MAD Ave Principles: Understand, Develop,and Live your Winning School Brand

MAD Ave Principles: Understand, Develop and Live your Winning School Brand is the new working title for my upcoming book on the power of bringing Branding Lessons...MAD Ave's Branding Principles... to "School Principals", our educational decision makers. Public education's leaders have to rally communities around school excellence in an existing client base, and leaders who manage private schools, colleges, universities need to build a more connected brand to attract clients. Both camps have the same needs. They must develop a level of personal experience through positive personal interactions between the organization and its market, its client--- AT EVERY POINT OF CONTACT! As Nike, Coke and Apple attest...having a well defined BRAND can achieve this.

The best way to assure that the audience/market you have and the market that you want to attract, experience the highest customer satisfaction with your school organization's service is to become MAD. Yes,MAD, as in absolutely flaming MAD. That's MAD as in "MADISON AVENUE savvy". To do that, hit the books, well, hit my book as soon as its published!

Until then, continue to read my blog.

Today's school managers must study BRANDING Lessons to learn facets of BRANDING and the framework of BRANDING, systems that have been honed for many years by MADmen ADmen on MAdison Avenue. These ideas empower school managers to accept a new frame of mind, and ready them to lead a 21st century campaign to bring an educational BRAND to the community. A BRAND connects emotionally and intellectually to all involved. More than MARKETING, which is fundamentally different, BRANDING education is a foundational necessity in today's world. The power of BRANDING hasn't been taught to educators in graduate school.Yet in this age of shared information, having that knowledge as a leader is essential.

As I see it from my background in business and education, there are Three Phases in growth for leaders who become MAD principals:

1. UNDERSTANDING BRANDING Dedicatie yourelf as an educational manager and thought leader to building an awareness of the power of BRANDING in educational settings. Understanding why BRANDING is important and why you should care about it. This is the first step to becoming a MAD Principal.
2. DEVELOPING the BRAND:Scope out the landscape. Build the unique framework for defining, through tangible and intangible means. The organizational shift to BRANDING is something you lead, not craft in isolation. Your school community 's brand will develop in conjunction with select stakeholders.
3.LIVING the BRAND Be ready to walk the talk. Once its captured, champion the BRAND through your leadership and motivating the organization to embark on living the BRAND for success. This will make the effort genuine and successful.


So...Are you a MAD Principal? Have you done something creative, out of the box , or tangible to demonstrate your awareness of building a relationship with your community in a new way? Please Comment.. and send this post to educator friends.I'm hunting for MAD Principals.