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April 23, 2007
Vanilla is Not just Vanilla
In today’s chaotic school environment, it’s more important than ever that you are able to cast your school and your school's strengths in the most positive light. Parents and community members have more choices than ever in where to send their child. Teachers have more options in what and where they teach. One of your roles as a school executive is to help make your school stand out from the crowd so that people want to come and want to stay at your school. That’s the first lesson in marketing. Find ways to differentiate yourself from others. Dan Herman noted that a successful differentiation has two defining characteristics (a) it is not imitated by others and (b) brings you unmistakable success with those who may join in to your program (buy your services).
If you fail to differentiate, you end up like the stacks of vanilla ice cream that are stacked up in the frozen food section of the grocery store.
Our family loves ice cream. Almost every evening, we enjoy a small bowl or cup of ice cream. My wife and children are real ice cream connoisseurs. Once, I threw a small party at work for a coworker, Marie, who was moving out of state. Our teenage daughter wanted to go with me to the grocery store to get the ice cream and toppings. I looked up and down the aisles of ice cream and was astounded to see the different flavors of ice cream (Yes, I admit, my wife doesn’t allow me to do the grocery shopping because I am the world’s worst impulse buyer). I picked out a carton of vanilla ice cream from the freezer. Before I could pull it out, my daughter touched my hand and silently shook her head, then reached for a carton of Ben and Jerry’s ™ signature vanilla ice cream. I looked at the price of both of the cartons and gasped. “ I don’t see the difference between what I have (generic vanilla) and Ben and Jerry’s vanilla. They’re both vanilla.” My daughter shook her head and asserted, “It’s not just plain vanilla. This one (pointing to Ben and Jerry’s) is much better.” I persisted-“They both have the same ingredients and the same flavor. My daughter shook her head again and told me quite clearly that if I wanted to go down that path of buying only generic vanilla ice cream, hardly anybody would pick those cartons. “Even with all the toppings?”, I asked. “Dad,“ she responded in an exasperated tone, “you make whatever decision you want to make-after all it is your money and your party. But I am telling you that vanilla is NOT just vanilla.”
We ended up getting six cartons of ice cream but I persisted in the generic vanilla. After all, vanilla is vanilla. She told me to pick up the Ben and Jerrys ™ and see for myself.
At the party, I waited until the last person had gotten a bowl of ice cream. Guess which one was the only one left-that’s right the plain vanilla. Ben and Jerry cleaned my clock. I smothered my plain generic vanilla ice cream with toppings and got ready to eat crow when I got home that evening . The lesson? You have to find ways to differentiate your school from the others. You can’t be just plain vanilla. Vanilla is not just vanilla.
Posted by chitch at April 23, 2007 8:21 AM