The Five Pillars: A Customizable Framework for Marketing to Full-pay Families
December 7 – 9, Washington, D.C.
The idea of attracting more full-pay families can be a daunting one. The economic conditions have not helped. How do schools attract and matriculate enough families in this economic and demographic environment? The independent schools’ professional development choices are comprised of limited strategies, ideas and techniques to successfully achieve what is needed for this market – full-pay applicants. A general approach to catch this segment will not achieve the desired outcome. Even among the full-pay families there are differences in attitudes, interest, and lifestyles which make the challenge more complex.
The “corporate world” offers a wide range of models in their toolbox to best approach this market. Without turning to this resource, schools will find it difficult to be successful in these current economic conditions. Over the last decade, Claude Anderson, a consultant and current Dean of Enrollment at Northfield Mount Hermon, has been learning the corporate ways and transforming those ideas into systems that work in private schools. He calls this strategy, The Five Pillars.
The Five Pillars is a defined structure to use when developing your marketing plan, strategies, and campaigns for matriculating the full-pay applicant. The structured nature of this 3 day program provides a step-by-step approach which gives practitioners a thorough understanding and confidence in the development and implementation of their school-specific full-pay marketing paradigm. Additionally, it provides them with transferable knowledge to advance their skills in marketing to full-pay families in most schools’ programs.
I think what was outstanding and very unique was truly the plan. The way that you can put together the pieces to create your plan, that is actionable. I really can’t emphasize enough that it is well-constructed, well-thought-out and well-communicated. We truly do have steps 1, 2 3, and 4 ready to go when we go back to school. Susan Carpenter Director, Strategic Marketing & Communications at Far Hills Country Day School
What I appreciated about it is that there is a very clear structure. He’s not just saying do this, do this, but he is taking you through the steps. It’s one thing to have a vision, but you need to know how to make the vision come to reality. He’s really providing that structure. Ann LaForge, Director of Advancement, The Cathedral School.
Who can benefit?
This program is designed for admission, marketing, and communications people and other leaders and influencers in the school who desire a more effective recruiting program for full-pay families or who may want to raise their own skill level in marketing to these families.
How is the workshop different?
The Current Conditions |
The Five Pillars Workshop |
Other Marketing Programs |
| 70-85% of a private school’s revenue comes from tuition, so full-pay families are essential to enrollment. They have more choices for educating their children and they have higher expectations than the non-full-pay family group. They need directed marketing strategies. | The focus is entirely around marketing to full-pay families. | The focus is a blanket approach to the customer base without segmenting between full-pay and non-full-pay families, assuming that expectations are the same. |
| Because the full-pay market represents a small fraction of the population, strong systematic initiatives need to be used to attract them. | Provides a structured framework which teaches the participant the language, culture, and strategy for marketing to full-pay families. It is a customizable plan of which the foundation is laid step-by-step throughout the 3-day program. | Provides a tactical approach that the participants can use to market to a general audience. It offers a menu of options that the practitioner may consider as part of its marketing initiatives. |
| How do I determine what in the workshop works best for my school? | The Five Pillars has customizable structure. Participants learn the building blocks of the Five Pillars system and start constructing their plan under the guidance of Claude Anderson and peer reviews. | Participants select the options from what is learned, return to their school, and implement an idea or attempt to develop a system. |
| How does the program help me to acquire the information offered? | “The Five Pillars: Customized Planning Workbook” helps you to easily follow, collect, and process the presented information and group work. This workbook, over 100 pages, is the basis for building your customized plan. It contains information for understanding The Five Pillars, following practical examples, and completing well-designed worksheets for you to build your plan. You are able to engage more in the conversation due to the common language learned. You create and write ideas about your school’s plan to market to full-pay families and bring back this foundation to your school. | Provides Power Point slides to follow the presentation and minimal structure for developing a systematic approach. You are responsible for determining which tactics can apply to your school or which ones to use in building your own marketing approach. It is targeted toward a general population. |
| How is the information presented? | Provides varying format – interactive presentations and group work of various sizes. The information is presented and immediately applied to your customization process. There are tutoring sessions to provide clarity about the how to, the why, and the what-about-this questions. With the Five Pillars Customized Planning Workbook and sessions building on each other, participants can absorb more information. | May provide varying formats in presentation and information gathering, however, the programs typically do not offer a sequential, systematic approach for developing a plan. |
| How does this program serve to advance my personal marketing skills? | Because you are learning a systematic approach to marketing to full-pay families, you are leaving with a skillset that can be carried with you and applied to other schools. | You learn tactical approaches that can be applied to other environments and the general market. |
It was great. We started at 8:32 a.m. which cracked everybody up. I think that moving around, doing group work, doing individual work, having some time in the afternoon, and having tutoring time, which my children thought was hilarious that I was getting tutoring, was great. I thought the program was really varied. It was a lot of information and I think just the format made it possible for us not to be exhausted and absorb a lot at the same time. Director of Admisison
The product is unique because it is not ethereal or intangible. It feels as though we are walking back with a skill set. It’s the Rosetta Stone model, where I feel as though I am going back learning a language. I am coming back with something. It’s been incredibly helpful. I can’t stop taking notes and during breaks I keep texting colleagues, saying ‘I can’t wait to tell you about this’ or ‘make sure I tell you about that.’ It has been super practical. Kevin Ramos-Glew, Director of Admission, Kimble Union Academy
What if we already have big plans for marketing and communications to full pay families?
We recommend that you postpone any further research, viewbooks, videos, websites, events or social media, until you attend this program. If you have been given the task of writing your school’s enrollment, marketing, communications, advertising or strategic plan, you will want to take advantage of what you will learn and the framework you will build during this workshop.
Why should I bring a partner?
The advantage is that it will advance your work much faster to have someone who understands the Five Pillars and who has begun to build your school’s framework with you during the 3-day program. Some participants have said that this length of time together has been invaluable.
There were significant benefits to having multiple members of our team participating in this workshop including: a greater number and diversity of ideas, a shared understanding of the challenges, and stronger appreciation for the importance of the team approach. As a result, all of us are strongly invested in the success of this initiative. Treavor Lord, Headmaster, The Hill School
What is expected of the workshop participants?
Past participants of The Five Pillars program will tell you that the program is work, but the design enables you to get the most out of the experience. You are expected to learn The Five Pillars strategy, apply the learning, and develop a potential framework for your school’s marketing and communication initiatives before you leave the 3-day program. Many sessions involve lab time to develop your skills and apply it to your school’s situation. With a focus on full-pay families, the program goals are:
Strategic Goals
- demonstrate an understanding of The Five Pillar strategy
- understand and identify the motivations for families giving up their free public school option
- identify your school’s Five Pillars Paradigm which will compel a family to enroll
- articulate your core strengths and beliefs in a manner that will develop future disciples.
Tactical Goals
- learning to develop compelling headlines for advertisement
- creating marketing content that draws in the customer
- reviewing and interpreting data to better know your families
- creating new ways to construct your marketing events from the viewpoint of the customer
The Final Thought by Head of School, Neil Mufson, The Country School
It has been an exceptional experience. I think what Claude has offered is a completely new way of thinking and conceptualizing the problem (matriculating more full-pay applicants). And hence with that in mind, he has developed a new set of strategies to employ and solve the issue. Not only are his ideas good, his manner of presentation is very strong. The individual attention that he gives to every participant is also exceptional.
I think if the workshop had been entitled “New Marketing Ideas” I might not have been as interested, but when he was very upfront with the fact that we are talking about marketing to full-pay families and the specific strategies that you have to roll out in order to attract that group, that made it all the more compelling.
The Five Pillars Workshop, December 7 – 9, Washington, D.C.
Program instruction begins on Sunday at 8:32 am. Sunday and Monday instruction will run from 8:32 am – 4:30 pm (subject to minor changes in order to respond to class instruction). Tuesday instruction runs from 8:32 am – 2:00 pm.
Contact: Janice Crampton, Executive Director of AISAP, info@aisap.org
Ph: 203.421.7051