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Research and Strategic Marketing Services
It all begins with the right questions.
- How is your brand perceived in the marketplace?
- Is your message different from your competitors?
- Who is your ideal target audience?
- What is your unique value proposition to your audience?
- Is your tuition too high or too low relative to your brand positioning?
By leveraging proven primary market research and secondary sources of data, both quantitative and qualitative, we find the answers to create your best, most strategic marketing plan.
Qualitative Research
Using focus groups, in-depth one-on-one interviews and social networking research to determine attitudes and beliefs about your school among your prospective and current audiences, we glean invaluable insights into what both your prospects and stakeholders think about your organization and why. Our goal is to better understand the feedback, fine-tune the questions to ask and inform our work and process in the quantitative step.
Quantitative Research
We use online and telephone surveys to collect data (large enough sample sizes to be reliable and predictable) about your prospective and current audiences. Through our analysis, we identify key differences among different subsegments by demographics and other factors. We also can develop a full segmentation study to statistically break down the addressable target audiences into unique personas to help you leverage this in your marketing strategy. We have experience conducting international studies, too, for boarding and day schools recruiting abroad.
In addition to creating and implementing market research studies, we offer schools a full slate of strategic marketing services, including:
Brand Strategy
A well-defined brand positioning sets you apart from others, resonates with your audience and forms the foundation for your marketing strategy. Our thorough analysis determines how your brand should be positioned in comparison to the competition to communicate what makes your school special to your target audiences. We then create an innovative positioning statement to inform marketing strategy and inspire the creative implementation across all marketing materials.
We also help you define your school’s brand essence or tone and personality, which inspires your strategy’s creative development.
Enrollment Marketing
Every conversation around brand positioning and personality, every piece of data gleaned from market research creates the optimal marketing plan to meet your enrollment goals. We create metrics to measure how well your plan is working. And as new challenges arise, we make sure your plan is agile enough to meet whatever the marketplace has in store.
Media Planning & Buying
Print isn’t dead. Neither are radio, TV and outdoor advertising. The trick is knowing how and when to use them. We know media and how to combine it with digital advertising in innovative ways to get your story across and to drive prospects to your website, social media and through your doors.
Marketing Coaching & Advisory Services
The best-laid plans won’t meet your goals if you and your team are uncertain about how to implement the strategy. Our custom coaching and consulting on all aspects of educational marketing set you up for success. Sometimes all you need is some time with an expert to help guide your talented in-house staff.
Recruitment & Search
Looking for your next marketing or admissions hire? We offer executive-level consulting and retained search services to find and keep the very best people to lead your marketing and enrollment efforts.