Can current and prospective parents clearly articulate what makes your school distinctive? By developing a robust differentiation blueprint, you can not only boost enrollment but also create a clear vision that shapes your school’s future. This article presents powerful strategies to allow your school to stand out from the competition, achieving enrollment and overall success.
What Is Differentiation?
Let’s make sure we understand what differentiation is all about. Here’s its dictionary definition:
1. to become distinct or different in character
2. to recognize or give expression to a difference
This provides two ways of thinking about differentiation. First, schools need to set themselves apart from the competition by being distinct or different. At the same time, parents are continuously differentiating as they try to determine what separates one school from another so they can make a choice. The ideal scenario is when parents’ perception of what differentiates a school matches the ways a school is trying to set itself apart.
With that as a backdrop, here are eight ways to set your school apart.
Focus on Parents
The primary way to differentiate is to put parents’ perceptions at the forefront. While you may have many distinct resources, facilities and programs, ultimately you have to differentiate based on what parents value. You may be the only school to offer a course in ancient Aramaic. That would differentiate, but it’s not likely to attract many students.
In addition, you need to accept that your goal is not to convince anyone of your value. Rather, your job is to find the parents who value what you offer.
Here are some ways to ascertain what parents want.
Jobs to be done. This paradigm was originally developed to help businesses better meet the needs of their customers. Through research, NAIS adapted it to determine the four primary jobs parents want independent schools to do:
- Overcoming obstacles
- Finding a values-aligned community
- Developing a well-rounded person
- Realizing a plan for a talented child
You can use these or determine the jobs that are most important to your parents. Regardless, the goal is to frame what you offer in ways that demonstrate how you are meeting the desires of parents.
Surveys. Often, the best way to determine what parents want is to ask them. Results can come from your own parent surveys, other organizational surveys (Prizmah, EMA) and omnibus surveys such as those conducted by Pew.
Word of mouth. It’s very helpful to know what parents are thinking and talking about. Parent social media groups, school review sites and simply engaging parents in conversation will all work.
Current parent experience. Numerous studies, including EMA’s recent Ride to Independent School, confirm that parents are always looking at competitive schools. With the reality that current parents also differentiate your school from other possibilities, here’s an interesting perspective. Brand strategists Lippincott postulate that “meaning” is a key means of differentiation and divides it into two components. “Connection” refers to the deep relationship parents develop with schools. This is based on meaningful experiences and shared values. “Progress” reflects the ongoing ways in which schools are helping parents realize their hopes and dreams. Focusing on current parents’ individual and schoolwide concerns is a critical means of differentiation.
Who Is Your School?
An obvious way of differentiating your school is to communicate its beliefs and identity. These are some of the components you will want to convey.
Brand. Your brand is a way of describing its relationship with all its stakeholders or its reputation in the community. Seth Godin says, “A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”
Mission. Your school’s mission statement is a key expression of identity.
Heritage / history. Often, you can differentiate by digging deep into the history of your school. There may be many momentous stories from a school’s past that help to define it. Minimally, the circumstances surrounding its inception can make an important statement.
Founders’ stories. Related to history are the recollections and reflections of those who founded the school. They often reveal elements of identity that have been forgotten.
Your big why. Why does your school exist and what is its overarching purpose? The answers to those questions are clear differentiators. Simon Sinek’s 2010 Ted Talk, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action,” is a must-watch in arriving at and being able to communicate your school’s raison d’être. This is particularly germane to Jewish day schools.
How Do You Compete?
To this point, we’ve been talking about your school independently of others. But if you operate in a competitive landscape, where you fit into the marketplace makes an important statement about your school.
Marketers refer to this as positioning. It requires that you evaluate what your school offers in relation to competitive schools. There are many tools you can use to define positioning. The simplest is this triple Venn diagram, which answers the question, “What does your school do better than its competition that is valued by parents?” Those programs, resources and characteristics (represented by the blue-shaded area) will be key differentiators.
