We helped Garrison Forest with market research and messaging.
Presentation High School (PRES), a Catholic girls day school (grades 9-12) in San Jose, Calif., was suffering from a self-inflicted dual-identity case that included a sexual abuse crisis and weak positioning and differentiation from other competitive schools in the San Jose market.
The new leadership wanted to partner with a firm that could position PRES as a unique school in a crowded independent school market. Kalix was engaged to conduct market research to test the school’s brand perceptions, create a new positioning for PRES and refresh the school’s visual brand.
Once the foundational work was completed, PRES needed a highly targeted digital marketing campaign to help reverse a steep decline in enrollment. Additionally, PRES was dealing with an online reputation management problem that called for a targeted strategy and a customized solution.
Our market research team worked in conjunction with PRES leadership to identify the research goals for a qualitative research study from a combination of internal and external audiences. Based on the study’s results, a new brand positioning and messaging framework were developed.
The Kalix creative team then designed a new brand identity, which included a contemporary logo and the tagline “Shine.” This ties strongly to the new brand messaging, which speaks to creating courageous and compassionate leaders that allows PRES girls to shine in their own way. Comprehensive brand guidelines and new admissions materials rounded out the new branding.
Just prior engaging Kalix, PRES had entered the academic year underenrolled, due to the negative fallout from the sexual abuse case. Our digital marketing team designed a two-fold strategy. Step one included a plan to address the school’s reputation management by creating multiple blog posts on a weekly basis, to have a positive impact on the school’s organic Google search. The content for these posts was created by the Kalix team based on an in-depth analysis of recent PRES news and messaging objectives, as well as topics of interest to the larger independent school audience, particularly around the topic of single-sex school and girls empowerment/leadership.
To further engage new audiences with the new messaging, Kalix followed the blog posts with a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, using Facebook and Google to reach prospective parents and bring them into the school’s admissions funnel.
The new brand identity has been warmly received by the PRES community and, most important, the initial six-month digital campaign was credited with increasing the school’s applicant pool and had a positive impact on the yield rate.
