Our Kids Member Report

James Shi
Lecturer, Our Kids Media
April, 2022

I’ve been talking to schools about their marketing strategies in the last 3 years. While each school has its own approach to marketing, there are a few areas where many schools struggle.

Last fall, we created the ROI handbook to help schools to summarize and simplify some of these problems (if you haven’t read it already, here it is). Moving forward, we’ll include snippets from each chapter of the ROI handbook in The Insider and we hope it’ll help you refocus and elevate your marketing strategy.

KEY #1
CHOOSING YOU IS A RISK

All purchases involve risk. But few involve more risk than choosing an independent School.

This is because:

School is costly. It costs more than all but a few things families buy in their life. Families give up a lot of their net worth to pay for school, and that puts them on guard when buying.
Education is important to families. So they worry about choosing the right school—much more than when buying other things.
Families looking for independent schools believe they vary in quality and fit. (The families who believe this are the ones who seek paid alternatives to public schools). So they see a cost to making a “wrong choice”.
When choosing a school, families can’t “try before they buy.” Nor can they “buy a little” before they “buy a lot.” Yes, they can visit a school. But that’s not the same as trying it, which requires enrolling (and staying for a while). Few other purchases are this opaque or involve this much uncertainty.
School costs are “sunk.” Families can’t recover the costs of a wrong choice. With a shirt, they can return it for a refund. With a car, they can sell it on the used market. But with school, they can’t get back what they put in. They lose their time and money, and disrupt their child’s development.

Any of these things alone make buying something feel riskier than normal. But combine them and it’s clear why families perceive so much risk when choosing schools.

Read the ROI Book

In other news ...

How Chartwells transformed TFS’s food service experience

TFS required a hands-on, solution-oriented food services provider, and Chartwells fit the bill. “They helped us design the kitchen,” says Shyrose Janmohamed, Chief Financial Officer at TFS. “They designed a more efficient flow process for students.” Since TFS is a French school, Chartwells, naturally, hired French chefs and sous chefs. But they also hired an international team to provide a culturally diverse menu offering a wide range of international cuisines and dishes.

Don’t forget about your brand identity Q&A!

You’ll find the brand identity questions in your c-panel in the Online Profile section. Starting later this year, we’ll showcase your responses near the top of your profile.

If you’re a Gold or Platinum member, you can also record your responses on camera. Please check your c-panel for instructions on how to do this. The deadline for submitting your video responses is May 31, 2022.

Complete my brand identity Q&A