Studying for DECA & the Business World
When I got my schedule the week before I started my freshman year in high school, I was disappointed because I had been scheduled to take both Latin I and Spanish I - and I had only wanted to take Latin. So on the first day of school, I switched out of Spanish and into the one remaining spot left in a class usually reserved for sophomores - Marketing I. When you take a business class at Lawrence High School, you are automatically registered for DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America), an international organization of business students. I think that the scheduling glitch that landed me in Marketing (and subsequently, DECA) was probably the best mistake of my high school career.
DECA is a nonprofit with more than 215,000 members worldwide which runs competitions and conferences for high school and college business students, with a focus on the fields of marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. In DECA, there are two main umbrella categories for competition: written events and role-play events. For a team role-play event, you are judged on two factors: a test based upon your event specialty (ours was hospitality and tourism) and a case study event. You have 30 minutes to read and prepare a plan before presenting in front of a judge for 15 minutes. Since you never know what will appear on the test or in the case study, it’s very difficult to study. That year, I was determined that we would win at both the regional and state conferences in order to compete at the International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Florida.
I found that some of the best resources for studying can be found right here at the library, with additional sources online. Here’s a few ways that helped us study for our competitions:
1. Your Marketing Sucks by Mark Stevens
This book, especially the first few chapters, helped me gain perspective into the marketing industry. I definitely recommend that other DECA competitors read books written for adult marketing professionals because it brought reality back into the presentations for the judges and helped give us ideas that could actually be applied in the real business world.
2. Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast
This podcast was invaluable for learning about everything in the hotel marketing industry - particularly about the use of social media in modern hotel marketing. I listened to a few episodes about “micro influencers” on Instagram, and we were able to use this information in our competitive events. The podcast is free on Spotify and the Podcasts app available from the AppStore for iPhones.
3. DECA Website
Of course, the DECA website itself, complete with sample exams and role-plays from past years, was a goldmine. We used the official list of performance indicators (the individual categories you are scored on in a role-play) and did research about the ones with which we were unfamiliar. This way, when we received the case study and began prep time, we didn’t have to spend any extra time figuring out the meanings of the categories on the rubric.
4. Business Source Elite database
This database (accessible through mcl.org with your library card number) is filled with professional journal excerpts, magazine articles, empirical data, hotel reports, and more - all helpful for in-depth research into specific areas of hotel marketing, or just the business world in general.
5. Various research reports done by firms (including Deloitte and Cornell)
Using Google, we found several professional reports on the hospitality industry. One, from Deloitte, gave us details about the future of the hospitality industry that we were able to use when talking about markets.
Using these techniques, we won the regional and state conferences, went to the International Career Development Conference, and ended up placing in the top ten in the world! It wouldn’t have been possible without our hard work researching and finding sources to supplement our understanding of hotel marketing. Good luck in the 2020 season, fellow DECA competitors!
DECA is a nonprofit with more than 215,000 members worldwide which runs competitions and conferences for high school and college business students, with a focus on the fields of marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. In DECA, there are two main umbrella categories for competition: written events and role-play events. For a team role-play event, you are judged on two factors: a test based upon your event specialty (ours was hospitality and tourism) and a case study event. You have 30 minutes to read and prepare a plan before presenting in front of a judge for 15 minutes. Since you never know what will appear on the test or in the case study, it’s very difficult to study. That year, I was determined that we would win at both the regional and state conferences in order to compete at the International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Florida.
I found that some of the best resources for studying can be found right here at the library, with additional sources online. Here’s a few ways that helped us study for our competitions:
This book, especially the first few chapters, helped me gain perspective into the marketing industry. I definitely recommend that other DECA competitors read books written for adult marketing professionals because it brought reality back into the presentations for the judges and helped give us ideas that could actually be applied in the real business world.
This podcast was invaluable for learning about everything in the hotel marketing industry - particularly about the use of social media in modern hotel marketing. I listened to a few episodes about “micro influencers” on Instagram, and we were able to use this information in our competitive events. The podcast is free on Spotify and the Podcasts app available from the AppStore for iPhones.
3. DECA WebsiteOf course, the DECA website itself, complete with sample exams and role-plays from past years, was a goldmine. We used the official list of performance indicators (the individual categories you are scored on in a role-play) and did research about the ones with which we were unfamiliar. This way, when we received the case study and began prep time, we didn’t have to spend any extra time figuring out the meanings of the categories on the rubric.
4. Business Source Elite database
This database (accessible through mcl.org with your library card number) is filled with professional journal excerpts, magazine articles, empirical data, hotel reports, and more - all helpful for in-depth research into specific areas of hotel marketing, or just the business world in general.
5. Various research reports done by firms (including Deloitte and Cornell)
Using Google, we found several professional reports on the hospitality industry. One, from Deloitte, gave us details about the future of the hospitality industry that we were able to use when talking about markets.
Using these techniques, we won the regional and state conferences, went to the International Career Development Conference, and ended up placing in the top ten in the world! It wouldn’t have been possible without our hard work researching and finding sources to supplement our understanding of hotel marketing. Good luck in the 2020 season, fellow DECA competitors!
- Hope P., Lawrence Headquarters Branch
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