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| Become a Test Center |
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| If your school would like to participate as an SSAT Test Center in 2009-10, please contact SSAT at testgroup@ssat.org |
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| Annual Meeting Review Volume XXIII, no. 2 |
Thursday, March 11, 2010 |
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| Say what you do and do what you say |
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Sara B. Yeager, Associate Director of Admission, and her colleagues at Cushing Academy (MA) set a
marketing goal to have everyone at the institution – administrators, support staff, faculty, maintenance
workers, students — know exactly what the school is selling and to express it in a consistent manner. The
central question they asked themselves throughout the process was, “What is ‘the word,’ and how do I
spread it?” Cushing brought in a professional marketing agency, but Sara contends that you can achieve
much of the same results on your own. One thing they did learn from the marketers, though, was the
meaning of the ubiquitous marketing term “brand.” Sara explained, “Brand pre-sells something. In branding,
you are convincing people that yours is the only product to meet their need.” Many attributes are common
to many independent schools. So the challenge is to sort out what comes up most consistently about your
own school, to identify “the things you live and die for; the things that say, ‘this is who we are.’”
To accomplish this goal, Cushing followed these steps:
- Combed through ALL of the school’s publications to identify what promises they were making; what
keeps coming up again and again throughout all publications.
- Surveyed current and past parents and students, as well as their applicant and inquiry pools, to
answer the question, “What do you think the ideal prep school is?” Then, they compared Cushing to
the “ideal” expressed by respondents.
- Gathered ALL school employees and had them list 5 words that describe the school. Next, they were divided
into groups according to the length of time they had been with Cushing, to come up with one list of 5
together. Finally, compared the lists of words to the list of promises pulled from their publications.
- Pulled application files on five Cushing students whom they felt were “dream students...the ones the
faculty really likes to teach.” They examined their files to see what characteristics stood out about
them that they would want to look for in future applicants.
- Used all of this data to determine what their school offers. For Cushing, the big promise turned out to be, “We
are a student-centered school.” Finally, they asked themselves, “Are we delivering on what we say we do?”
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 Related Stories |
 | Affordability Challenges for Independent Schools |
| Who qualifies for need-based aid? |
| International Students and the Admission Office |
| A Model Perspective on International Student Applicants |
| Is Your Marketing Strategy Missing Three Key Components? |
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