Distilling to Singularity: How to find the one idea that tells your school’s story SAIS Annual Conference 2016 Patti Crane founder & president For live tweeters @cranemetamktg @patticrane #saisAC Find us on Facebook Find this presentation online at www.cranebrandwork.com/presentations.html Two tools help you distill all the way to your “singularity” • a unifying framework for your positioning • a time-tested process for arriving at an expression that is authentic, relevant, and differentiating “Great brands” believers belong counter-intuitive help best-fit prospects convince themselves X Y Answering this question sets your Category of One. Where vital academics meet a deep respect for childhood Blue School Category of One Blue School is the living educational laboratory that continuously reimagines a more complete, balanced, and exuberant approach to education. “ ” Trevor Day School Category of One Trevor is the Manhattan pre-k through grade 12 independent day school that expertly deploys inquiry-based learning to invoke the good genius* inside every child. *Aristotle’s concept of eudaimonia—commonly thought of as a life well-lived—literally translates to “the state of having a good indwelling spirit, a good genius.” Dexter Southfield Category of One Dexter Southfield is Brookline’s seamless pk-12, intentionally classical, enduringly relevant coordinate school where classic works. Quick context on the Toronto market (sound familiar?) spreadsheet parents single-sex schools Bayview Glen Leo Baeck Bayview Glen Crescent TFS School Sterling Hall (boys) Havergal St. Clement’s School (girls) Greenwood College School Robbins Hebrew Academy K: Bishop Strachan School (girls) O: The York School Branksome Hall P: Upper Canada College Montcrest School Royal St. George’s College (boys) Rosedale Day School a wonderful alternative “energy waves” The Bayview Glen Connector [:] Category of One Some process tips for uncovering your school’s singularity…and helping the world to see it. The Law of the Category If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Al Ries and Jack Trout What sets our institution apart? It’s NOT… what describes us & every us and us school of most and a our kind others few others What sets our institution apart? It’s what describes us & ONLY US. This is our Last Five Percent. Now we put our Last Five Percent FIRST. Now we put our Last Five Percent FIRST. Our Last Five Percent becomes the “lens” for seeing our school anew. Category of One A Promise Statement exercise can help your campus achieve internal agreement. What the Promise Statement is not Promise Statement a legal term Promise Statement the mission statement Promise Statement a published phrase Promise Statement the marketing words Bayview Glen Promise Statement 1 of 4 Bayview Glen is Toronto’s academically invigorating, internationally connected, coeducational preschool-through-grade-12 microcosm that shapes intellectually agile, culturally adept citizens whose capable minds and conscientious hearts impel them to engage meaningfully with difference and complexity. Bayview Glen Promise Statement 2 of 4 Inventively combining an inquiry-based, technologically savvy, globally informed pedagogy with an accelerated curriculum, Bayview Glen’s interdisciplinary program fosters empathetic insight, purposeful creation, and sophisticated self-reflection. Bayview Glen Promise Statement 3 of 4 Bayview Glen’s expert, attentive teachers model the school’s culture of curiosity, cooperation, and equality in the classroom and beyond, encouraging exceptional achievement while offering extensive individual support as students examine, debate, and develop integral values and construct the foundations of a consequential life. Bayview Glen Promise Statement 4 of 4 Bayview Glen students graduate as compassionate, perceptive, proactive cosmopolitans, not only prepared for top universities at home and abroad, but equipped with ever-increasing intellectual and personal fortitude, enabling them to wholeheartedly embrace, inhabit, and work to improve a world of accelerating change. Bayview Glen Promise components WHY? academic vigor; international connectedness; coeducational preschool through Grade 12; meaningful engagement with Distinctive values diversity. HOW? inquiry-based, technologically savvy, globally informed pedagogy; an accelerated curriculum; close attention from Unique mechanisms expert teachers; schoolwide culture of curiosity, cooperation, and equality. TO WHAT END? compassionate, perceptive, proactive cosmopolitans, not only prepared for top universities at home and abroad, but Transformative outcome equipped with ever-increasing intellectual and personal fortitude, enabling them to wholeheartedly embrace, inhabit, and work to improve a world of accelerating change. CATEGORY Toronto’s academically invigorating, internationally connected, coeducational preschool-through-grade-12 microcosm that shapes intellectually agile, culturally adept citizens whose capable minds and conscientious hearts impel them to engage meaningfully with difference and complexity. Your Category of One must pass three tests. Is it really YOU? Your Category of One must pass three tests. Does it MATTER to best-fit prospects? Your Category of One must pass three tests. Can OTHER schools say the same? It’s passed the A.R.D. test. for marketing Bayview Glen As the Bayview Glen community deeply values connection and reflection in all endeavours—academic, athletic, artistic, international, interpersonal—all communications must convey and further that distinctive ethos. Here’s how. Redefine and transcend the usual terms. As the connector inside INDEPENDENT : SCHOOL shows, 1 Bayview Glen carries out the independent school mission a little differently from other schools. And that’s by design. Rather than explaining, defending, or insisting the school is “just as good,” use language that refreshes, redefines, and transcends standard terms and categories. Foreground and propagate Bayview Glen’s distinctiveness. Modesty is no excuse for obscurity, especially when 2 it comes to something as distinctive and valuable as Bayview Glen’s egalitarian ethos. Bayview Glen can avoid braggadocio while also widely, effectively, and confidently communicating success stories, both large and small—especially as they reflect Bayview Glen’s intentional differences from other schools. Evoke and exemplify the Bayview Glen experience. INDEPENDENT : SCHOOL looks and feels different at 3 Bayview Glen. Use personal stories, specific examples, real statements, and vivid photography to evoke—rather than explain—Bayview Glen’s unique approach and experience. Avoid “edu-speak” and overreliance on studies as proof. Connect and contextualize international programmes. Integrate the school’s international perspective— 4 a key drawing point for families— both visibly and seamlessly into internal and external programme descriptions. Continue to work to explicitly connect Round Square to the broader curriculum. Celebrate and engage the extended school family. Bayview Glen’s vibrantly diverse community remains 5 one of the school’s strongest assets. Particularly in philanthropy and alumni involvement, continue welcoming, applauding, and applying the community’s different viewpoints and common goals, harnessing wide-ranging goodwill and as-yet- untapped talents. Clarify and articulate how individual support works. Especially in admissions messaging, clearly 6 articulate the relationship between Bayview Glen’s accelerated curriculum and individualized attention to every student. Enhance and elucidate how such attention spurs “high flyers” toward even greater achievement, while still affirming that all students receive the support they need. Reflect and project the Bayview Glen of today— and tomorrow. As Bayview Glen matures as an institution, the 7 school remains as agile, energetic, and adaptable as ever. With a cutting-edge, design-thinking curriculum, Bayview Glen now stands ready to claim a leadership role in educational innovation—both nationally and internationally. continued 7, continued Reframe Bayview Glen—in both internal thinking 7 and external expression—as the school that intentionally prepares students for a world of accelerating change. Thanks for coming today! Find us on Find this presentation online www.cranebrandwork.com/presentations.html.