Published: March 29, 2008 01:39 am            

SCHOOLS: Business students face off in 'Marketing Madness' at NCCC

SANBORN — High school students from around the area converged on the Niagara County Community College campus Friday in a battle of business acumen, with Lockport and Starpoint tying for third place overall.

The competition, named Marketing Madness, works like the television show “The Apprentice” for high school students. Students work with a real organization — this year, The Niagara USA Chamber of Commerce — to develop a new company logo, business cards and promotion materials, including radio and television commercials.

They also participate in a 75-minute, on-site competition in which they’re given a surprise problem requiring a marketing solution.

The problem? Find a way to create a more unified Niagara USA Chamber to incorporate both the Niagara Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and the Eastern Niagara Chamber of Commerce, which merged in 2001.

“We didn’t know where to start, because it was such a broad topic. We just kind of sat around for 10 minutes,” laughed Lockport student Matt Angelucci.

Despite Lewiston-Porter students Matt Grainge and Brad Maines having some initial difficulty — they had to look up the word “abstract” before beginning — they took first place for their presentation, which judges lauded as having “nailed it.”

Presenting to a panel of real-life business people from the community — rather than just his peers — taught Grainge the importance of knowing his audience.

“The experience, itself, shows how you put things together in your head,” Grainge said. “And then when you present them a certain way, it works for a certain audience. So, marketing is an art — not anyone can do it.”

And such lessons are why many teachers are so enthusiastic about taking their students out of school for the day to compete.

“They (the students) are learning how to deal with real clients,” said Loray Sorto, a business teacher at North Tonawanda High School. “They’re learning what’s expected in the real world.”

Brian Kahle, head of a publicity and marketing firm in Lockport who helped undertake the role of Donald Trump in critiquing the student presentations, said as students take on business education earlier, it’s sure to help them in the future.

“I think it’s marvelous,” he said. “Contrasting this when I was in high school, we had nothing like this. And this is real-world stuff. I was impressed by their grasp.”

Marketing Madness was developed by John Craig, NCCC’s director of tech-prep education, in response to the popularity of another competition he helps organize: Tech Wars, the 11-years-strong battle of robots built by high-schoolers.

Maybe not all the more than 100 participating students will go into business, Craig said, but the program hopefully teaches them important skills while preparing them for whatever they want to do.

“If we helped five kids make the connection that business is what they want to do or business is not what they want to do, then we’ve helped,” he said.

        

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