Marketing an Education

There isn't a lot of difference between marketing a product and conducting an educational program. All the same marketing techniques are used in both situations.

I'm creating a nutrition education program right now and I am really enjoying myself because the creative, marketing side of me is engaged. I have to create a logo, a slogan, and put together a series of activities and lessons that will somehow make an impact on my audience. Just so we're all on the same page, let me brief you on how my program is developing.

It's called "From the Ground Up." It's a curriculum kit for teachers in Centre County. The kids that it's geared towards are between pre-k and 2nd grade levels. Since the Pennsylvania Dietary Guidelines emphasize fruits and vegetables I chose to focus on them as well (mostly because I was hoping I could get some funds). My mentor on this project and I agree that kids gravitate towards foods that they know things about, like where it comes from or how it's made. For example, when I was young and was still being babysat by my grandmother who lives on a farm, I absolutely loved asparagus because I loved the way it grew straight up from the ground- not even on a vine or anything. It was this kind of logic that lead us to create a program that focuses on things that come from the ground, vines, or trees, what happens to it when it goes through the manufacturing process and then finally, what it looks like on our plate. For example, pumpkin is a vegetable that is big and grows on a vine, but do we ever see a pumpkin sitting on our plate ready to be eaten? No, sometimes we see it in pie, or pudding, or in bread. With this program we are helping kids make the connection between how it is in it's rawest form and  then how we eat it.  Hopefully by generating interest in the origin of our food, they will gravitate towards fruits and veggies who's origins are from the ground!

So, onto marketing and education.

With marketing, you have to know who your target population is- what they value, how they live their life, what kind of decisions they make, where they life etc. etc. Then you can market your product or idea to them. If you were to blindly create an advertisement or a persuasive statement, it is unlikely that you will connect with them to the degree where they would invest in your product. For example, if the commercial where that old man who sits in front of a living room fireplace and turns to the camera and asks you, "Do you have type 2 die-uh-bee-tahs?" were to air on a channel like Nickelodeon, 8 year old kids probably don't even know what diabetes is. It wouldn't be offensive, but it definitely wouldn't be money well spent.

Here's an education example: if I were to blindly conduct my education program without any knowledge of my target population I could make some big no-no's. What if I didn't know that my target population is predominantly white? What if my target population was mostly black? The white human hand on my logo probably wouldn't be appropriate and some could construe it to be offensive. What's more likely is that my target population wouldn't be able to connect with my program in the first place and all my hard work could be ineffective just because I didn't take the time to research my audience.

Just like you "sell" a product, you have to "sell" education. What makes them give a crap about your program? What will this do for them? Just like in the business world, using the right language is key. Everything you sell or every program you conduct must be framed by language that benefits the consumer. You must always be answering the question "how will this make my consumer's life easier?"

In the nutrition world, program writers use optimistic words like "promote" and "strengthen" and "energize" and "nourish" to avoid getting that bad "food police" rep that they often do. Phrases to avoid include "cut this out" or "don't eat" or "only eat this." We say, nutrition isn't meant to limit diets, it's meant to expand them! We might be extremely excited about introducing kale into our diets (just kidding, don't eat kale it's like eating a leaf off a tree) but yet we are still staring at an audience of on-the-go Americans who eat fast-food once a day just because it's convenient.

It may be that every time you present your program or your product to a different audience you will have to adjust it every time. Tweaking your product or education program spiel is extremely important for connecting with your audience. As I begin to do my own nutrition education program, I am realizing that pre-k--2nd grade kids are more knowledgeable than we give them credit for. Of course they know that apples come from trees, of course they know that tomatoes come from plants. My goal is to be stimulating, not to bore them. I am, yes, marketing my program towards them, researching every little inkling of preference or values that a 5 year old may have. They love Dora! They love bright colors! They like learning! They have no attention span! All of this information is extremely important to me as it's a huge part of my product promotion.

Analyzing target populations is extremely important in both the business and education world. It's had to be too sensitive to the consumer's wants and needs. How can we possibly connect with our audience or make change within our audience if we aren't?