What is school marketing?
Marketing may seem to some to be a corporate term that does not apply to a school. While we can all recognize that a school is very different from a large consumer brand, most of the principles of marketing can and have been applied successfully to schools. We have tried in a few words to explain what marketing is for schools and how they should approach it.
Each school provides a service (education), has clients (students and their parents), has competitors (similar schools), and operates within a market (educate).
Although it may seem a bit crude to see education as a product and the student as a customer, marketing would probably help most schools better understand the environment in which they operate and more clearly define their identity (or ‘brand’). . The benefit of marketing for schools, as it is for all businesses, is to recognize the factors that influence them, understand those factors, and use this information to plan for future success. School Marketing Plan A marketing plan is usually created in three stages: objectives, strategies, and tactics. Goals have the longest time period (typically 1 to 5 years) and are the company’s key market ambitions. Strategies have a medium term and contribute to the achievement of a particular objective, while tactics have the shortest term, are the most adaptable and facilitate strategy. Marketing goals should be agreed upon in accordance with admissions, fundraising, and development plans.
Who in the school does marketing?
We found that people’s job roles within schools vary, much dependent on the size of the school, whether with state or private funds, and also on the need for expansion or prevention of declining numbers. Marketing takes place more frequently as you might expect from the marketing manager, but it is also the responsibility of principals, assistant principals, administrators, and classroom teachers; roughly in that order.
School Marketing Levels
We propose that there are three different levels:
1. Research level marketing: environment analysis, competitor research, customer research
2. Marketing at the brand level: vision, mission statement, brand identity, logo elements.
3. Communication level marketing: logo design, uniform style / colors, school website, school leaflet, signage, livery (such as vehicles), office supplies, etc.
One item that is not included is the name of the school, as it is typically not decided in the same way as other school identity / marketing decisions. Those responsible for creating a new school or rebranding / marketing an existing school will have to make decisions regarding all of the separate items listed above and are likely to work chronologically through categories one, two, and three (as noted in the bullet point).