Does Your School Have A Free Prize Inside?

Does your school have a marketing plan? No. Then read on.

Growing up I ate a lot of cereal. They were all pretty much the same. Day in and day out I knew what to expect. Sometimes one box was bigger than the other or sometimes on flake was shaped different from the other or one had a different flavor than the others, but they all matched my expectation.

Occasionally, though, there would be a box with a free prize inside and that would get me excited. I would carefully examine the box thinking about what I might discover inside. Then I would dive into the box and search for the prize by pouring out bowl after bowl of the cereal to obtain my prize.

The difference wasn’t more cereal, a different flavor, or even a different shape. The difference was the free prize inside. The free prize made that box of cereal remarkable because it added something unexpected, something different, something more than just the bowl of cereal I expected. The free prize added something I didn’t even know I needed with my breakfast.

So I ask you, is your school remarkable? Do people talk about your school, tell others about your school, or brag to others about your school or get people excited?

Does your school offer something people didn’t know they needed in a school? If so, that is your free prize.

Seth Godin, author of Free Prize Inside defines a free prize this way.

“First, it’s the thing about your service, your product or your organization that’s worth remarking on, something worth seeking out and buying.”

“Second, a free prize is not about what a person needs. Instead, it satisfies our wants. It is fashionable or fun or surprising or delightful or sad. It rarely delivers more of what we were buying in the first place. It delivers something extra.”

If you are thinking that people are going to be talking about how well your school teaches the standards or how well it does on standardized tests or how you meet the needs of every student through an effective RtI plan or how your teachers collaborate or use curriculum—if that is what you are thinking, you better think again.

That is the price of admission. That is what is already expected. What is going to get people talking about your school is the free prize inside.

I worked at a school that did all these things, but did it through art, drama, music, and dance. Students and parents got what they expected out of a school, but they also got a free prize inside. They didn’t know they needed the arts embedded and infused through the teaching and learning, but once they experienced it they were delighted. They had some to remark about.

Another school in my district is an Apple Distinguished School. It does everything a great school should do, but it has a free prize inside. Every student, in every grade level, in every subject matter, has the opportunity to use technology and problem based learning. It’s remarkable. It’s a free prize.

I worked at a school that involved families to such an extent that parents were taking classes on campus, had their own “parent room”, held carnivals, volunteered all over the campus, came to family picnics. Former students frequently returned to visit their teachers. The teachers, parents, and students embraced this so much that the entire campus became a family. It was noticeable, you could feel it. You didn’t’ expect to find or become part of family, but that’s what happened. That was the free prize inside.

Education is becoming increasingly competitive. Parents have more and more choices for their students. Is your school drawing parents and students to it? Are you doing something remarkable?

Maybe you have never considered how important marketing might be for your school in the coming years. It is. Start thinking about it.

Is your school doing something remarkable, unique, and meeting needs parents and students didn’t know they had? Are you doing something worth buying?

Ask yourself…is there a free prize inside my school?

Also see: 

What Marketing Taught Me About Education Improvement

Analyzing Your Educational Brand

The New Educational Reality: Part 1

The New Educational Reality: Part 2