Lakeside DECA Students Compete at State!   Advisor David Pratt (in back) with two of the five student who competed at DECA State.

DECA is a national association of marketing students which provides teens with opportunities to develop their business skills. As part of the Club, students compete in marketing management competitions. At Lakeside High School, Mr. David Pratt is the DECA advisor, and this year he accompanied five Lakeside High School students (four returning seniors who competed at State last year and one freshman) to the State competition in Bellevue, Washington, March 6th - 8th. Over 4,000 students competed at DECA State.

Prior to the competition, the students picked a category to study for the competition There are 27 areas in which to compete. Our students Lakeside High School competed in Sports and Entertainment, Travel and Tourism, Restaurant and Food Service, and Automotive Service Marketing at the DECA State competition. Each student took a comprehensive test on marketing management and had two role playing scenarios within their business category. For the scenarios, students are given a situation with about 20 to 30 minutes to prepare a response for the judges; judges were business leaders from the industry.

Developing a promotional plan to finance a sports complex in a town the size of Royal City was one student's first scenario. He found it challenging, but felt that he did fine. His second situation was to design a plan to increase summer ticket sales for a theater. A drive-in movie theater had opened which was taking customers from the theater. One of his ideas was to introduce a “reverse matinee.” The drive-in could only operate at night, so if the movie theater offered lower prices in the evening, sales would increase when customers chose the more reasonable rates. Another idea was to improve customer service by offering a “wait service” during the movie so that customers did not have to get out of their seats to buy refreshments.

Lakeside High School has offered its students this extended learning opportunity for over six years. Students who enjoy their business education classes join this club to further explore the business world. Through DECA and its competitions, business and marketing students are able to apply what they’re learning in the classroom to “real world” situations.