Foothill DECA Excels at District Conference

DECA, an Association of Marketing Students, gives high school students the opportunity to explore today’s business world and gain hands on experience with industry professionals as they compete.

Pleasanton’s Foothill DECA chapter competed in this year’s Northern California District Career Development Conference (CDC), which took place in San Ramon, California from January 13th-15th, 2006. Approximately 600 high school students from all over Northern California competed in 36 different events and categories, ranging from Retail Merchandising to Sports and Entertainment Marketing. As always, the competition was intense, so we would like to take this time to congratulate our winners:

Overall = 100 question comprehensive Exam + Role Play(s)/Presentation
Finalist = Top 8
Mette Balizan
RFSM Role Play A Finalist
Sean Baltierra-Lindke
RFSM Role Play B Finalist
Kerel Cain
RFSM Role Play A Finalist
RFSM Role Play B Finalist
RFSM Overall-Finalist
Dennis Chong
SMDM Test Finalist
SMDM Overall-2nd Place

Tyler Galbraith
RMML Test – 2nd Place
RMML Role Play A Finalist
RMML Overall- Finalist
Brad Hay
SMDM Overall-2nd Place
Holly Horton
MMS Role Play A – 3rd Place
Gordon Hung
RMAL Role Play B Finalist
Liz Kang
RMML Test Finalist
Yvette Karcich
RMAL Role Play B – 1st Place
RMAL Overall Finalist
Olivia Scherer
RFSM Role Play A Finalist
Chris Sumerlin
SMDM Test – 3rd Place
James Wang
TSE Test – 1st Place
TSE Overall – 1st Place
IBP Overall - Finalist
Alice Zhou
TSE Test – 2nd Place
TSE Overall - Finalist
IBP Overall - Finalist

Superbowl Ad News

Are you ready to explore the world of promotion?! Let's have some fun looking at Super Bowl Advertising!

At no time of year is there more focus on advertising than when the Super Bowl rolls around. ABC is said to be selling 30-second spots for between $2.5 million and $2.6 million for the 2006 Super Bowl, a new record. Advertisers still appear to be willing to pay top dollar during the Super Bowl since a gigantic audience is virtually guaranteed, regardless of which teams are playing. More than 86 million people watched the Super Bowl last year in the U.S., according to Nielsen Media Research. Even when the Super Bowl is over, the Web provides video, stills photographs and lots of analysis from experts – and viewers, too.

What better place to study the concept of promotional mix, than by looking at the Superbowl?

Assignment details:
1. Conduct research on the promotional methods used in the previous year’s Super Bowl marketing campaigns. How well did advertisers fair? See the 2005 SuperBowl Marketing Scorecard. Compare and contrast it to this year's Super Bowl's promotional efforts?
2. Review advertising techniques & ways to measure their effectiveness.
3. Create a promotional mix for the Superbowl to include at least two examples of each of the four types of promotion (Advertising, Personal Selling, Promotion & Publicity)

Students will make an oral presentation to the class utilizing Power Point to include:

• Brief history of Superbowl advertising
• A promotional mix related to the Superbowl (as described above)
• Best & Worst Ad (will be determined after the event) and why; relate back to the concepts of effective advertising
• Bibliography (citing at least 2 sources)
  

Presentations should be:

• Informative
• Well-organized
• Creative
• Professional
• Minimally 6 slides
• Include ALL of the above components
  

Students should come in professional dress on the scheduled day to present. If you have any questions as to what is deemed as appropriate attire, please see your teacher. Students are expected to work cooperatively & efficiently, in teams of no more than four. Use class time wisely. Time management, productivity and teamwork will be factored in to the final grade.

The following articles may be helpful to you, as you begin:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060106/20060106005114.html?.v=1

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060106/bs_usatoday/adsalesboomforsuperbowlolympics
You will find these websites to be a great resource to you when you begin your SuperBowl Project:

http://www.superbowl.com
http://www.superbowl-ads.com/2006/index.html
http://www.sbxl.org/

Business Plan Project Outline

Business Plan
If you can't find work, why not create your own job! You may have the key idea that starts a small business, which not only provides you with a job and an income, but also might provide employment for others in our area.

Task Your task is to get creative, use your imagination, and create a unique small business that you think could work in this area. Using a variety of resources, you will need to look at the information available to determine whether your idea would work or not. Your final product will be a PowerPoint presentation that describes the business you proposed, the information that you found supporting it, along with your business plan.

Step 1
Now do some dreaming about this small business. Complete the following statements, as best you can right now, to help you better visualize your business:

My business is called:

The main thing my business will do is:

Customers will choose my business over my competitors because:

My business is located at:

My business will have this many employees:

The main thing my business will do is:

Per year, I think my business can earn:

Per hour, I would like to pay my employees:

I would describe my business logo as:

The slogan I answer the phone with will be:

Step 2
There are many Internet sites available to assist you in being successful in a small business. Visit the Small Business Administration's website and carefully read the following pages. Record your answers to the questions in a word document. Many of the questions that you need to answer will be useful for your PowerPoint presentation.

Read "Are You Ready?" Record you answers in a word document.

Read all of these Frequently Asked Questions

Record you answers for the following questions in a word document.
FAQ #1
FAQ #2
FAQ #3
FAQ #4
FAQ #6
FAQ #15
FAQ #17
FAQ #23
FAQ #28

Getting discouraged with all of the details and requirements? Don't let it get you down. Remember that you may have THE unique idea that this world is waiting for. Your drive and independent nature will take you far. A lot of the other details will fall in place once you get going. Take a break and read one or more articles about creative entrepreneurs who have gone far. Here is one to start with...

Smile, You're Beautiful!

There is nothing stopping you from doing something like that too! Reading about the unlikely success of other entrepreneurs may help you to develop the persuasive arguments for your presentation.

If you are really getting into this and need more information, then check out the detailed information about starting your own business

Step 3
First, carefully read about the need for business plans. Then you need to go to the text version of the Business Plan Project Template. Save this file, as it will become your “work in progress”. Although this is a large amount of information, it will be very beneficial to you if you can work your way through the material. Remember, don’t panic, we will be working through this in class, step by step.

You will notice that it is designed to be used in conjunction with the worksheets from the Glencoe Business Plan Project Workbook. Using these tools side by side will greatly help you to get a vision of what your business will need.

Look here for an index of sample business plans. Read through a couple that are closely related to your business idea. What can you learn from what they have included?

Step 4
How much do you really know about the businesses that are in your area? Look through these links to get a better understanding of what people do around here:

Yahoo Guide To California
Yahoo Neighborhood Profiles

Don't forget to look through the local and county phone books, and the local newspaper want-ads for existing businesses.

Step 5
Using the information available on the DECA website (for the Entrepreneurship Written Event ENW) Competitive Event Guidelines and the template (mentioned above) Business Plan Project Template, create a business plan for your business. This will be an ongoing project, in conjunction with the class lectures & the Business Plan Project Workbook. Keep all drafts in your Business Plan Project Notebook (set up earlier in the year). See your instructor for the grading criteria.

Step 6
Your final task is to put all of the information that you found into a persuasive PowerPoint presentation. Your presentation should be minimally 10 slides and should include the following:

Cover Slide - The cover slide should offer complete contact info, and a tagline if you've got it. One of the benefits of a PowerPoint plan is that it forces you to perform the critical exercise of describing the business in very few words.

Mission Statement - (if you have one and it is not repetitive of your tagline used above).

Management Team Plan - Introduce the team. On one slide, highlight the backgrounds of the key members of the team, and any directors or advisors (not too many) who bring something special to the startup. Explain verbally whom you intend to add to the team in the next year. (If that includes a CEO, say so up front, without waiting to be asked.)

Business Opportunity - Without yet getting into your product or service, describe the nature of the problem you address. Describe the entrepreneurial opportunity and the unique selling proposition your company will have to capitalize on the opportunity.

Marketing Plan

Product (or Service) Description - Introduce your product, and the benefits (which should obviously address the market problem you just described). Elaborate on the technology or methodology you have developed to enable your unique approach. If appropriate, mention patent status.

Price - Describe your pricing strategies (psychological techniques, discount pricing etc.). What are the price needs of the market? How will your product’s price be positioned to meet those needs? Will you use cost-based pricing? Competition based pricing? Demand-based pricing? Why?

Place - Explain your overall distribution strategy, including use of sales staff, wholesalers, brokers, franchise agents, retailers, catalog brokers, Internet, trade associations, or agents. Explain how your product will be stored and transported. Explain your order processing system. If you are using a sales force, explain how they will be recruited, trained, & compensated.

Promotion - What are your marketing objectives and how do you plan to accomplish them? What is the promotional message? What media(s) will you use to convey your message? Describe your promotional mix. What is your promotional budget? Include any logos, slogans or other promotional efforts that has been created thus far.

Competitive Analysis - Be sure to anticipate competitive responses (before the VC does), and never deny that you have competitors, no matter how unique you think you are. Really, it's okay to compete.

Financial Plan - Develop a plan that projects the future profitability of your company. Explain how much capital you will need to get started (or expand) your business. Explain how you plan to use the capital. Project sales, expenses, profitability, and equity for three years in the future.

See your instructor for a rubric on how your presentation will be graded.

Who Has Time For This? How NOT To Write A Business Plan- Article for Business Ownership Students

Who Has Time For This?: How To NOT Write A Business Plan

DECA Update

DECA Update

Foothill DECA prepares to compete at the district conference on January 13-15, 2006. The conference will be held at the San Ramon Marriott. Winners will be posted so please check back to celebrate our anticipated success!

State Conference Packets are available online at http://mail.yahoo.com Log in ID is fhsdeca. See Mrs. Raaker for the password. The State Conference will be held in Irvine, California on March 9-12, 2006. All forms and money is due by no later than Wednesday, February 1st!

Go Foothill DECA!!