Aesthetic Intelligence and Schools
Pauline Brown has had a long career as a corporate executive and has led companies that produce and market luxury brands. She was a guest on the Harvard Business Review podcast, Ideacast, to talk about her theory of Aesthetic Intelligence which is, "thinking about how your services and products stimulate all five senses to create delight.”
Independent school enrollment managers are working to understand the Millennial and Gen Z buyer and learn what drives decision making, as it appears to be changing from the way prior generations of parents and students made decisions about school choice. Though schools should not abandon the data-driven marketing strategy that has been transformational in attracting mission-appropriate students, Brown suggests that all businesses spend more time considering how prospective clients feel:
What I’m suggesting is that it [big data and analytics] needs to be balanced with other types of thinking. Because when you look at the research, the vast majority of reasons that anyone will buy one product over another, anywhere from 80 to 90 percent of the decision is based on how that product or service makes the person feel.
And yet, marketers and researchers are predominately focused on what their customers think and how they would reason the features, the functions, the costs, the benefits. That is not what’s driving buying decisions and yet we really are a rather unsophisticated as a marketplace in terms of understanding how people feel, empathizing with it and then actually tapping into it. And delivering in ways that are genuine and that are uplifting.
Not only can these ideas be applied to the admissions process in schools, but it lends itself particularly well to retention efforts. I was an administrator at a small, independent school with a tight budget and lean administrative team. Lavishness or luxury was not part of the school's ethos or brand promise and would have been incongruous with the culture of that school. But, the scales had tipped too far to the austere side, and the events that included parents or grandparents (the school's buyers) felt like an afterthought, and did not appeal to an aesthetic intelligence.
The school administration is seen as the host, or “homeowner” of a school and its events, I decided to evaluate the school's events with that idea in mind. Grandparents and Special Friends Day was an event in need of aesthetic intelligence; a good place to start. I asked my administrative team, “What would you insist on if you were hosting a group of people at your home?” We considered what made us feel genuinely welcomed and valued as an invited guest, and thought about what delighted us in terms of conversation, food, drink, and activities. We mapped out a plan that we could afford that included a team of volunteers to welcome guests, better food, parking assistance, way-finding signage, and a coat check.
Then we asked teachers to imagine themselves as a guest at this event. We asked them to further imagine that they had traveled from the other side of the country, had not seen the school before, and were paying a portion of their grandchild’s tuition. What would they expect to see and feel, and how would they expect to be treated? Teachers embraced the program in a new way and changed the format, content, and schedule to focus on the guest experience.
The result was that grandparents told their children how impressed they were with their choice of school, and parents felt delighted by that. The school saw an increase in grandparent participation in the annual fund and an increase in attendance at Grandparents Day every year after that. That shift in perception changed the way everyone at the school thought about how families felt at school events.
Big data has a vital role in how we market our schools, but emotion, belonging, fears, desires, and aspirations drive more decisions than we are willing to admit. The school that understands who they are, who they best serve, and the strength of their evolving program will be able to delight their prospective and current buyers by thinking of them as people who want to be delighted. To quote Pauline Brown, “the benefit of aesthetics is it’s not solving a problem, its offering delight.”
How can you create more delight for each constituency at your school?
The author, Jill Goodman, is a consultant working with independent school leaders to advance their school’s mission, enhance their processes, and bolster their skills.
