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...
Preaching to the converted is usually taken as a waste of time. The same could be said of branding. Why bother branding to those that have already bought? But I had an experience last month that ought to send a shiver down the spine of any independent school...
If organizations treated a gift more like a sale, they’d find out the two words have more in common than four letters. There was a great post from The Agitator last week discussing the fact that fundraising organizations often concentrate on donor acquisition to the...
Last week I read a post on the HBR blog that described two “wow” customer experiences. They really were amazing. One involved a tech company customer service rep who was on a very long troubleshooting call and upon hearing the client say that he was hungry, had a...
For most normal sized nonprofits and fundraising organizations – and many businesses for that matter – it’s not worth spending marketing resources on Pinterest. What is Pinterest, you ask? (by the way, if you’re asking that question, you may have already proved my...
It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about chewing gum or feeding the hungry; the principles of good marketing remain the same. But how you apply those principles to the fundraising arena will affect results. One of the fundamentals of traditional marketing is the...
