Marketing the Brand
What direct impact do you believe, if any, does a school marketing campaign have on admissions sales? Does your school "brand itself?" If so, what effect does your school brand have on enrollments?
It has a great impact, We really try to brand our name. Its what drives all of our marketing tools. I think by us using our name so much, we have now become known for a quality of education just by the name. "Your education comes F.I.R.S.T. at the F.I.R.S.T. School"
Hi Donney! You're right, branding is powerful; that's why I go get a "Kleenex" instead of a tissue, or a "Band-Aid" as opposed to a bandage, or a Xerox" copy. I even, the other day, caught myself telling a friend that I was going to get a "Starbucks" as opposed to a cup of coffee! Can you beleive it?
By branding the name over and over, and combining with a positive result, a school can actually, in the potential student's mind, link its name to the image of the product/service it provides - what a wonderful marketing position to be in.
Thanks for your observations,
Jay Hollowell
ML107 Facilitator
The school has a brand, Prepare Graduates for New Career Opportunities. I would say it is looking to create a new brand, a more broader brand. The school is moving away from the more technical courses involved with IT repair and service to a liberal arts BA program. It will take some time to see how this plays out.
Thanks, James, for your comments! It would be interesting to see how the brand image changes, or to what degree, as the focus changes with your programs.
Jay
ML107 Facilitator
It has a tremendous impact! Although there may be a fair amount of word-of-mouth with a career college, students tend to get a complete image of a school and whether they should even make contact, based on the marketing material.
We are an international company originally founded in Europe, so our brand is much stronger overseas than locally. However, our name, logo and story can be found in nearly every industry magazine here as well as in other countries. That much market familiarity creates a basic comfort level with many of our prospective students. They know we are here to stay.
Marketing a brand has an immense impact on the success of an entity. Today potential clients, customers, students, etc. are much more savvy to the options and opportunities available to them. Through the use of the internet, an individual can much more easily obtain information, compare competitors, and be more selective in their choices. The internet travel sites such as Expedia or Orbitz are prime examples.
I believe that school marketing campaigns have a great deal of impact on admission sales. That is for the most part the first glimpse. They give a visual or oral (if radio ad) idea of what to expect when stepping into the institution.
Most definately the school "brands itself". The institution has been around for quite a few years. The logo is very recognizable to those who live in the area and its surroundings. When others speak of the school and describe the logo usually right away they know what institution you are referring to. There is less confusion and a greater desire to attend an the institution because of its recognition (well at least it helps and certainly in some peoples minds).
The marketing campaign is what the customer sees as the whole company from there point of view. I believe the better the marketing campaign the less selling that the admissions department has to do. If you are successful in branding your company in the image you desire, the demographics of the students you seek will be more focused to your likening. How has the branding of our school effected our enrollments? It has improved the amount of quality leads we receive.
It has a great impact. Our marketing campaign's goal is to brand our school as "the school" to train at because our grads go to work! It's what drives all of our marketing tools. When our students are surveyed they most often site that they heard (from graduates)this was the place to train because you will go to work.
Yes, our school's focus on branding is very important from colors to being proud of the diversity we have at the school.
I believe that a school marketing plan has everything to do with admission sales and how well your school is doing. This is a very important area. Yes,we do brand ourself. We have the highest enrollement rate and it's all because of the marketing strategy.
I agree the marketing strategy is extremely important. What are the main areas of focus for your school? Is admissions kept in the loop on what the strategy is?
It has a huge impact and our enrollment always goes up when we do any active marketing. The only caveat is that you must be extra careful how you market a school. You cannot use phrases like "Attend our school and be a success", or "Our grads get better jobs". Even though this may be statistically true, there are all sorts of laws limiting what can be said for an educational institution. As a result, from what I have seen, most schools branding tends to be mundane.
I think my schools marketing campaign has a direct impact on admssion sales. Almost all of our students state that they found out about the school through advertisement such as TV commercials and radio commercials.
My school has three brands and provides instruction through the traditional classroom, online, and a blend of the two. The brands cover medical/dental technical instruction and certification, industrial certifications in different areas like automotive and truck repair, drafting, and a select university curriculum leading toward an AA or BA.
Our brands are emphasized in our advertising and our marketing plan contains metrics to measure results in all three brands. We use these criteria to target market and help sales identify potential prospects to receive a particular offer, this helps especially when selling to different employers. Branding helps increase efficiency, reduce re-dos, and increase our closing ratio in terms of enrolling students into the right organization. Scripts have been developed according to brand to help better educate prospective students as to which institution meets their needs. Our sales folks and academic consults take time to educate prospective students and align the brand with student requirements help reduce drop out rates. So yes, our school does brand and our marketing campaigns help insure that the list of prospects continues to grow and admissions increase.
Being "the school" to train at is an impressive catch phase to link to the brand. How is this key brand supporting message communicated in your advertising?
As stated in the lesson, what is the key sign, symbol, design—or combination of these—that identifies the offerings of your school that differentiates your organization and brand from competitors? We have a very distinct logo and a student care program that we emphasize in our ads.
James, during the transition, is your organization tracking customer perceptions of what the brand stands for moving from technical to a more liberal arts program? We ask newly enrolled students what they thought of when they saw our logo and ads in terms of what we offer in or curriculum. The answers are sometimes surprising.
In my institution we use direct marketing as we want to present our unique program. it is based on a bilingual education for adults. Base on the characteristics of our program we implemenr a brand that call the attention of the people that we want to impact and and present the peculiarities of our services.
