What if you cannot differentiate your school?

What if you cannot differentiate your school?

Faced with increasing competition, the strategy for most schools is to differentiate.

This involves offering families something that the school down the road cannot or does not offer -a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

Ideally, schools must distinguish their product or service from the competition at every stage of the educational cycle -from enrollment to graduation.

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But not all schools can be unique.
Differentiation is costly, time-consuming, and difficult to achieve.
Even if you do achieve some level of differentiation in your programs, it may not remain a point of difference for long.

So marketing theory suggests that schools focus instead on an Emotional Selling Proposition (ESP).

You can use emotional marketing to generate such a strong connection with parents in your community that they perceive differences in your programs even if they are immaterial.

For example, while the design and functionality of Nike and Adidas sneakers are distinct, the differences are so small that they amount to a marginal difference in performance.

The products' differences are, however, magnified in the perception of the consumer through marketing and the power of branding.

*adapted from The Business Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained