Meaty Messaging – The Messaging Inventory

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Thirty-four years ago, Wendys launched what was probably its most successful ad campaign ever. It featured three elderly women examining a hamburger from an unnamed restaurant and discovering it had a huge bun but a very tiny patty. One of the women repeatedly croaked, “Where’s the Beef” and in the process created a phrase that became part of the mid-80’s zeitgeist, even making into the rhetoric of that year’s presidential election campaign.

What’s more, “Where’s the beef” has become an accepted English idiom meaning that an argument or proposal lacks substantive content. And that’s what brings us to independent schools.

For schools, the road to underachieving marketing results is paved with beautiful full-width, photo-laden websites that include a video featuring a dramatic opening drone shot of the campus at sunrise. Often these websites are visually impressive but in reality tell you next to nothing about the school. There are all bun with no burger.

This is particularly relevant to the current cohort of millennial prospective parents – many of whom were also conceived along with the Wendys ad in 1984. Amongst the characteristics of this new parental generation (some are even calling them parennials) is a demand for authenticity and a distaste for marketing that is superficial, or even misleading. To be able to persuasively communicate with today’s parents, schools need to give them reasons to believe. They need to provide convincing evidence that demonstrates why parents should consider, choose, or, in the case of current parents, continue to choose a particular school. They need to show them the beef.

Enter the messaging inventory.

The messaging inventory is a highly strategic, targeted database of statements, each of which brings to life one of your school’s marketing proof points. And because your school is constantly adding to its programming and curricular repertoire, its messaging inventory is dynamic – growing with each new initiative and program.

The messaging inventory is organized by target audience or, better yet, target segment and for each of them includes these fields:

Needs or interests - the needs/interests of a particular target segment could be anything from more convenience for working parents, to greater athletic opportunities to enhanced initiatives supporting social-emotional development.

The Approach your school uses to address that need or interest – these will be areas of emphasis or a broad curricular/programming initiatives. Examples related to the needs above could be a robust before and after school program, an expansive athletics department or a well-defined character education initiative.

Specific programs, initiatives or outcomes – these are the proof points and there could be many of them for each need or interest.

The Messaging Statement expresses the specific initiative/outcome in a sentence. At this point, it doesn’t have to be award-winning communication. Later, the statement will be refined to better reflect your school's brand and will likely be combined with other statements to create effective copy.

Putting, all that into action, you end up with something like this:

(The table above is available as a Word doc)

Now imagine what happens when you add additional needs/interests, approaches and specific initiatives. This becomes a very expansive document. In addition, as your school introduces new programs, receives new recognition, or records specific accomplishments, the inventory also continues to grow. I have worked with schools with messaging inventories that included hundreds of statements.   

Using the messaging inventory forces you to think strategically about communication because it creates messaging buckets. From a proactive point of view, it allows you to tell administrators and teachers exactly what types of stories you are interested in. Reactively, as items of interest come to your attention, you have the means to categorize them so they can be used more effectively.

The messaging inventory can be the backbone to social media editorial calendars – allowing you to identify categories of content and then find the posts to best represent them. The inventory is a communication source for open house and tour talking points. It can be the basis for website and online content as well as any print communication. It’s also a very effective way of developing video outlines and scripts.

The messaging inventory is the best way to make sure that your marketing communication is always grounded in proof points. It also highlights the need for everyone in a school – teachers, administrators, trustees – to be constantly aware of the need to prove what they say about themselves – to walk the talk. In that way, the messaging inventory is also an important branding tool.

This is not just a communication planning tool for prospective parents. In fact, it may be even more effective in informing and validating the decisions of current parents, ensuring that they are knowledgeable and enthusiastic ambassadors.

Developing and maintaining a messaging inventory is tedious. It requires great discipline and forethought. But the resulting improvement in marketing effectiveness easily provides the benefit of results that will far outweigh the cost of time. It will allow you to proudly and unequivocally declare, “Here’s the beef.”

How are you unboxing your school?

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You may never have heard of it, but "unboxing" is not only all over YouTube, it may be a great way of achieving marketing success at your independent school.

There’s a video on YouTube that shows a pair of hands unpacking five cartoon branded plastic eggs each with a toy surprise inside. No big deal. There are billions of videos on You Tube. But get this. This video has over 93 million views. Now that’s a big deal.

It’s all part of a phenomenon called “unboxing” that I recently discovered after listening to an interview with Mireille Silcoff who wrote an article about it for the New York Times. There are thousands of unboxing videos on YouTube. You can watch people unpacking everything from high tech gadgets to cosmetics to toys. Wikipedia even has an entry for unboxing.

What’s going on here? Why would millions of people watch someone else unpack something?

The process of unpacking something you have just bought is a very visceral experience.  It’s pure emotion – excitement, expectation, pride of ownership. There is great anticipation. That first look at or feel of whatever is in the box can be a “oh wow!” kind of moment. And it’s so powerful that people love to watch other people unpack things. Think about birthdays or Christmas and watching someone unwrap a gift. There aren’t many other events that can provide such vicarious enjoyment.

From a marketing perspective, it’s one more reminder that sales is a transfer of emotion and that people don’t just want to buy a product – they want to have an experience. The best marketers meticulously consider those first moments that a customer spends with a product to ensure that the unboxing experience is not only fantastic but is consistent with the overall brand experience of the company.

So, here’s the question. Can the unboxing experience be replicated in independent schools? Are there interaction points and special moments or milestones that can effectively be unboxed?

Here’s one. When a student is accepted, the package that is sent to parents is an obvious unboxing opportunity. What does the envelope look like? Does it have to be an envelope? What’s the first thing that is visible when the package is opened and how does that shape the experience you are trying to create? Does it create a sense of excitement, pride and maybe even accomplishment? Is there something in the package for the student? Perhaps there should be a separate student package. If you don’t have a formal acceptance package, maybe you should create one just for the purpose of creating an experience. If your acceptance process is finalized online, there are ways of creating a web-based or email based unboxing experience. Acceptance is a key moment in the sales process. You want to completely validate the choice that parents have made and align it with your school’s brand.

Another possibility. A child’s first day of school is a watershed moment for parents. Tapping into that emotion and making it an essential part of their experience with their new school can be very powerful. How can you unbox that experience? Perhaps parents with first-time school goers can receive a kit in advance with helpful information and useful things like labels or tags as well as something for kids like stickers. Maybe it comes in a box or a special folder that identifies it as something the school has specially created for first-time school parents.

Here’s a related possibility. Every moment of a child’s first day of school is a real-time unboxing experience filled with awe and wonder. What if you use video to capture some of those moments and send it to parents. I saw a news segment the other day about a parent that had strapped a GoPro camera to her child’s chest so that she could experience her daughter’s first day of school. It’s a little extreme but there’s no question that it reflects one parent’s desire to vicariously be part of her child’s first-day unboxing experience.

Once you get comfortable with the premise, I’ll bet there are dozens of unboxing experiences that you can create in your schools – from things as momentous as grade 1 graduation to those as mundane as tuition packages.

The key is to always think about parents as customers and look for the ways in which you can create validating experiences that reinforce your school’s brand. 

What do you think?

Is it possible to create unboxing experiences? Have you created unboxing experiences in your school? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Brand hopes v. brand reality

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Every business or organization has two brands. Or, more accurately there are two facets to the brand.

Most of us are very aware of one of those. It is all the ways in which we present ourselves to various audiences – customers, donors, employees, and constituents. It is reflected in the messaging and aesthetics of websites, social media platforms, logos and print material. Savvy marketers know that is also expressed in the way people are communicated with when they interact with an organization.

But there is a second facet to your brand that is equally important but neglected by many organizations. It hinges on a more sophisticated understanding of what a brand is. Seth Godin defines a brand as

“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.” 

Your brand is determined by the way customers perceive your organization. There is a kind of tyranny in that. You can spend infinite resources on strategy and creative but your brand is only as good as people say it is.

We can take that a step further with this great comment from Susan Gunelius in a post on the Forbes blog.

"Remember, companies don’t build brands, consumers do by experiencing those brands, developing feelings for those brands and emotional connections to them, and talking about those brands with other people."

 Ouch! That’s pretty humbling – but absolutely the truth.

In fact, the folks at Social Fresh would advance the argument by saying that not only do customers build your brand, they have the potential to become part of the product itself. People often choose to buy, donate or affiliate because they become part of a community. That community in effect becomes a feature of the value proposition you are putting forth.

Now we can better understand my two facets analysis. Given these definitions of a brand, the outbound facet – the promotional material, the look, the messaging – is really the aspirational side to your brand. It is the way you hope to be perceived.

The second facet to your brand is what people are saying or feeling about your organization. That is the reality aspect of your brand. In a perfect world (think Apple) the two facets are in unison. People’s perceptions match the positioning and messaging of your marketing efforts.

In most organizations however the reality brand is not a perfect reflection of the aspirational brand. That demands attention and here’s what you can do.

1. Set the goal. Make sure your aspirational brand is well defined and therefore you know how you will measure brand success. What do you want people to be saying about your organization? How do you want to be perceived? That articulation of your brand will set the bar

2. Face the facts. Don’t be afraid to discover there is a gap between the way you want your organization to be perceived and the way it is. It’s not a failure. Brands are inherently dynamic and a continual work in progress. To improve your brand you need to actively seek to determine the size of the gap between your aspirational brand and the real brand.

3. Conduct research. This can be qualitative or quantitative. Yes, survey your customers or better yet, prospective customers. Consult your sales people or front line staff about what they hear through their interactions. Ask “people on the street” if they have heard of your organization and what their perceptions are.

4. Monitor. Whether it’s on social media sites, in parking lots, on op ed pages, or in grocery stores, take every opportunity to listen to what people are saying about your organization. This is where the real truth will emerge and you better be there to hear it.

5. Engage your community. Ensure your stakeholders have an idea of what your aspirational brand is. Provide them with a statement that goes something like, “We want people to think about our organization as …..” Train them to not just ambassadors but receptors so that they are sensitive to people’s perceptions and can report them to you.

6. Be open to change. It’s possible that people have positive perceptions of your organization that aren’t reflected in your outbound marketing. Perhaps those perceptions have the potential to create a powerful brand statement. As opposed to influencing perceptions, you may want to change your positioning to match those perceptions.

Being aware of both facets of your brand and working to making one an accurate reflection of the other will undoubtedly bring success to your marketing efforts.

What do you think? Do you buy the two-facet analysis? What do you do in your organization to make sure perceptions align with messaging? What suggestions do you have for others? Please comment.