Congratulations of the highest order go to Smithtown High School East Students, Ryan Micozzi and Jainee Gabrielsen. The two DECA members are finalists in this year’s Herff Jones Marketing Results Challenge. The Varsity brands corporation launched the Marketing Results Challenge with the objective of improving yearbook sales to schools throughout the Country. The Smithtown DECA East pair is one of three teams, awarded as finalists across the United States.
Jainee Gabrielsen and Ryan Micozzi began the competition by identifying the issue, in their secondary research. The pair gathered vital market research, by interviewing Smithtown East Principal, Ed Thompson. Mr. Thompson brought up the decrease in student population, due to Smithtown’s increasingly high cost of living and lack of affordable homes for young families. From there, the students consulted the Yearbook advisor, where they learned that Smithtown has a $34,000 mandatory contract for 325 yearbooks guarantee. The high school’s yearbook advisor assisted the two students in compiling some basic statistics, where they identified a student to yearbook ratio was just under 25%. Gabrielsen and Micozzi then launched their primary research which consisted of, a controlled survey and a targeted buyer survey, where they identified room for improvement. The two students were named chief marketers and sales analysts of the yearbook committee, with the opportunity to put their findings and marketing results to work. Together the two students came up with ways to make the yearbook affordable, accessible and memorable through modern day technology and media. Thanks to the wit and hard work of Jainee Gabrielsen and Ryan Micozzi, Smithtown High School East had it’s highest increase in ten years of yearbook sales.
The Smithtown DECA East pair will head to Palm Desert, in California, in January, where they will present their projects analysis, methodology and results to Herff Jones executives. If they win the Herff Jones Challenge, Gabrielsen and Micozzi will receive all expenses paid tickets to the 2016 DECA International Career Development Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, where they will be awarded for general-session recognition.
Watch how they did it online at Youtube.com