Stick It

     In the spirit of the hockey playoff season, "stick handling" is one of the key skills that distinguish the Sidney Crosbys of the sport from the rest of the players.  As I've watched the Pittsburgh Penguins in their playoff games against the Ottawa Senators and now the Montreal Canadiens, some of the more creative signage has included the phrase, "Stick it to 'em, boys!"

     Since one of the things about creativity is making connections between unrelated things, that got me thinking about our schools.  Where are you sticking messages about your school?  How "Sticky" are the words you're using to promote your school.  One of the best recent books on Marketing speaks to this matter - "Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath (check it out here) asserts that ideas have to be SUCCESs-filled in order to be successful.  Of course, SUCCES stands for those things that make the remarkable memorable - Simple, Unexpected, Credible, Concrete Stories.  Remember, your school has to be remarkable first.  Then the task is how to make that remarkability memorable.

     You can also reinforce your school's "brand" by sticking it in unexpected places.  Bumper stickers were always the way unique messages were conveyed, but with today's painted bumpers, bumper stickers can peel paint away when they need to be removed.

     The solution - window clings.  Colleges have used the rear window cling for a very long time...and now some schools are taking on the practice of putting the letters of their school in white ovals, as had been the practice of island destinations (or DMB - Dave Matthews Band - fans).  Maybe you have a unique logo for your school that you can place in the oval, with the name of your school and it's location printed in small type around its perimeter.

     The nice thing about window clings is that they can be used in the lower rear windows of cars, but also on side windows.  They can also be placed on the front doors of businesses that support your school; on homes of parents, grandparents and relatives; and on doors, windows and automobiles of individual donors, increasing exposures your school can have to wider publics.

     Make it stick - indeed, as many ways as you can.

© Michael V. Ziemski, SchoolAdvancement, 2010 (Original Publication Date: 20100510)

Back to Marketing Matters Index