The Story of Our Action Research Project
As cited in the literature review, Green and Leung (2005) stated that while marketing efforts will get parents to the front door, it may not be enough to get them in. Our research overwhelmingly supports this claim. The survey that was given to prospective parents at transition points (from pre-K to Kindergarten, from elementary to middle school, and from middle to high school) in their child’s education was divided into two sections: the perceived importance of school programs and indicators of quality, and a section devoted to the importance of school marketing efforts in parent’s choice of school to attend (see Appendix B). A finding that was not surprising (and validates Green and Leung) was that in terms of school programs and indicators of quality, parents in all three school districts ranked nearly every measure as having significant importance, especially those tied to academic performance, quality of staff, and safety and security. Graduation rates, financial stability, and technology were three other areas that parents consistently found to be very important.
Different MediumsThe key question though, is how to publicize those successes in the way that best reaches the target audience and has a positive impact on school enrollment. We chose to break apart our data from multiple perspectives as we were curious if it was possible to discern a difference between the historically traditional marketing efforts (newspapers, tv and radio ads, billboards), web-based advertising (school and district websites) and social media applications that provide instant updates, two-way communication, and the ability to “control the brand” at any time (Facebook, Twitter). Making a distinction between these three means for marketing is important due to the mandatory nature of public schooling, none of these three public school districts need to make the public aware they exist (for charter schools this statement may not apply, that is an area of further research), but which medium to devote their time, effort, and focus to was important.
A surprising finding was that many of the historically traditional marketing efforts were not factors that were rated with the same levels of importance as the web-based and social media applications, particularly in Grosse Pointe and Troy |
Know Your AudienceThe reason that this was surprising is because of the amount of effort and fiscal resources school districts have devoted to it. A quick preview of any Metropolitan Detroit community newspaper, or a publication such as Metro Parent, one sees that they are chocked full of advertisements for school, public, charter, and private. Schools place a great deal of importance on this form of communication, but in reviewing responses for survey data, these efforts may get parents to the enrollment office door, but they do not appear to be what has the greatest impact on the final choice a parent makes. This was different then the finding for the Roseville Community School District, where historically traditional forms of advertising were rated as of equal or higher importance than web-based and social media applications. The reasons for this will be explored further later in this section. The data regarding radio and tv ads is even more telling. These ads, which can be targeted to certain communities, rely on the hope that a prospective parent is tuned into the right channel, at the right time. The return on investment does not seem to be great for the type of marketing, nor does it seem to be highly influential.
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Old and New MediaRoseville is the only district in this study that K-12 school of choice. This caused certain data points regarding marketing to stand out in this study. A significant one was the difference in importance prospective parents placed on Open House/Showcase events at the schools themselves. This is an important factor for similar districts to note. Getting prospective parents and students into school buildings show off the school’s, programs, technology, etc. is a must-have piece of a marketing strategy. Traditional, web-based, and social media applications are not enough for those districts where parents are able to make a school choice at every grade level, and compete with surrounding districts that do the same. A natural connection to this data point is the importance of the school environment that welcomes parents and students.
Socio-economics played a role in this action research project, a factor that had not been considered in the original research design. The Roseville Community School District is drastically different in socio economics than either Troy Public Schools or the Grosse Pointe Public School System. Those two districts, while having their differences, trend towards serving middle and upper class communities, while Roseville serves a low-income community with an 86% free and reduced lunch population. Socio-economics were not addressed in this study, so can’t say for certain is a cause for some of the drastic differences between responses in Roseville v. Grosse Pointe and Troy districts, but correlation exists. The greater level of importance placed on traditional forms of marketing and communication, such as events at the schools, mailers, automated calls, newspaper ads, etc. may be due to the ability to have reliable access to computers and the internet in the home. Expanding this research topic to incorporate socio-economic factors into marketing and communication efforts is an area for further study. |
Traditional MediaEven though social media has grown steadily worldwide in the last 10 years, district webpages are still considered a more important resource for gathering school information compared to Facebook and Twitter. This may be due to the amount of information one can gather on a webpage compared to a twitter handle. Surprisingly, none of the districts looked at in this action research project use Google Analytics or a tracking software to identify where they are receiving the most traffic from their viewers. Instead, the three districts tend to rely on their webpages as a current district resource and approach Facebook and Twitter as their opportunity to “brand” themselves. Traditional marketing, such as newspaper ads, billboards, tv/radio, are much less valued in Troy and Grosse Pointe.
TriangulationIn summary, our recommendation would be that when schools utilize their marketing platforms, they focus maximizing success in these six areas.on public education.
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