Smile Please

“Say cheese!”

Here we are in a severe recession and parents need to make informed decisions about the most appropriate school for their children. Yet too frequently Independent School prospectuses and web sites resort almost exclusively, to images of smiling children! Yes it is important that children enjoy the process of learning, but “cheesy snaps” are not going to convey those distinct ingredients that make each school special.

In fact to reveal the true benefits of a school takes time and a well thought out strategy. Images that reflect the character and spirit of a school will involve careful planning and research. Furthermore, there is a rare skill in being able to understand the real benefits of a particular school. Is it highly academic, does it major on extra curriculum activities, is it highly artistic or musical, dose in maximise on its unique location, near water mountains or centres in a major city? The process of accurately reflecting the life and spirit of a school is more complex than it first appears! Nonetheless this is very important if we are going to give parents and future children the ability to exercise choice.

Pretty pictures are one thing, but even more demanding is how do you effectively communicate the very qualities that make one school different (or even better) from the next. It’s all too easy to confuse school photography with wedding photography, spreads, festooned with smiling attractive children. In fact many photographers commissioned to handle schools are in fact wedding photographers. But this photographic culture can have a limited scope and even demeaning effect in communicating the real advantages of a particular school.
 All too frequently parents and staff are getting short changed because schools’ marketing material looking superficial and identical to promotional material of competitive schools.
The question, which needs to be addressed, is “how can prospective parents make informed choices for the most suitable school for their children, when the marketing material is identical to other schools?”

The answer is simple – “with difficulty!”

In this time of a financial challenge, parents, more than ever need to be able to make informed choices. The importance of clear information to avoid confusion when selecting a school for their children.
There are a few basic questions that when addressed, will help schools to shape and create effective marketing material. Why are we producing a new prospectus or web site? Who is it for, and who are we aiming at? Who are we competing against? What makes our school distinctive? Do we implement a different culture to other schools that appeals to a particular group? The benefits of a school designed for single sex education, compared with co-education. Consideration should be given to the school’s environment as well as its demographics, which both have a bearing on the choice between boarding and day. Can a creative use of photography enable the school to convey these benefits?

For a school marketing initiative to be effective, parents need to be able to have an insight that reveals the school’s individual character.  Each school must aim to convey why it is different; the quality, the breadth, the unique benefits, the ethos. Inspired photography and clean design can play a pivotal role in enabling parents and their children to make more enlightened decisions about a school. Aim for high quality, no gimmicks, no tricks. Saying “cheese” will not convey the right message! Transparency and clear thinking are the essential ingredients for an effective marketing strategy.

Getting your strategy right will put a smile on your face!

For more information please visit our website www.jwaltd.com

Vive la difference!!!

I recently attended the BSA Head’s Conference where a provocative, but thought provoking Kevin Roberts CEO of Worldwide Saatchi & Saatchi said he found school marketing consistently boring and uninspiring. He went on to say as we were facing a serious financial crisis what steps were schools taking to succeed in the downturn?

Similarly at an AMDIS Marketing conference last year I spoke to two heads that complained that all prospectuses looked the same, (I resisted saying that they are the people responsible for approving them!) Many are beginning to question their whole approach to schools marketing. This is a wake up call! For too long it has been possible to swap the name on the cover of one school’s prospectus and exchange it for another. The real problem is that you probably would not have spotted the difference! These solutions are driven by unthinking suppliers with a “that’ll do” policy. Sadly, this is no joke, but a fact!

There are a number of excellent creative companies, but still too many, that are happy to churn out cost cutting, bland, conveyor belt, design solutions for schools. They will send in a photographer for a couple of days to get a few standard classroom and sports shots. It is not surprising it is difficult to distinguish one school from another. The strategy is well rehearsed; a shiny navy blue cover with the mandatory crest, the serif titling and a picture of children outside the main building. Inside the theme continues each spread is festooned with static shots of smiling children all taken from two meters away! One prep school prospectus I saw recently had three, patronising pictures of the head in it but hardly any of its staff! This approach will do the school no favours.

The other extreme are companies who subject the schools to irrelevant graphic solutions that are different, but for totally the wrong reasons. For example, a very good school in Surrey was pursuaded to adopt ‘EasyJet’ orange in the name of difference. I’m relieved to say they’ve given up on that wild excursion now and have reinstated navy blue! Then more recently, I came across a marketing package for a school, all built around the DVD packaging, where the designers had hidden the prospectus inside the DVD cover, it took me four days to find it, ridiculous!! The “design” should not be the captivating feature of the prospectus, but the “school.” Years ago someone at the Royal College of Art said to me “Good design never gets noticed.” Put another way the design is subservient to its task of effective communication, not a self-indulgent whim. It is only by familiarisation of the life and spirit of a school that an informed design can take shape. Informed design solutions can help parents/pupils make informed decisions about the appropriateness of one school as opposed to another.

Schools are unique. They are all very different from each other. They serve different markets and aim at different clientele. A child will find one school will be more appropriate to his/her needs than another. Prospectus design difference needs to be driven by the school’s ethos, spirit and character, not by bland or esoteric design solutions. The prospectus will be different if it is an honest portrayal.




Front cover for Radley College (also known as "The Pink Cover") created by JWA Ltd., 2008

For more information please visit our website www.jwaltd.com

On Schools Web Design

Excellence will be continually under scrutiny.

We are given to believe the quality of academic education at the majority of independent school today is as good as it ever has been. There seems to a growing confidence that their own staff can not only teach but tackle the most ambitious projects beyond the classroom. Schools can draw on a wealth of in-house talent. Staff can now be responsible for raising 3 million for a new teaching block, designing the new website and prospectus, to taking a group to explore the Chinese Wall!

This “can do” philosophy is something worth applauding, admirable, if the school can save by utilising “in house” talent. Enthusiasm, confidence and convenience are words which came to mind when schools appoint their own staff to undertake projects beyond their prescribed remit. But a word of caution needs to be shared when that commission ventures into the school’s marketing strategy. There appears to be a number of reasons why a school may choose to use their own staff; we can do it better, we can save money, we will have better control, but in reality, there have been a few pitfalls!

There are examples where the initial enthusiasm of the staff to take on projects has subsequently faltered because staff have been overwhelmed by the demands of their core activity. There is an increasing number of schools whose IT staff have volunteered their expertise to construct and maintain the school’s website, only to discover that they took on a project which demanded a larger share of their time than they had anticipated.

Many teaching staff own high resolution digital cameras and their images are appearing in school publicity. This can be helpful particularly when an event occurs off site or overseas. But when these pictures are published there are frequently problems.

A number of schools continue to use ‘well meaning’ staff with limited knowledge of design or typography or the ability to buy good printing.

The real issue here is that schools prefer to be perceived as centres of excellence. Not only in the possession of academic results, but in all that they do. The dilemma is that we have an increasingly visually articulate public who are scrutinising all that a school does. This includes anything that enters the public domain.

It is difficult to dampen the enthusiasm of staff eager to get involved. But there are still too many websites which are out of date, under construction or fail to work, merely because the in house staff are too busy. There are too many school publications which fail to conform to the school’s branding ethos, or suffer from poor repro.

The solution is to be well informed in the first place. Involve your design company in advising on how the talents of the school’s staff can be constructively used. In terms of web site management, use an efficient content management system. This will enable the schools to easily update the site. Whilst its design remains consistent to the school's corporate identity.

Consistent use of the corporate branding is vital if a school is going to convey an impressive public profile. To achieve this use a standard set of corporate guidelines. These need to be issued by the design company. This would cover the correct use of colours, typeface specification and logo and the use of (recycled) paper.

There are still too many excellent schools that have misunderstood the importance of effective branding. The visual links between the school’s website to the prospectus, the stationery and school livery should consistently reinforcing marketing strategy. It’s worth checking your school’s public profile to see how well co-ordinated the Corporate identity is being implemented. If it is managed well, then the public have a good clue that the school is being well managed.

Good schools need to be seen as excellent in all areas that impact on the public.

If you would like to explore cost effective ways of co-ordinate school branding, the Prospectus, the website, the fund raising programme JWA would be pleased to hear from you.

For more information please visit our website www.jwaltd.com