Branding gaps and 6 ways to bridge them

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...

Why Bother Branding?

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...

What brand is your thank you?

In a fit of fundraising heresy I posted this question on Linked In last week: Does saying thank you really make a difference? Do you know of a research study that proves that thanking donors will lead to further or increased donations? There was some method to my...

Both gift and sale are four letter words

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...

“Wow” is not the “how” of brand building

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...