The Counterintuitive Approach to School Marketing

The origin of Red Bull is one of many brand success stories that Rory Sutherland shares in Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life. Vice chairman of the advertising agency Ogilvy (and famously known for his TED Talks), Sutherland has spent over thirty years studying the science of human behavior. 

What he’s discovered is that people often make irrational, contradictory, and complex decisions all the time. We don’t think like AI-generated machines. Sometimes we take the scenic or long way home because it’s a beautiful drive and it’s familiar. But if we truly thought logically in these moments, we’d do what our GPS tells us to do and take the short route home. Or sometimes we buy an $8 latte when we could save money and make a pour-over at home. We never stop to notice that we’re being irrational; it’s simply the art and complexity of being human. 

Here’s the issue. Most organizations haven’t kept up with our complexity. They don’t always take our human behavior into consideration when making decisions. Instead, brands rely heavily on hard data to rationalize their decisions—data that can be measured and organized neatly in spreadsheets. And to be fair, this way of thinking makes sense. Logic plays a central role in mathematics and computer science, among many other fields of study. Even marketers can be data-driven. After all, it feels reassuring to have data on your side before taking a leap in a campaign.

But oftentimes individuals don’t do what market research says they’re going to do (just look at the consumer trials for Red Bull). That means that organizations that follow data trends often miss the mark in engaging their audience. Furthermore, everyone else is thinking this way. As Sutherland puts it in his book, “The fatal issue is that logic always gets you to exactly the same place as your competitors.” If you rely on logic as your only form of making decisions, the chances of standing out from other schools are slim. When you think counterintuitively, you’re thinking like no one else. That leads you to places no one else has tread.

So, how do you approach school marketing the counterintuitive way? There are three simple techniques to start with. First, uncover the ‘real why’ by understanding your audience's unconscious motivation. Second, solve big problems with small, impactful solutions. Third, focus on working effectively, not efficiently.  

Have you ever thought about why hotels have doormen? Your first thought may be to open doors. But the answer is actually more nuanced. It has nothing to do with efficiency. Doormen hail cabs and carry luggage; they provide a sense of safety when walking back to your hotel on a dark night. They are the first friendly faces to greet you—a hotel’s frontline customer service representatives. Doormen symbolize one crucial thing that hotels want to sell you: luxury. Some hotels even have automatic doors yet the doormen remain. Why? It’s because when you see a doorman, it elevates your entire experience at that hotel.

Underneath every why is a hidden why. The psychoanalytic term for this is “unconscious motivations.” It simply means we’re not always aware of the motivations behind our actions. We may think we understand why we do what we do—and sometimes we’re right—but often we’re wrong.

As a school leader, parents, staff, and community members give you plenty of feedback. In moments like these, it’s tempting to interpret feedback literally. But what if, instead, you interpreted it laterally by searching for the unconscious motivation? 

Let’s take this concept and apply it in a school setting. Parents may ask questions at parent-teacher conferences about how their child is performing. But (sometimes) what they really want to know is how they are performing as parents. In other words, they want reassurance. The reverse logic can be applied to teachers in this setting. On the surface, the conversation appears to be about the student. But on a deeper level, it’s about the adults—everyone wants to be reassured that they’re doing a good job. 

As you go about your work, ask questions, get feedback, and try to understand—on a deeper level—what your community wants. One way to do this is by using a cognitive-behavioral therapy technique called the Downward Arrow Technique. Ask questions like:

“What does that mean?”
“What if that were true?”
“What are you worried that might mean?”
“Why does that bother you?”

This will help you uncover the hidden why.

Another way to kickstart this concept into action is to ask why something works—not what works. Children are great at this. If you’re a parent or guardian, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Children are less likely to hold back from asking questions out of a place of fear or shame. This gives them the freedom to ask curiously. As adults, this process can be frustrating because it’s easy to feel like we’ve already arrived at the answer. 

In the context of school marketing, you may be coming off the high of a successful bond campaign. Instead of asking, “What worked in this campaign?” in your debrief session, try asking a curious question, like “Why did this work?” Think like a child and dig beyond the surface of the question to uncover the ‘real why.’ Let these answers guide you in future campaigns.

What is your community not saying? Rather, what are they implying? Thinking counterintuitively starts by uncovering unconscious motivations and asking curious questions.

What if big problems in your district could be solved with small solutions—ones that are cost-effective and less labor-intensive? Wouldn’t that be the dream scenario? One neighborhood in England did just that. 

Woolwich, in southeast London, became a hot spot for crime after the 2011 riots. The city hired Ogilvy to come up with a creative solution to address the problem. Tara Austin, the mastermind behind the project, had read research about “baby schema,” and how faces of babies triggered care-taking responses in adults. Austin’s solution was simple but profound: paint the metal shutters with baby faces. With the help of local graffiti artists, they hoped these images would inspire change and evoke a calming response in the community.

Image source: BBC News

The experiment, which was fondly named Babies of the Boroughs, was a huge success. Crime was reduced by 24% in the first year and by almost half in five years. Furthermore, the city saved money by thinking creatively; the experiment was less than half the cost of hiring a police officer to patrol the area. Since its launch, the Babies of the Boroughs has been used in several different neighborhoods in London to help fight crime. 

Babies of the Boroughs is one of many examples that supports the theory of behavioral economics—the study of psychology and economic decision-making. It analyzes why we behave the way we do and how we are often persuaded by the small things.

In his TEDTalk “Sweat the small stuff,” Sutherland opens by saying, “The most potent things are actually very small.” He suggests that large organizations can often become disconnected from the needs of their people. When this happens, the default for some organizations is to solve problems with expansive—and oftentimes expensive—solutions. In other words, big problems require big budgets to fix. 

But the truth is, big problems can have small solutions. Maybe your community is struggling to connect with your leadership team. Improving perception and trust may be as simple as writing a handwritten note. Hollis Milton, Superintendent at West Feliciana Parish Schools, did just that.

Milton begins his week by observing and listening to students, families, and faculty in his district. He writes about 50 letters a week, celebrating successes and providing support to his community. “It’s a labor of love,” he says. Milton’s handwritten notes have had a transformative impact at WFPS. 

“I’ll have parents come up to me and go, ‘That letter you wrote to my child meant everything to us. For you to take the time out of your busy schedule and write that spoke volumes about how much you care,’” Milton says.

Whether you’re working in a small school district or a large one, this way of problem-solving is inspiring. Most schools don’t have large marketing budgets to begin with—and that’s okay. Having a big budget to work with is nice, but you don’t need one to be effective. The solution is oftentimes smaller than you think. By understanding the science of behavioral economics, you can turn even the biggest problems into small, impactful solutions. 

The story of Hollis Milton is uplifting, but most of us in the room are probably thinking: How does this scale? After all, I can’t spend all day writing letters to everyone in the district. This concern is legitimate and it begs the question: Can inefficient systems be effective? 

As your district grows, it’s normal to want to create efficient systems to accommodate the change—in other words, systems that can easily scale. After all, working efficiently makes you feel good. Checking off ten tasks from your to-do list in a given day feels more satisfying than checking off two. 

To be fair, some scenarios call for efficiency—but there is a danger in relying solely on it. Oftentimes personal connections are lost in the process, and this is important because relationship-building is a key component of your job. 

When it comes to building relationships, efficiency isn’t the currency you’re using—effectiveness is. Hand-written notes are particularly effective because everyone knows it would be easier—more efficient—to just send an email or a form letter. In order to work effectively, you have to adopt the mindset that some things shouldn’t scale. Some school marketing initiatives should be a labor of love because these are the things that, in the long run, can transform your district. In other words, some things should take time and be personalized to the individual.

Paul Graham talks about this in his famous essay for startup leaders, “Do Things that Don’t Scale.” “The initial [person] serves as the form for your mold; keep tweaking till you fit their needs perfectly, and you'll usually find you've made something other [people] want too,” he writes. ”As long as you can find just one [person] who really needs something and can act on that need, you've got a toehold in making something people want, and that's as much as any startup needs initially.” 

Sometimes working effectively is denying the efficient route and taking the long route toward your goals. For school leaders, this means that connecting with your community is worth the time in your day spent elsewhere. Those small, personal moments of relationship-building make all the difference. 

Stanton Elementary School in Washington, D.C. has done this well. The school realized it suffered from a huge disconnect between parents and teachers. The district came up with a solution that—from an outsider's perspective—wasn’t efficient but was extremely effective: home visits. 

Over the summer, teachers went door to door and visited students and their families. They didn’t come prepared with paperwork to sign or graded assignments to review. Instead, the teachers just came to talk. They wanted to break down barriers between themselves and their students’ families and figure out how they could best support each young learner. The result? Not just improved student outcomes, but a shift in how people in the community thought and talked about Stanton Elementary.

It may take time—it may feel like it doesn’t scale—but taking the effective route may be the best way to market your schools. What is one district initiative you know you should launch but feel hesitant to start because it seems like it won’t scale? 

All of these concepts point to the same psychological theory—we as human beings are incredibly complex. Sometimes we zag when market research says we should zig. That makes building a school marketing plan challenging but in the best way possible. 

Counterintuitive thinking is simply thinking differently. Few districts approach school marketing this way. This is your opportunity not only to stand out but also to connect with your community with empathy. It takes uncovering unconscious motivations and embracing slow, effective work to build relationships in your district. Even the toughest problems can be solved by one seemingly small, yet transformative idea.