Evaluate the Relevance of Your Independent School Programs
Step one of creating a dynamic value proposition for independent schools
Great programs don’t matter if they don’t matter to your audience. Too often, schools invest in offerings without a clear understanding of what families truly value. The first step in building relevance is to develop a clear, data-informed customer profile that captures the needs of both parents and students.
This step includes three relevancy toolkits that will assist schools in completing step one of EAB’s three-step framework to create a dynamic value proposition.
1. Creating a Market-Tested Customer Profile
This toolkit aims to help school leaders better understand their market, test assumptions about customers, and prioritize families’ needs. It starts with a value differentiator brainstorming exercise to help schools identify which of their offerings truly set them apart. Since many schools lack the expertise to evaluate this objectively, the second tool guides them through understanding the jobs, pains, and gains of families in their market. The third tool helps translate that insight into a customer profile prototype. The final tool demonstrates collecting and analyzing real market data to build a tested customer profile.
2. Market Segmentation Guide
This toolkit aims to help schools assess which, if any, additional customer segments might be worth pursuing. It begins with a brainstorming exercise to help school leaders identify potential new customer segments in their market. Next, a viability questionnaire helps assess whether each segment is worth pursuing further. Based on the results, schools can then decide whether to create a Customer Profile Prototype (in the Creating a Market-Tested Customer Profile toolkit) for any new segments beyond their traditional independent school audience.
3. Assessing Relevancy of School Offerings
This toolkit aims to help schools assess school offerings for relevance, a key step toward crafting a dynamic value proposition. It is designed for use after developing a market-tested Customer Profile.
It starts with an exercise to help schools identify which of their offerings address the specific pains and gains outlined in the customer profile. Next, a relevancy rubric allows leaders to score each offering based on key criteria. Finally, schools can preview the value differentiator matrix, which will be used in the next step (Distinct) to visually map offerings based on their relevancy scores.