Story Reference Book
Alexander Preparatory is a private school that strives to give the experience of a home school environment with small class sizes, college-prep learning, and focusing on the individuals’ talents. The school mainly focuses on their website, Facebook, and occasionally an ad in the newspaper to help advertise to the public. Now, that they are in a new community, they want to expand to the public, so they know what Alexander Preparatory School has to offer. Alexander Preparatory key message is “Small school, Big experience” and their primary target audience is parents with students who are of the 6th-12th grade age looking for a school that will focus on them as an individual instead of a number. The world that is Alexander Prep is a school wanting to better the individual as not only a scholar but further them in their unique talents. They bring a sense of community and family inside the school so whenever a student walks through the doors, they feel like they are right at home. Saying this, Alexander Prep is where students go to expand their knowledge and their talents, they will not be treated like just another student, and they will genuinely enjoy going to school again.
Situation Analysis
Alexander Preparatory’s main problem is that they are in a new location. They moved from Roswell to Cumming, GA. They are wanting to reach their new target audience, but haven’t done much to do so. Their Facebook and Instagram pages don’t have any pictures with content with it, they don’t make post that are going to interact with their audience. Basically, they just have pictures posted and nothing else. If they made productive captions that describes what the school is doing with the visual to support it, it would help increase interactions with potential customers. Instagram is a great source to start using because their competition is using this platform to advertise as well. Instagram, unlike Facebook, reaches a different audience/demographic. Their website needs to be upgraded and make it has interactive as possible. Looking at their social media as a platform to advertise they need to focus on interacting with potential parents and students. They are a school that thrives on being unique and caters to the student particular needs, instead of just looking at them as another student. To do this, showing pictures of what the students do on a daily basis would help show their target audience what APS culture is.
Market Analysis
The overall market that my client operates is parents with kids in 6th-12th grade. They are working with the Cumming, Georgia area and targeting students who need a change in their learning habits. Also, students who have special talents that need to be able to focus on those talents, as well as, be able to thrive in their studies. The schools market is also the neighboring county and the other schools nearby. This is because many of their students came from previous private schools in either Cumming, Roswell, or Dawsonville.
Facts and Figures: There is approximately 180 public schools in Forsyth County and about 17 private schools. These figures are working directly with the target market in Forsyth County. “The student:teacher ratio of 17:1 is more than the state average of 16:1,” where at Alexander Preparatory the student:teacher ratio is 5:1.
High School:”For the 2018-19 school year, there are 6 public high schools managed by Forsyth County School District serving 13,020 students in Cumming, Georgia.”
Middle School: “For the 2018-19 school year, there are 10 public middle schools managed by Forsyth County School District serving 10,782 students in Cumming, Georgia.”
Elementary School: “For the 2018-19 school year, there are 30 public elementary schools managed by Forsyth County School District serving 31,362 students in Cumming, Georgia.”
Secondary audience: This audience would be the neighboring counties, such as, Dawsonville, Cobb, and Fulton. Alexander Preparatory has about 3 students out of 30 who are enrolled who live in neighboring counties. Reaching these counties will allow Alexander Preparatory to expand their market.
Goals and Objectives
Three things need to happen. First, expanding and using more social media platforms will help reach a broader audience. Second, creating a commercial will show to the community Alexander Prep’s key message, their culture, and the atmosphere of the school. Lastly, attending school fairs/handing out flyers and meeting people on a face-to-face manner will make a public sphere by creating the sense of community and give them an experience that will show that Alexander Prep focuses on their students as individuals. By doing this expansion plan, Alexander Prep will be able to show how their world can transform the idea of learning.
- Smart Goals:
- Flyers: The flyers can be used for marketing emails. Sending the flyers via emails this will increase more traffic. I want to boost website visits by 10% to gain more online traffic.
- Commercial: The commercial can be easily put on social media platforms. For example, on Facebook I want to boost views by 10% within 6 months. With more social media followers increase the more views on the commercial.
- Social Media: Instagram and Facebook follower increase by 20% in the next school year.
Target Audiences / Analysis
Alexander Preparatory’s primary target audience is parents with students who are of the 6th-12th grade age looking for a school that will focus on them as an individual instead of a number. The world that is Alexander Prep is a school wanting to better the individual as not only a scholar but further them in their unique talents. Most of their target audience will mostly come from social media platforms and interactions on their website. Creating a video to put on social media and their website will help with interactions with the target audience.
Facts and Figures: The students that attend Alexander Preparatory either have special talents and need to be able to create their own schedules. Or they are students that are wanting a change in their learning habits. Alexander Preparatory treats their students as individuals instead of a number. “For the 2018-19 school year, there are 35 public schools managed by Forsyth County School District serving 44,286 students in Cumming, Georgia.” Also, “For the 2018-19 school year, there are 17 top private schools in Forsyth County, Georgia, serving 3,139 students.”
Product 1:
Updating social media will help expand their market to the target audience. Using platforms like, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Weekly posts of what the school is doing, teacher/student spotlights, and general posts with information of the school that will give updates to the public. Using the social media platforms will also help with branching out so there is more community engagement, which is something that Alexander Preparatory school is wanting to achieve. They can also create social media advertisements.
Product 2:
Creating a commercial will extend to their market even more. I can create a video and edit it to show the community the world that is Alexander Preparatory School. My plan for using this particular product is to show the world of the school from a “Sky High” movie perspective. This will show the schools culture and key message. The commercial is what I will be creating (Need more time to create draft). The key message is kids who have special talents that need to be able to schedule their school classes accordingly around practices. Similar to “Sky High,” this commercial will show the culture of how the school creates an environment that is different from public schooling. They’re special because they cater to unique talents. First, I will want to show the school from the outside and then walking in I will capture what the school looks like and what the students do on a daily basis. Alexander Prep prides themselves on being a private establishment that has a home school environment. Within the 30 second commercial that is what I want to achieve, show the community what Alexander Prep is all about. Then at the end have their key message on the screen, “Small School, Big Experience.”
Also, the commercial can be put on all social media platforms.
Product 3:
School fairs / flyers will expand to students. Within the school fairs the main target audience with be the students, because they are the ones that attend the fairs most often. The school fairs will help with getting more information out to students who are rising 6th graders and may want a new environment and this will create more exposure. This is a good way to be able to interact with the market one-on-one and actually get to speak to them. Create approved flyers for the school fairs will achieve getting information out to the target audience, parents with kids in grades 6-12 wanting a change of school. Especially since Alexander Prep is new to the Forsyth County community, doing this will create awareness.
Previous work examples (link to blog posts):
https://shopdressup.com/blog/spotted-new-animal-print/
https://shopdressup.com/blog/sunny-days-ahead/
Resume:
Ricki Adams 