The Puzzle: Blog

I am always in awe of how smart, deep-thinking, and incredibly wise about children are my colleagues who are educators.

But, having spent my life selling and marketing consumer products (in my case, luggage…I mean how mundane is that?), I just can’t shake what I know about marketing and selling. And frankly, I see most schools doing it wrong.

One thing schools have done very “right” in recent years is focus on “21^st century competencies.” As we should, we recognize that our job in schools is to prepare students for success in the world of theirfuture, which is definitely not the world of our past—or maybe even our present. So, depending on whose list you are looking at, you are probably familiar with these modern competencies:

• Self-confidence
• Knowledge of how to solve complex problems
• Ability to work collaboratively with others
• Ability to sort through an overload of information to find and discern what is relevant
• Multicultural competency
• A balanced world view
• Academically prepared to excel at the next level
• Kind, considerate, and compassionate
• Knowledge of how to be a leader
• Ability to speak up for themselves (self-agency)
• Excellent written and spoken communications

Those are the things we know students need to be successful, and they are the things we are trying to achieve in our school programs. And, most importantly, they are the qualities that represent the types of people prospective parents hope their children will become. And, by the way, because donors know that society needs people who have these competencies, they are happy to invest in schools that produce them.

So, knowing what the “customers” (i.e., prospective parents and donors) are looking for, what traits are schools currently advertising as their key selling points? Does this list look familiar?

• Small classes
• Differentiated learning
• Experiential learning
• Design Thinking
• Low faculty: student ratio
• Languages taught, number of AP classes, IB curriculum, online class options, etc.
• Trips (outdoor, foreign, service learning, civics, foreign language, etc.)
• A whole list of “stuff” e.g. Maker labs, one-to-one laptops, Smart Boards, facilities

See the problem? Customers (i.e. prospective parents and donors) are interested in the outputs, i.e., the first list. And we describe the inputs, i.e., the second list.

One need look no further than many mission statements. Even those that supposedly describe whatthe school exists to achieve often devolve into lists of how we do it. Customers want to buy the forest, and we’re telling them about the trees.

Now, if your school has all the mission-appropriate students it needs, and all the money it needs, then you needn’t worry about marketing. Things are going just fine for you. But for the majority of schools that are concerned about enrollment and funding, the reality is that the days of “if you build it, they will come” went away during the Recession. Today, good marketing is a necessity—just to hold your own. And great marketing is required if you want to grow in what is an increasingly competitive landscape.

Here’s a quick checklist of four filters that you should use for evaluating your messaging and even your mission statement:

• Are you describing student outputs or program inputs? Prioritize detailing the outputs, and if the customer likes them, then tell them the inputs. In other words:
• Are you describing the What or the How?
• Are you describing what makes your school unique? Yes, most of what we do is fairly similar, but if we expect customers to choose us over competition, we’d better be sure to put our best, most unique foot forward. Read your materials and ask “Does this, without question, describe THIS school, as opposed to others?”
• Does your description also provide inspiration? While most purchase decisions are made based on careful competitive analysis, there is no question that making an emotional connection with the customer can close the deal. What have you said that grabs the prospect by the heart and says “this school is for you.”

Always, always look at your marketing materials and your outreach messages—not from the standpoint of “what we want to tell about our school,” but from the standpoint of “what does the customer really want to know?” If you do, you can’t go wrong.

What do you think?  How should schools market themselves?  Weigh in below.

Skip Kotkins is a Senior Search Consultant within the CS&A Search & Consulting Group. Contact him at skip.kotkins@carneysandoe.com.

Image credit: Microsoft

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