3 steps to successfully build an international school brand in 2021
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From the humble beginnings in the mid 1950’s in the West-Java town of Bandung, to the state-of-the-art campus in the centre of BSD City - DSJ looks back on a proud history in Indonesia.
For most of its existence Deutsche Schule Jakarta used to be a rather exclusive school catering to German speaking children from expatriate families living and working in Indonesia. But things started to change during the Asian crisis of 1998 as foreign and German speaking expatriate numbers in Indonesia began to decrease. This trend has continued ever since.
Understanding the change in target audience, DSJ set up a Trilingual branch in the early years of the new century, opening the German curriculum and its worldwide accepted Abitur graduation to Indonesian students without prior German language skills.
The transition from a mainly German-language-institution to a truly international and intercultural school has been highly successful and guaranteed the continuation and development of DSJ into one of Indonesia’s finest international schools.
In 2019 approximately 300 children from over 10 nationalities studied at DSJ, with nearly 80% of them being Indonesian or from mixed marriage families.
Since the introduction of the Trilingual branch, many Indonesian students have successfully graduated the Abitur, often achieving top marks.
[ 01 ] MARKETING - the challenge
The shift from catering to exclusively German-speaking-expatriates to a mostly local target audience obviously represents a big marketing challenge.
While there was very little to explain to German-speaking-parents about the Deutsche Schule and why to enroll their children, this is obviously very different for local parents; very few of whom have ever heard of, let alone considered DSJ and the German curriculum as the education path for their children.
Different from the IB or Cambridge curricula, which are educational ‘household names’ in Indonesia, the German International Abitur (or ‘DIA’) has never been promoted abroad, so it comes at no surprise, that very few locals would even know that non-German-speaking students are welcome to join.
Because this lack of awareness among its largest target audience and the increasing competition of international-style-schools in the greater West/South Jakarta area, a thorough re-positioning was inevitable, which led to the involvement of schmidtideas as branding consultant in 2019.
What started as a positioning & brand story assignment, extended successfully into other brand / communication & search-engine-marketing (SEM) efforts.
And there is still much to be done.
[ 02 ] BRAND POSITIONING - defining the brand building blocks
The task is to establish DSJ among the 'TOP OF MIND' international schools in Jakarta, including premium local institutions that teach international curricula.
How to create awareness about the German school and its ‘unknown’ curriculum in this saturated market dominated by English language curricula and transform it into a recognized and inspirational brand?
For starters - the right brand positioning is paramount. Without it any communication will be like driving blindfolded.
A good positioning must answer these
three questions; what, how and why?
What ? - Every organisation on the planet knows what they do - the products or services they sell
How ? - some know how they do it. Theses are the things that make them special, set them apart, their
competitive edge (unique selling points)
Why ? - well, now this is where it gets complicated.
Very few organisations really know why they do what they do. And don’t get this wrong -
the why is NOT about making money.
Why is a strong value proposition:
a purpose, cause or belief.
The very reason the organisation exists.
Let’s answer these 3 questions for Deutsche Schule Jakarta
01 WHAT are we offering?
Educational excellence from kindergarten up to the university-entrance-qualification, taught in 3 national tongues (German, English and Indonesian)
02 HOW are we doing it?
One of the world’s most esteemed pedagogic cultures, the ‘Deutsches Internationales Abitur’ (DIA) - taught by highly qualified teachers - guarantees the best possible upbringing of our students and access to ANY study- and career-path anywhere worldwide.
Because of our non-profit nature and the German government support, we can
focus on the child instead of the profit margin. We call it
"Bildung made in Germany".
03
WHY are we doing what we do?
We nurture confident, well-mannered students with high values, strong life skills and the cultural preparedness to
successfully adapt to and compete in our increasingly complex world. Because every child deserves the best education possible.
[ 03 ] BRAND MESSAGE - How to clearly communicate our message?
Now as we have identified the basic building blocks of the DSJ-brand, how do we communicate our message, one that is easily understood and relevant to our target customers?
Why do people would want the DSJ school in their lives?
There’s a great book that very much helps to get a crack on this -
Donald Miller’s “How to build a story brand” https://storybrand.com
I can only encourage any marketeer and brand enthusiast to read it. This book puts brand-building into an easy-to-understand context.
Let me summarize a long and well told story:
The key to being seen, heard and understood is to clarify your message!
And the most powerful tool to do just that - to structure information - is a good story.
It’s a sense-making devise.
Alfred Hitchcock once said a good story is “life with the dull parts taken out.”
Humans have told each other stories since the early days of mankind. Nothing keeps our attention longer than a good story.
This is a crucial insight - especially given our
waning attention-span in today’s fast and omni-channel world.
And the best part to it - there’s even a FORMULA to great scripting.
Donald Miller calls this his “7 plot points to success”.
[ 1- 2 ] Every story has a hero who wants something, but has a problem to achieve it.
In almost all stories a villain (metaphorical, does not have to be a person) challenges our hero’s success.
[ 3-4-5 ] In his time of need the hero turns to a trusted guide, who offers him a plan and calls him to action.
[ 6 ] The hero gets what he wants (happy ending) or [ 7 ] fails, ending tragically
Almost all stories live and die on a simple question: will the hero succeed or fail?
The only two motivations are to escape something bad or experience something good.
Such is life.
Brands that help avoid some kind of negativity in life engage customers for the same reason good stories captivate the audience: they define what is at stake.
If nothing can be gained or lost, nobody cares.
To make the above plots a little less abstract, here are
two great story examples:
Scripting the DSJ story
So let’s see how these 7 plot points play out for Deutsche Schule Jakarta:
[ 1 ] Who are the heroes in our story?
It’s our customers - the parents. And as all parents - they want the best education possible for their child (affordable within their means).
[ 2 ] Who have a problem
Quality education is a major investment and deciding on the right school and best value for your money is a testing task.
Will my child get the support it needs? Is the school successfully preparing my child for tomorrow’s ever changing world?
Naturally there’s lot to worry about and the stakes are high.
Here’s ‘the villain’ in this story:
Mediocre schools which focus more on profit margins rather than empowering their students with relevant skills, values and the capacity for life-long learning.
The sad fact is that average education will restrict your child's university access, career options and limit your family’s future possibilities.
[ 3 ] Meet a guide
Our parents seek guidance and reinsurance in choosing the right school. The two things a brand must communicate to position themselves as the guide and establish trust are: empathy & authority
Empathy: At DSJ we understand how stressful the search for the right school can be.
We promise the best possible guidance for you to come to a well-informed decision.
Authority: DSJ is part of a prestigious, global network of 140 German-Government-supported schools abroad with over 60 years of experience in Indonesia. Our DIA-graduation is universally accepted.
[ 4 ] Trust a guide who has a plan
At this point in our customers’ journey we have identified their need and problems and positioned ourselves as a trusted and respected advisor.
But our customers are not ready to sign up just yet.
Why? Because we have not laid out a plan, nor a vision of where we will take them.
A compelling image of an achievable future.
Let’s for a moment get philosophical; what is the driving force behind nearly every decision we make as human beings?
The desire to transform. Everybody wants to change. We all want to be somebody different, richer, healthier, better looking, or simply more self-accepting.
People choose brands that participate in their transformation.
So what is it that our parents aspire?
Every parent wants the best possible future for their child.
Our target customers aspire to provide a prestigious, international quality education that ensures their child’s and family’s future prosperity.
Especially for Asians, this is an investment into the future and a matter of self-worthiness.
And what is our plan - what does DSJ have to offer to help them achieve this goal?
Well - be patient here for a moment. To avoid repeating myself, you’ll find the answer laid out further below in our brand story.
[ 5 ] The call to action
At this point our customers should be excited.
But they probably still won’t sign up. Customers do not take action unless they are challenged to do so.
They are bombarded with thousands of commercial messages a day, and unless we are bold in our calls to action, we will be ignored.
Now this part is all about a successful customer journey and effective customer relation managing (CRM). I won’t go into detail here (more about that some other time).
Just this much; it is paramount to live up to our role as trusted advisor, to clearly describe the process until and beyond sign-up, to reduce customers’ fears and increase the perceived value of the services offered until the customers are happy and ready to enroll their child.
[ 6 ] Ends in Success
Never assume people understand how your brand can change their life. Tell them!
What is the life changing promise to our parents?
Your decision for DSJ is the right choice. Your child has embarked on a learning & career path leading to unlimited life opportunities. There is nothing else to be done, nothing to worry about.
Your child’s education is in good hands.
[ 7 ] and Avoiding failure
Every human being is trying to avoid a tragic ending.
What are we helping our customers to avoid?
Brands that don’t warn their customers about what would happen if they don’t buy their products / services fail to answer the “So what” question every customer is secretly asking.
To successfully maneuver in an increasingly complex world our children need strong values, lingual competence, cultural preparedness and soft skills.
Education is a multi billion $ profit-making-business and with more and more ‘international’ style schools popping up, choosing the wrong institution will affect your child’s whole life (as well as your own) resulting in life-long regrets.
Do not let this happen.
So yeah, here you go -
Donald Miller “7 plot points to success” applied to DSJ.
Which finally leads us to our DSJ brand story.
The Deutsche Schule Jakarta Brand Story
01 Who are we talking to, want do they want
What is the most important gift parents can offer their child? Many would likely answer:
“The best education we can afford.”
02 What is at stake - the challenge
As a parent, your decision on schooling will greatly impact your child’s future.
Will your choice
support his or her potential and life prospects ... or limit them?
03 Empathy - customers can trust us
Quality education is a major investment, and we understand how challenging the search for the right school can be. Therefore
we ensure the best possible guidance for you to arrive at a well-informed result.
04 Authority - they can respect
DSJ is part of a prestigious global network
of 140 German-government-supported schools abroad,
with
over 60 years of experience in Indonesia.
05 What we offer - competitive edge ( part of the plan )
We teach the highly elaborate German ‘DIA’ curriculum - or Deutsches Internationales Abitur - one of the world’s most esteemed teaching cultures, and the only one ‘Made in Germany’.
Our teaching philosophy focuses on each child individually, identifying unique needs and skills.
06 Unique selling points - part of the plan
To ensure academic and personal growth, our highly qualified teachers embark with your child
on a learning journey, which engages MIND, BODY and all the SENSES.
This way, we nurture curious and independent personalities and the development of strong life skills.
07 Unique selling points - part of the plan
Continuous curriculum development and consistent monitoring and quality control by the German authorities, guarantee educational excellence from Kindergarten up to the University entrance qualification.
Due to our non-profit nature and the financial assistance of the German Government,
we are able to offer
reasonable school fees and maximal education value.
08 Unique selling points - part of the plan
As ‘Begegnungsschule’ - a school of encounter - we provide a friendly, multi-cultural environment, promoting respect for everyone’s roots, values, and traditions.
The result: confident, well-mannered students with
excellent language skills and the
cultural preparedness to take their place in tomorrow’s global communities.
09 Why we do what we do
Rest assured - at DSJ, your children will learn the necessary skills, values and capabilities
to successfully adapt to and
compete in our increasingly complex world.
10 Our brand promise & tagline
The ‘Deutsches Internationales Abitur’ is
your child’s ticket to any study - and career path,
including anywhere abroad.
DSJ - Zukunft made in Germany
This brand story is our basic message-outline from which almost all of the communication tools and content are developed. Keep in mind that brands are ‘living things’, so our story will evolve over time.
As long as you do your homework, understand the market, the target audience as well as your own brand and competitive edge; the above actions will help you to be on your way to advancing your product or services into a relevant and engaging brand.
Last not least - thanks to the Deutsche Schule Jakarta management for being such a great client.
Here’s to the next 65 years!
Well, this pretty much wraps up this blog. Thanks for your interest, I hope you learned something new, please do let me know your thoughts. Any input is welcome.
Axel Schmidt, Jakarta
