ROP Marketing class at Aptos High School visited Plantronics

Aptos, CA--On Friday, May 2 nd , six students from the ROP Marketing class at Aptos High dressed in business attire as they stood before the marketing department in a Plantronics conference room. These six students (Krista Campos, Jessica Zavala, Alexa Vanni, Lacy Black, Austin Nickel and Edgar Lopez) enrolled in a ROP Internship to gain further experience in Marketing beyond the classroom. This project began as a collaboration between Jenny Angelacos, the ROP Marketing instructor, and Joyce Shimizu, the Vice President and General Manager of the Plantronics Home and Home Office Division. In order to give students a hands-on, practical experience in a professional environment, they teamed up with Jennifer Adams, the Home and Home Office Marketing Manager, to create a competition modeled after The Apprentice television show. The challenge asked students “how would you increase adoption/awareness of Plantronics headsets for home use?” The six students were divided into two teams and given three weeks to develop their promotional plans. The teens were required to research their target market, identify opportunities, and create promotional strategies to solve the challenge. To complete the task, the students created videos, radio commercials, magazine advertisements, and point of purchase displays. The teens' ideas were extremely well received. Joyce Shimizu explained, “I was delighted and impressed by the quality of the students' presentations and thinking.  It is always a real treat for us to gain new perspectives on Plantronics' world through a fresh pair of eyes.  We plan to share some of their novel ideas with the respective teams inside of the company”. For their participation, both the winning team and their competitors received Plantronics headphones and speakers totaling close to $1,000. According to the students though, the hands-on experience was the most valuable part this unique internship opportunity.