Education, Education, Education

Why might someone in the private sector, a Norwich marketing consultant for example, want to look at the education sector? Well there are the obvious things about future generations and how they will shape our future, and then there is the link between young people and innovation for two reasons.

By looking at education services in Norwich, I was keen to see what was happening and perhaps just as interested to see what wasn’t happening. During a common purpose event I was able to meet a broad spectrum of young people all in very differing circumstances. Some were already using their talents to develop their own businesses and brands, some were enjoying life, learning, but still waiting to see what they would one day want to do, and others who were struggling, struggling to learn or to fit in or to move at the same pace as those around them. I very quickly realised that whilst at first glace these people could be grouped together into what in marketing language would be called segments . The problem with this approach is that everyone we met is influenced or impacted on by many other people around them in some way, and only some of these influencers can be reached through the education system to form a common goal.
I think sometimes people in marketing seek to over simplify customer groups or segments as a way to help them make sense of complex customer behaviour and the impact it has on their brands and sales. On top of this, marketers tend only to look at the primary drivers of opinion when often people’s thoughts and behaviours are an output of the people they have met and the things they have learnt.

Within the education service there is a jig saw of service providers each offering something different aimed at particular groups of people with their own needs and situations. It is a highly complex jig saw and unfortunately not everyone neatly fits into just one piece. What is interesting to me is that the jig saw has become three dimensional, because for education to work most effectively the service cannot be provided or function in isolation. The people receiving the educational service need support, stimulation, encouragement, and more from other places, other people, and in other situations.

This insight can be considered in the private sector particularly in the context of building strategic partnerships. For example it might appear strange from a paint company, Farrow & Ball for example, to form a partnership with Spec Savers – but if they worked together and developed innovative ways of helping people who are colour blind – and in doing so captured a new market through innovation, would it still appear so strange? In order to fully service a market different organisations directly or indirectly linked to the market may have to come together and collaborate to get the best results.

If everything an organisation or an individual does in some way impacts on others, surely the trick is to fully understand the impact and make it a positive valuable impact for that organisation, individual and market?