Marketing Your School to Your Students

I just spent the past two days at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal School in Memphis, TN (www.gslschool.org). Enrolling around 500 students from pre-K to 8^th grade, GSL has established itself with a solid academic reputation preparing students to enroll in competitive high schools in the Memphis area.

While many things stood out from my visit, there is one idea that I want to share that has become an annual tradition at the school.

In the fall every middle school student receives their class hoodie as a gift from the school leadership. What’s unique about this gift is that this hoodie is the only hoodie that can be worn as part of their school uniform. Each of the grade levels receives a different color hoodie—gray, black or red (these are the school colors)—with their class graduation year printed on the front.

Every year the middle school students look forward to receiving their new hoodie.

It’s like a rite of passage—a special privilege anticipated by the younger students and a tradition that is part of the overall school experience.

Most students don’t like wearing their uniforms. However, at Grace-St. Luke’s they love wearing their hoodies and are proud of it.

What better way to market the school than to have students who love wearing their uniform hoodies.

It’s an internal marketing strategy that is focused on the students.

And it works!