–> The terms “brand” and “DNA” appear together in business literature as often as “critical” and “thinking” do in the educational world. The assumption is that just as DNA is a way of defining a person’s uniqueness, so too brand is the way of articulating...
Let’s face it. Branding projects are a pain in the butt. They’re time consuming, expensive, require intense introspection, demand the finesse of giving stakeholder groups just the right amount of voice, risk exposing deep divisions about foundational principles...
–> Branding is complicated. It’s time consuming. It can be damn expensive. So, selling your boss or your board on the idea of engaging in a branding project can be a monumental task. But here’s what makes it even harder. Most people don’t know what a brand...
You may never have heard of it, but “unboxing” is not only all over YouTube, it may be a great way of achieving marketing success at your independent school. There’s a video on YouTube that shows a pair of hands unpacking five cartoon branded plastic eggs...
My suggestion to most schools is to stop whatever marketing you are doing and re-consider everything. The impetus for this unusual advice was the plethora of independent school radio ads I heard this year. It seemed to me that twice as many schools as last year were...
Branding gaps are the most likely source of declining enrolment in an independent school. But where do you find them and what do you do about them? First, some ground rules. For the purpose of this discussion I am using Seth Godin’s definition of a brand: “A brand is...
