Coach offers inspiration to students

During the time leading up to OCMC our coaches and all the faculty involved are like our parents. They deal with all of our stress and nervousness like it is second nature. They are a source of constant support and encouragement and always try and make sure that we know that they know we are doing our absolute best! Without our coaches and other faculty support we could be nearly as prepared as we are for the upcoming competition and we would not perform nearly as well as they and we are sure that we are going to!

With the competition only a few days away I thought it would be good to get a little bit of advice and inspiration from Sheryn Beattie, the coach of the retailing team to inspire us as we prepare to use all we have learned and compete in OCMC 2012.

How did you first get involved in OCMC? 
OCMC was started over 30 years ago as a provincial event. Humber was encouraged to participate 10 years ago and Humber faculty were asked to volunteer to help.

 What do you enjoy most about being a coach for OCMC?

OCMC is all about student engagement. Working one on one with the students is a great way to share knowledge; their experience and my first hand knowledge working in the field. I love to see the students challenge their business knowledge and hone their presentation skills. Training for OCMC is like igniting a passion learning.

What are you most looking forward to during OCMC 
OCMC is a fun and demanding event. I hope the Humber team does well but I believe the Humber team wins no matter what the outcome; they have all worked hard and will do their personal best.

What advice do you have for your team and other teams? 
Take a deep breath, be supportive of your teammates and meet the case challenge with a clear strategy and think INSPIRATION! Be proud of your achievement, you are representing Humber and competing against the top marketing students in the province.

What is the best advice you have ever received? 
"Life is not a dress rehearsal, enjoy every day as if it were your last."

What do you find is the best method of coaching a team?
Provide structure for the case method, but expose the team to the newest marketing trends, this will get them thinking about innovation! It is also important to expand critical thinking with trial and error through repeated case analysis. It is important to have the team understand that the business arena is very competitive and they must learn to think outside of the box for new ideas, be supportive of one another and take responsibility for their decisions.

-Rachel 

Two weeks to go!

This Thursday marks two weeks until the kick off of the 2012 Ontario Colleges' Marketing Competition and the Humber team is in full prep and practice mode...and the stress and anticipation are mounting.

For me, there has been some added stress because I lost my partner with just two weeks remaining. When I discovered that my partner would no longer be able to participate I was not angry but concerned, nervous and anxious. What was the next move? Could I or did I want to do the presentation on my own? What about my coach and the rest of the team, what would their reactions be?

Speaking to our teacher Will and my coach Sheryn was first on my priority list as they would be most familiar with my available options. They both automatically went about reassuring me that we would come up with something, that my semester would not be lost and that I would still get to compete.

I met with Sheryn and we discussed the options that we thought would work best for me since I needed a partner that was somewhat familiar with retail, someone that I could get along with and someone that was willing to help out. I stressed to her that I preferred it to be someone in our class because working with someone not already involved in OCMC would take more time than we have.

I took a bit of time but I was lucky enough to find a new partner! I am excited to start working together and teaching Tim all that he needs to know about retailing!

Tim's stepping in really shows the character of the members of the Humber OCMC team. I am a lucky girl to get to experience this competition with such friendly, supportive and fun individuals!

-Rachel

How to prepare a good PowerPoint in 30 minutes

As I mentioned last week, during the case analysis stage at OCMC, the case teams have only 30 minutes to analyze the case and prepare an effective PowerPoint presentation that will wow the judges. This is a daunting task! How do you make a whole seven slide PowerPoint that will set you apart in just 30 minutes?

Sue Shulte

Luckily, this week during class we received some great tips on PowerPoint from Sue Shulte that will help us make fast and fantastic PowerPoints that will set us apart from all the other teams. Her advice included the following: 

1) Write the slides out in the PowerPoint with no design to begin with. That way, if you run out of time at least the information is in the presentation. You can add design elements later if you have the extra time. 

2) Use SmartArt. SmartArt is a great and FAST! It helps create shapes and gives your your presentation some punch when you don't have access to other eye catching material like photos, which we won't at the competition. 

3) Make your SmartArt stand out. You can easily add dimension and color to your SmartArt designs to help the audience figure out what information is the most important.

4) Choose your colours carefully. Make sure that your colours stand out but are eye catching and skill make the words on the slides easy to read.

5) Make sure the font is legible and large. The PowerPoint should not have that many words but the audience must be able to read the words on the screen. Use a font such as Helvetica or Verdana and make sure that the words are at least size 24pt.

During her presentation it took Sue about 10 minutes to make the presentation. That means that with enough practice each team will be able to make a fantastic presentation that will leave a lasting impression with time to spare! Thanks Sue.

How to analyze a marketing case

The Ontario College's Marketing Competition is a two day event. On the second day of competition, which is the Friday the case events are presented. Here is a quick overview of how the case events work:

Each team is given a case relating to their specific marketing category and 30 minutes. In these 30 minutes the team must read and analyze the case and prepare a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation to present to the judges. 30 minutes is a VERY short time so it is important that teams know exactly how to analyze the case in order to maximize the time that they are given. There are a number of steps included in this analysis:

1) Analyze the situation 
When analyzing a marketing case it is important to look at what is happening both inside and outside the company. Therefore in order to properly analyze the situation teams must look at a SWOT analysis; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses examine what is happening inside the company while opportunities and threats examine what trends are happening outside the company in society.

2) Define the problem
The problem must be defined clearly and concisely. In order to do this it is important to identify the key issues that emerged during the first step in the analysis process. If there is more than one problem the problems should be ranked in terms of importance.

3) Identify and evaluate alternatives
Before making a recommendation it is important to take time to think of alternatives. Each alternative should be SMART ( specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and  time bound). It is also important to make sure that both the pros and cons of all the alternatives are discussed.

4) Make your recommendations
There are seven important elements to making a complete recommendation. These elements include:

• Target market: the target market must make sense based on the external and internal issues that were identified earlier through the SWOT analysis. 
• Positioning: where do you want your product to be thought of in relation to the products of your competition
• Product: explain the product offering and make sure to include the benefits to the customer.
• Price: identify the pricing strategy and why it was chosen
• Place: ensure your distribution strategy is clear and consistent with the customers needs
• Promotion: discuss the types of promotion that will be used as well as what is going to be said and how it is going to be said in an effective way. 
• Implementation: how you will implement your recommendation. It is important to have a clear plan of how and when you will implement your recommendation. All the elements of product, price, place and promotion must be in place. 

5) Summarize

Summarize your position and reinforce your reasons for selecting your specific strategy. It is also a good idea to relate your summary back to the problem that you identified at the beginning of the analysis.