Why is Marketing So Confusing?

Why is marketing so confusing? It doesn’t have to be.

Yesterday, after we presented the final strategic brand recommendations to the client team, the Head of School said, “This is good clay. A good through line.” I love that. Simple. 

Coincidently, I met with a seasoned independent school professional right before that presentation who said to me, you know what schools need? Simplicity. If you defined the multiple marketing terms and then let them know what you focus on within these terms, that would be a big help to them. It reminded me of this Seth Godin post, What is marketing? and this one about The marketing department. 

Additionally, brand strategy, positioning, or messaging work naturally prompts the important question, “How will this be used?”

Why is marketing so confusing? It doesn’t have to be. 

In an attempt to make the concept of marketing easier, I’ve been known to talk about Owned, Earned, and Paid Marketing. But perhaps a good, timely analogy can help. 

We’re in the final days of summer, harvest season, and I have gardening and farm stands on my mind. With that said, let’s think about marketing as a garden.  

The Sun

Everything revolves around the sun. This is your mission, your reason for being. Mission is why you all come to work everyday, which may not be differentiating and/or the same reason why families may consider your school for their child. It is NOT marketing. 

The Soil

This is the good clay the Head of School was talking about, the soil, the basis of a productive, vibrant harvest, your brand strategy, your positioning platform, the foundation from which all your marketing efforts will grow. Good soil generates good ideas. These are your owned efforts:

• Messaging
• Brand voice
• Logos and taglines 

The Fruits and Vegetables

Your brand assets. You are what you eat, as they say, and fresh is best. These are the assets that you produce that have the power to work in your favor, also owned efforts:

• Website and SEO (search engine optimization)
• Style Guides: copy, look and feel, that ties it all together 
• Printed materials: view books, brochures
• Swag
• Events: Open houses
• Communications: email, newsletters
• Online profiles: Niche.com, greatschool.org
• Social media: Instagram, TikTok 
• The lived experience at school, itself

The Flowers

These are your campaigns. When you want to attract a hummingbird, you plant something bright and red. These are all the ways you can spend your budget to attract attention, your paid efforts.

• Advertising: digital, analog, radio, billboards
• Sponsorships
• SEM (search engine marketing)
• Direct marketing: mail, social ads

The Pollinators

The birds, the bees, the butterflies. They take from one source and share it elsewhere where it takes on a life of its own. Nurtured soil lays the groundwork for a pollinator friendly garden, good buzz. What people say about you and the message they take away, carries the most power to pique interest in your school. Make sure what gets shared resonates. You have more control here than you think. These are your earned efforts.

• Word-of-mouth
• Online reviews
• Comments
• PR

The Sky

This is marketing. It’s everywhere, all of the time. This is the perception of how you show up to your existing community, your alums, your prospective families. To effectively speak with your market, it is best to establish a solid brand platform by performing market research. That way you can learn what’s important to them, how well you deliver on those priorities, and how to best articulate and illustrate what makes you, you, in a way that resonates. 

StoryScape helps you tend to your soil, creating pollinator-friendly gardens.

Own it, earn it. Articulate and Resonate. 

Image powered by AI, words powered by EI (emotional intellegence)