RESEARCH ROUTE MAP

Step forward research: ‘the torch that lights the road to strategy’. It is easy to become lost down a very dark cul-de-sac without it. So, with the torch lit, here’s the route map.

1Create a brand definition team

Invite the representatives from the school’s management to join a brand definition team. These will potentially consist of the head, the bursar, the chair of governors and/or the ‘marketing governor’ plus teaching members of the SLT.

2.

Hold an initial brand definition review

Bring together the brand definition team for what is in fact the first stage of the research – a brand definition review in the form of a familiarisation workshop.

The objective of this session is to get everything everyone knows about the school out on the table or, in reality, onto a flip chart. It offers the opportunity to share pertinent historic information and, conversely, new insights about competitors and the overall state of the market. All this is discussed and shared in the safe space of the workshop with ‘Chatham House rules’ and plenty of coffee and cake to fuel the discussion. Without exception, everyone will find this an extremely useful, cathartic and enlightening experience.

Out of this discussion and debate will inevitably spill an assessment of residual knowledge and a recognition of what further insights are needed to build a hypothesis for the relevant redefinition of the brand. These insights will be gained from the results of widerreaching research.

The research brief will be a key output of this phase of the review. There needs to be consistency in the framing of the research questions across the different research modules in order to discover, overall:

• what your school does well

• what your school could do better (and therefore would make it more desirable)

• how respondents describe your school (this can be done as an open question or by supplying a number of optional descriptive words or sentences)

• how your competitors are perceived and how they are described.

3.Carry out the brand definition research modules

Taking the research brief developed by the brand definition team as a starting point, the most effective research modules for a brand definition exercise are:

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Stakeholders

This module can include staff, parents, pupils, alumni and relevant opinion formers. The research methods used to explore the views of this group will vary according to time and budget. Some can even be undertaken in-house to save money and questionnaires can be issued digitally direct from the head or marketing director. Stakeholder focus groups and interviews are best done via