entertainment marketing, retail merchandising, travel and tourism
marketing and creative marketing research.
The
teams also had to schedule studio time to record or tape radio and television
commercials. This time “cost” them $50 for every 10 minutes
for radio and $100 for 10 minutes for television.