Schools

Redmond High Students Present Marketing Plan to Eddie Bauer CFO

Three DECA students were invited to give a presentation to the Bellevue-based company's corporate marketing team on Thursday.

Names: Charlie Mroz, Caroline Armijo and Kelly Weiss

School:

Accomplishment: These three students won first place at the DECA State Competition for their Creative Marketing Project with Eddie Bauer. They also met with Eddie Bauer’s CFO and corporate marketing team to present their findings at the company's Bellevue headquarters on Thursday.

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DECA, which stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America, is a national organization that trains high school and college students in leadership, business, finance and entrepreneurship.

Key to Awesomeness: Redmond High seniors Charlie Mroz, Caroline Armijo and Kelly Weiss had no idea how Eddie Bauer's executives would respond to their request for funding to help pay for an upcoming trip to Florida for the International DECA Competition.

Find out what's happening in Redmondwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

They were all shocked when the company decided to not only award them each $500 scholarships but also invite them to present their marketing plan at Eddie Bauer's Bellevue headquarters.

"When I called them, they started screaming," Mroz said of being the one to break the news to his two classmates.

On Thursday, the three students met with Marv Toland, Eddie Bauer's chief finance officer, and other members of the company's corporate marketing team. They shared their creative marketing presentation, which outlined ways the company could improve its image and strengthen its brand identity.

Toland told the students he was impressed with their ideas, which he said were similar to some marketing programs the company has already been considering.

"You really hit on a bunch of points that are current, active initiatives," Toland said. "You're right on."

Among the students' suggestions was a door hanger promotion that would offer store discounts to hotel guests at . Kelly said the promotion would help encourage people to buy items from the Redmond Eddie Bauer store, which would in turn help promote the brand in other parts of the country.

"This would bring business people in," Kelly said. "It would be a great incentive to shop at the store."

Grace Brady, Redmond High School's DECA adviser, said it's rare for students to be invited to give their presentations at major companies.

"This is unusal, and it was student driven. They're the ones that made the contacts," Brady said.

The students will leave April 28 for the International DECA Competition, which is held from April 29 to May 4. Several are also attending the competition, and the trip's travel and lodging expenses are about $1,1000 for each student. A will take place on April 22 to help cover all the students' expenses.


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