Marketing.

This Tuesday, the newly named Marketing/Recruitment Committee (as opposed to Marketing/Admissions Committee) will be having what likely will be a seminal meeting in Kadima's history. I may be overstating it a bit, but the Committee will be meeting with Marshall Platt, a marketing coach being provided to us (in part) by the gracious folks at PEJE.

Mr. Platt is a marketing consultant, and we are hoping that he will give the Committee and the Admissions team assistance in branding and marketing the school. We've had a variety of marketing efforts in the past, and some really good ones, but we are hoping that Mr. Platt will be able to provide some focused critical direction and focus to our efforts.

Marketing, however, is just a means to an end. It is not, at least in my non-marketing professional view, an end into itself. In the past, our leadership has been side tracked in blaming various difficulties on the lack of marketing, when the difficulties were more deep rooted. You have to have an excellent product; otherwise, all the marketing in the world won't work. As some one in advertising once said, if the dog won't eat the dogfood, it doesn't matter how good the advertisement is.

We're working on those issues, too, and we've already seen improvements in the look and feel of the campus, the re-focus on differentiated learning, and the efforts to ensure proper discipline in the classroom. If nothing else, the positive buzz at and around the school--which in turn is drowning out and marginalizing the naysayers--is having a great effect. The reality is that great things are happening at Kadima, and that word is getting out.

But we do need to improve our marketing strategies. And we're hoping that Mr. Platt will provide the wisdom we need to increase our marketing success. I'm looking forward to an interesting meeting. I will be eager to hear what our various marketing experts (including, but not limited, to Mr. Platt) have to say about how to get the word out about the great things happening at Kadima.