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Continental Council for Jewish Day School Education Report on Community-based Day School Marketing Draft #3 September 2004 Introduction During the past five years, lay and professional leaders in several communities throughout North America have undertaken dramatic efforts to expand the marketing of Jewish day schools. In many localities, individuals representing diverse schools, community institutions, and religious and professional backgrounds have convened – often for the first time – with the goal of crafting cooperative marketing initiatives to promote day school education throughout the community. The purpose of this report is to describe the different forms that these community-based marketing efforts have taken, to provide a brief index of techniques that have been adopted by schools and community groups to promote day school education, and to offer a digest of lessons that can be heeded by leaders in other communities who are seeking to establish comparable marketing groups. Three communities stand out as having advanced the furthest in the process of forming community-based day school marketing committees. Leaders in the metropolitan areas of Boston, Phoenix, and San Diego have already spent as long as four years organizing their efforts and convening meetings, and all have developed written strategic plans, hired professional staff members, drafted budget, and raised funds. Other communities mentioned in this report have day school marketing plans in various stages of development, though all have already begun to implement elements of their programs and are planning to introduce more in the coming year. The report also references the Avi Chai Foundation’s marketing templates and 1999 New York Times advertising campaign to promote day school education, as well as PEJE’s plans for a series of national advertising materials. All of the community-based marketing initiatives discussed in this report remain in their formative stages, and to this point few measurable results have been produced. Therefore, there is presently little opportunity for assessment and analysis. This report will therefore be primarily descriptive in nature, and we hope that during the coming years, we will be able to gauge the success of these efforts and to issue recommendations for continued strength and improvement. The data for this report were gathered through personal interviews with community members active in day school marketing efforts and, in some cases, from written reports published by community-based marketing committees. Interview subjects were asked questions about the history of day school marketing efforts in their respective communities, the composition of marketing committees and the associated political relationships, funding sources and resource allocation, market research techniques, and specific plans for day school marketing projects and marketing committee development. This report reflects information gathered from representatives of nine North American communities: Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Denver, Milwaukee, Phoenix, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Toronto. As noted above, these communities represent multiple stages in the process of marketing committee formation and operation, and the 2 approaches being undertaken are widely divergent. Taking these significant differences into account, this report attempts to discern trends and lessons that could potentially be noteworthy to leaders beginning the process of community-based day school marketing committee formation in their own communities. Observations and recommendations are intended as generalizations and do not necessarily reflect the experience of all communities studied. Lessons Several valuable lessons have emerged from the experience of the communities that have undertaken day school marketing campaigns: Marketing tends to be a good issue around which to begin community collaboration. It is usually perceived as a common need that can be discussed with minimal feelings of competition or tension. It is important that the person who leads the marketing committee demonstrate strength in both leadership style and financial commitment. It often takes a long time for leaders of schools and other community institutions to feel comfortable collaborating with one another. Patience is necessary. In one community (Boston), a paid facilitator proved extremely helpful in bringing about trust and cooperation within the group. The opportunity to work with a national organization like JESNA or PEJE seems to be an important factor in encouraging schools and individuals to participate in community-based marketing initiatives. It is important that marketing group leaders meet periodically with leaders of individual schools in order to keep them apprised of progress and to encourage the development of trust and confidence. When conducting market research, hiring a local market researcher who understands local political issues can prove beneficial. Most communities have concluded that emphasizing academic excellence is the strongest marketing message for Jewish day schools. Word of mouth testimonials seem to be the most effective method of marketing day schools. Community-based marketing initiatives can play a role in encouraging individual schools within the community to enhance their own marketing efforts. Jewish communities and individuals can play an important role in helping parents make decisions about schooling for their children. Inspiration to begin community-based marketing initiatives Many different factors have played roles in stimulating the convening of day school marketing committees. In several cases, lay leaders who attended a PEJE Leadership Assembly were inspired to work toward energizing the day school movement beyond their individual schools. PEJE played a more direct role in the establishment of marketing initiatives in such communities as Milwaukee and Toronto, and the existence of PEJE Consortium Grants generated interest in community-wide cooperation in other cities. In a number of communities, the motivation for undertaking the new marketing initiatives grew from a sense of frustration. Some school leaders were dissatisfied with 3 the amount of Federation funding being dedicated to day schools, so they were inspired to collaborate in an effort to expand enrollment community-wide. In one city (Denver), the merger of two schools and the opening of a new campus did not generate the expected increase in enrollment, so school officials decided to engage a market research firm and initiative a broad marketing program. In certain communities, the idea for a collaborative marketing venture grew out of cooperative committees already in existence. Marketing committee participants In nearly all communities, both lay leaders and professionals took significant roles on marketing committees. Some of the professionals were affiliated with individual schools, while others were leaders in community institutions (e.g. Federation, Bureau of Jewish Education). A small number of committees included professional marketing directors (either as paid consultants or as lay volunteers), and at least one community (Boston) hired an outside facilitator to guide the group. In Phoenix, a representative from the State Tuition Organization is included. Funding Funding for community-based marketing initiatives comes from a variety of sources. The marketing committee in San Diego received a grant from JESNA’s Continental Council for Jewish Day School Education. In approximately half of the communities studied, the individual schools are asked to contribute funds. In some, individual committee members or other local funders contribute to the projects. The rest of the money is procured through grants from local Federations, PEJE, or (in the case of Phoenix) the Phoenix Jewish Community Foundation. Marketing committees in Boston, Phoenix, and San Diego have reached the point at which they have annual budgets specifically for community-based day school marketing activities and initiatives. Strategic plans Some communities have developed written strategic plans for their communitybased day school marketing committees. These plans include such elements as: Budget Competitive landscape (using SWOT analysis) Goals Key messages Mission statement Organizational structure Positioning statement Situation analysis Tactical plan Target audiences Timeline Goals 4 In general, the goal of community-based day school marketing initiatives is to increase enrollment at day schools throughout the community. To supplement this broad aim, some communities have identified additional, more specific goals for their marketing plans. These include: Ensure that more graduates of Jewish preschools enroll in Jewish elementary schools and that more graduates of Jewish middle schools enroll in Jewish high schools. Attract families of children enrolled in non-Jewish private schools. Create a more positive sentiment around the community toward day school education. Change the culture of the community so as to make day schools seem like a more natural option for Jewish families. Increase the visibility of day schools and raise awareness around the community of the benefits of a day school education. Cultivate pride in day schools throughout the community. Improve the perception of the quality of day school academics. Increase collaboration among day schools and other community institutions. Messages The different community-based marketing committees, as well as the national advertising initiatives undertaken by the Avi Chai Foundation and PEJE, all selected key messages about day school education that they would communicate most strongly in their marketing campaigns. Most communities determined that the most effective technique is to focus on the general academic excellence of Jewish day schools: to emphasize that day schools produce graduates who can compete academically with their counterparts from elite private or public schools and who can gain admission to the most selective universities. Others chose to stress the crucial role that day schools play in promoting Jewish survival and continuity and strong individual Jewish identity. Other messages that marketing committees have sought to convey include: The role of day schools in the development of maturity and moral, ethical character The ability of a day school education to foster critical thinking, leadership skills, and citizenship The value of tolerance that is instilled through attending a school that is culturally, geographically, economically, and religiously diverse The importance of being active in two communities, literate in two sets of literatures, and knowledgeable of two histories Small class sizes, significant individual attention, and strong communal sentiment as hallmarks of day schools The relatively low tuition of Jewish day schools, as compared with elite private schools Excellence in athletics, arts, social action, and other extracurricular activities Market research A few of the marketing committees have conducted market research in their communities as they contemplate how they most effectively can communicate their 5 messages and allocate their resources. The Boston and Denver committees retained private market research firms, while the San Diego group utilized the services of a corps of university students. In Toronto, Jewish communal professionals at the Federation conducted targeted interviews with members of the Israeli-Canadian community, and they plan to do the same with members of the Russian-Canadian community. The findings of the market research obviously vary significantly by community, and in some cases, final reports are not yet available. An exception is Denver, which has published significant analysis of its research conducted in 2002. Among the most interesting of the preliminary results: In Boston, there is a significant untapped market of potential day school families, and affordability is often not a primary concern. In Denver, it was discovered that most parents utilized an informal process in selecting a school for their children, and that endorsements from other parents were often the most influential determinant in the decision. The two most important areas of concern in selecting a school were academics and diversity, and other factors named included location, cost, class size, test scores, teacher quality, neighborhood school, physical appearance, and involved parents. A significant number of parents were concerned about sending their children to school in an atmosphere that was considered “all Jewish” or “too Jewish.” In San Diego, the research focused on why parents did or did not choose to send their children to a day school. Parents who took their children out of day school cited tuition costs and desire for ethnic integration as two primary factors in their decisions. Parents who chose not to send their children to day school at all attributed their decisions primarily to the superior quality of the academics at elite public and private schools and the high tuition costs of day school. The committee concluded that wealthy families who send their children to elite private schools do not constitute a good target market for Jewish day schools in San Diego, and that the most fruitful audience for the marketing efforts would be those in the $100,000-$150,000 income range. The results of the market research in the various communities supplement the conclusions drawn by Dr. Pearl Beck in the November 2002 study “Jewish Preschools as Gateways to Jewish Life: A Survey of Jewish Preschool Parents in Three Cities,” (funded by the Jewish Early Childhood Education Partnership). Dr. Beck determined that, at least in the cities of Baltimore, Chicago, and Denver, most families who decide to send their children to Jewish day schools make that decision prior to enrolling their children in preschool. A smaller proportion of families – primarily families who are able to afford to pay tuition for Jewish day schools or other private schools – make the decision during their children’s final year of preschool. According to Dr. Beck, the primary factors that contributed to Jewish families’ deciding to send their Jewish preschool graduates on to Jewish day school included: High levels of observance and affiliation (strongly religiously observant families rarely considered non-day school options) Perception of day schools as beneficial for the child A peer group who send their children to day schools Motivation to maintain Jewish ties 6 Newly found (i.e. while the child was enrolled in Jewish preschool) belief in the importance of Jewish education Avoidance of perceived negative aspects of public schools Belonging to a synagogue prior to preschool enrollment Receiving information about Jewish education from preschools Travel to Israel by mother and/or father Parents’ most commonly cited reasons for deciding not to send their children to Jewish day school included: Negative feelings toward day schools – regarded as “too intense” or “too sheltered” Cost Distance from home Belief that public school education is consonant with American values Inability of day schools properly to serve students with special needs Belief that family religious observance is a necessary prerequisite for day school enrollment Concern about creating a “knowledge gap” between parent and child Lack of peers who had chosen to send their own children to day school Desire for a more “diverse” educational setting Parents’ own negative experiences in Jewish day schools Targeting Essentially all community leaders and marketing professionals agreed that day school marketing is most effective when messages are carefully targeted toward particular groups. A striking example of this is decisions surrounding the PEJE national day school advertising campaign, which was abandoned after the PEJE leadership decided that it was too difficult to select images and taglines that would be attractive to a broad, national audience. They decided that a more prudent course would be to support marketing campaigns that attempted carefully to match key messages and photographs with the target audience most likely to be enticed by them. This approach has been adopted in many communities – in particular by marketing committees in Denver, Phoenix, and San Diego, whose marketing plans identify several distinct target groups and specify particular marketing strategies and messages for each. Among the groups that were selected to be targeted in different communities: Families of children enrolled in Jewish preschools Families of children enrolled in non-Jewish private schools Particular geographic regions, including “stretch markets” – areas where individual schools are not able to spend a significant amount of money on advertising Particular income groups Particular nationality groups (e.g. Israeli, Mexican, Russian, South African) Grandparents of Jewish children Young, married couples and families with expectant mothers Jewish community leaders (lay and professional) 7 Non-Jewish influencers (e.g. realtors, corporate leaders, health care professionals) Techniques There seems to be consensus about the fact that word-of-mouth testimonials are the most effective marketing technique for Jewish day schools. In many communities, marketing groups have attempted to take advantage of this fact by initiating parent ambassador programs, parlor meetings, parent coffees, and other events that can facilitate face-to-face contact. Other marketing techniques that have been implemented or are being planned by community-based marketing committees include: Adult Jewish learning programs that introduce parents to the day school community Advertisements in local magazines, newspapers, or synagogue newsletters Advertising posters featuring parent testimonials Brochures highlighting all day schools in the community Day school fairs Direct mail letters to parents of preschool and 8th grade students Direct outreach to local preschools and synagogues Email a friend campaigns Internet marketing campaigns, including pages for individual day schools, advertisements for upcoming events, and the option to register to receive materials by email Open Houses at schools Press releases and submissions of articles to local newspapers Promotional videos Regalia (e.g. car decals, t-shirts) promoting the schools Speakers’ bureaus Challenges As committees for community-based day school marketing have been established in communities throughout the continent, they have encountered several significant challenges to their work. Among the most salient or common of these have been: Overcoming a lack of local funding, which is often required to convene a marketing committee and to begin implementing its plans. Identifying a particular geographic region in which the committee will operate, and determining which schools should be included. These regions may not coincide with Federation catchment areas. Determining the optimal committee structure and leadership. Negotiating complex time demands on busy professional and lay leaders. Convincing officials of individual schools that the work of the committee is worthwhile. Creating and maintaining mutual trust and confidence among members of the various schools and community institutions. Overcoming the occasional unwillingness of congregational education leaders (and some congregational rabbis) to cooperate with the marketing of day schools. 8 Dealing with potential political complications if a particular community institution or school is not invited to participate. Ensuring that funds are allocated in such a way that enables all schools to benefit equally. Ensuring that marketing professionals who are hired by the committees work to implement the agenda that was developed by the committees. Encouraging lay-driven committees to continue functioning once marketing professionals are hired. Determining a fair mechanism for including specific information about individual schools in community-wide day school advertising media. Disseminating information to the community about the committee’s progress. The most significant challenge faced by community-based day school marketing committees is the difficulty associated with gauging effectiveness. In most communities, this work is in only its earliest stages, and there has as of yet been little opportunity to analyze data in order to measure the success of the marketing initiatives. Hopefully, as communities continue to develop and implement their plans, subsequent editions of this report will be able to provide detailed assessments of existing programs and to provide more specific guidance to communities that are seeking to form their own communitybased day school marketing committees.