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By Photo by Alana Flinn

First year marketing students have begun the process of creating their products, which they will market beginning in the spring.

The first year Marketing classes have begun creating their individual class products, which will be sold to students and staff beginning in March.  Each class will have nine days to market their products and turn a profit.

The Silver 4 Marketing class will offer a Jaguar decal. Senior Marketing president of Silver 4 Jacob Tharp said the class picked this due to the variety of ways the product could be utilized.

“We took a bunch of ideas and wanted to focus on school spirit and something you can use at home or school,” Tharp said. “Plus, our school tends to base their spending capabilities on fun things they will enjoy.”

Each class learned the fundamentals of marketing their products from consultants of Junior Achievement, a non-profit organization that sponsors economic education across the country. Marketing teacher Dianna Heffernon said the consultants meet with each class once a week to provide real-life scenarios to help students apply their knowledge to their companies.

“It’s an amazing program,” Heffernon said. “[Junior Achievement] is a huge hub for entrepreneurs.”

Senior Marketing president of Blue 4 Nathan Brinker appreciates Junior Achievement for the advice the corporation provides to the class.

“[Junior Achievement] really laid out the class course and how things get done,” Brinker said. “They’ve made it easier for making business decisions in the class.”

Tharp is most excited because of the creative people in his class.

“It’ll be interesting to see how the students are going to be able to think,” Tharp said. “Sales people have quotas that they have to meet so they have to be creative and get to that quota. So it will be interesting just to see what the students come up with.”

Heffernon hopes students make a profit, but she mainly wants her students to leave her class loving business.

“I hope by the end of Marketing, they understand and appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit,” Heffernon said. “I hope they leave loving marketing and being excited about taking the U.S. economy, which is one of the greatest economic systems in the world, and being able to apply that so they personally can benefit from that.”