SAMPLES
Cate School
Served
as a marketing consultant to Cate School in Carpinteria, California.
I was initially engaged to help the school recognize and enhance
a competitively, differentiated position in the marketplace. This was accomplished
by conducting brainstorming sessions with Cate's administration and
staff, as well as focus groups with, and surveys of, students and parents.
Consequently, I analyzed the data and wrote a positioning statement for
Cate School. I then developed a theme, “Shared Perspectives," which
Cate uses in admission and development publications. I subsequently
became the project manager for the creation of three new admission
publications, hiring designers, photographers and conducting final
edits on the copy. Because of my extensive background in the printing
industry, I was able to provide advice and solutions that saved Cate thousands
of dollars in printing costs. Cate's administration then retained
me to oversee a total redesign of its web site using the same,"Shared
Perspectives" theme.
The site www.cate.org incorporates
streaming video, audio, flash animation, ASP and SQL design features,
and extensive use of non-proprietary, back-end, administration tools
allowing user-friendly access to dynamic pages. By using dynamic
pages, Cate school can create and delete pages and menu items without
the need for expensive, time-consuming reprogramming of the site.
Ojai Valley School
Ojai
Valley School is a pre-K through 12, independent, boarding school
with two campuses. The lower school offers boarding beginning in
the third grade. The project included interviews, focus groups and
parent and student surveys. We determined that the Upper and Lower
Schools had sufficiently differing target audiences that we would
create two different view books with a single theme, "A Place of Awakenings." Likewise
the web page www.ovs.org followed
this theme and branched into two sites for each school. The web site
gave access to many dynamic pages with user-friendly, non-proprietary
back-end administration and editing tools.
Marymount
This
project called for several new admission publications and a complete revamping
of its web site. Because Marymount's budget was limited, the creative use
of resources was a challenge. Building on a positioning statement, we developed
a new theme for the school, "Knowledge, Values, Community." we
hired a photographer and designer and wrote copy for an entirely
new admission packet. This included a pocket folder, brochure, curriculum
guide and several factual insert sheets. As part of the marketing plan,
I was responsible for creating several display ads for local publications.
This included three, full-page ads for the Santa Barbara News Press. These
ads required us to hire a photographer and a designer and to write the
copy. We also oversaw the creation of Marymount’s new website www.marymountsb.org using
in-house design resources.
Chatsworth Hills Academy
Chatworth Hills Academy approached us about helping them create new admission
materials. This marked the first time the school had sought professional
help with the marketing of the school. Although the school’s
budget did not allow a complete marketing research program, we did conduct extensive
interviews with critical members of the staff along with brainstorming sessions
with the faculty. This, along with the available secondary sources
such as competitor school’s publications and web sites, allowed us to develop
a picture of where the school should position itself. Using this information,
we created a branding theme, “Together We Learn, Grow and Discover.” A
team was assembled including a designer, photographer and copy writer and the
new view book was created.
Santa Barbara School District
We conducted a series of focus groups over a 2 month period to research opinions about and options for, improving the School District's Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program. Groups included school principals, teachers, students and parents. Following the focus groups we wrote individual reports and an overall analysis of our findings. We also facilitated a brainstorming session for the GATE committee of the Santa Barbara School Board, which helped the group focus its recommendations. The School District concluded that the GATE program should be merged into the Honors program at all schools.