Roswell Independent School District Seeks Marketing & Branding Firm

The Roswell Independent School District (RSID) is seeking a marketing and branding firm.

Scope of Work:

RISD is seeking an innovative marketing firm with experience in marketing school districts and educational institutions that can accomplish the following:

• Design a brand for RISD that reflects the school district’s vision and mission, and a plan for marketing the RISD brand.
• Devise highly effective marketing strategies for two-way communication of information to and from the community, families, school board, and staff on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.
• Assist with marketing strategies and communication for special projects, such as referendum campaigns, damage control, etc.
• Assist with crafting a visually creative implementation with a strong and active web presence to leverage schools and student’s projects and awards. To achieve this goal, the school district must maintain a consistent brand and voice in all of the marketing and communication efforts for maximum impact in flooded media markets through youth and adult participation.
• Research Phase. The consultant will conduct research to help build a strong foundation for the RISD brand. The scope of work should include community outreach to gain an understanding of the perception that the residents of Chaves County have of RISD and how the perception affects, among other things, whether a family chooses to enroll their child(ren) in the RISD, or chooses to enroll their child(ren) outside of RISD (Dexter Consolidated School District, Gateway Christian School, All Saints Catholic School, Lighthouse Academy), and the factors which led to these determinations.
• Development of the RISD Brand. The selected consultant must work with RISD to develop the key elements that make up the brand, such as the vision, positioning, identity, character, and promise. Brand credentials need to be consolidated and key branding messages established.
• Creative/Visual Image. The selected consultant must develop visuals that communicate the emotion and personality of the RISD brand. These visuals will include various forms of electronic, print, and media graphics that can be deployed in the marketing strategy and used throughout the school district. The core elements are listed below. The design theme must be made to be transferable to all school district departments with the creation of design templates. During this process RISD will have and maintain ownership of all copyrights of the visuals (any photography, video, other content, etc. as RISD deems necessary).
  • Web Site Screen Shots and Architecture. RISD will host and maintain the RISD web page, but the consultant must provide a graphic design that communicates the RISD brand through four levels of web site pages. The RISD IT Department will translate the screen shots into the actual web design. Emphasis will be placed on designing a site that functions well using mobile devices.
• Marketing Strategy and Implementation Plan. The consultant shall develop a marketing strategy and implementation plan that identifies efficient and cost effective avenues to target both external and internal audiences as follows:
  • Potential students within the RISD considering elementary, middle school, and high school choices.
  • The general public for the purpose of enhancing the perception/image/reputation of RISD.
  • Current RISD students and alumni, so they are aware of successes of their fellow students and want to be associated with the school district.

In response to open teacher positions, an extremely competitive marketplace and a desire to understand the challenges facing the school district in generating teacher prospects and converting them from applications to employment.

It is anticipated that the above will be accomplished by obtaining a thorough understanding of the current environment (environmental scan) and RISD’s competitors, as well as trends and anticipated areas where growth in enrollment can be achieved. This will include an analysis of public perception, current students, potential markets, and then developing a plan to target marketing materials to current and potential students. Adjustments and refinements to RISD’s current mission and vision could be considered as a possible outcome of the marketing process. The proposal must provide the school district with a recommended plan of implementation based upon the marketing analysis.

Initial Benchmark Research:

Study and report on the impact of the marketplace including competition, best practices, macro-market influences and trends, and finally a look into the perceptions and attitudes of the target consumer/prospective student groups that will make a final decision to attend RISD.

Research should be conducted utilizing distinct viewpoints, including internal and consumer, so that it can be determined if the unique viewpoints align. If they do not, the strategic planning should then focus on how marketing initiatives can help align the viewpoints.

Internal Viewpoint:

• Determine how RISD leadership, administration, faculty and key community influencers perceive RISD and its position in the marketplace. This internal viewpoint should be leveraged against the market viewpoint to determine if there is a misperception in how RISD currently is positioned or a viewpoint that is not reflective of the external viewpoints.
  • Input Session with RISD Leadership – This should include senior administration as well as key board members. The objective of these input sessions is to gain a clear and explicit understanding of RISD offerings, the internal perception of the competitive landscape, historical marketing communications, promotional activities, institutional goals, marketing goals, and stakeholder perspectives.
  • One-on-one Interviews with Key Stakeholder Groups – In conjunction with the input sessions, one-on-one interviews with key stakeholders should be conducted. As a tactic, one-on-one interviews are highly conversational and will work to effectively gather management perspectives, front-line perspectives, strategic considerations, as well as stakeholder buy-in and support of the process.
  • The purpose of the interviews would be to understand RISD’s stakeholders’ current opinions and points of view regarding the current brand and image of RISD as well as their thoughts and ideas regarding the future positioning of the institution.

Consumer Viewpoint:

Consumer research aims to gather an in-depth understanding of perceptions, attitudes and behavior, and the reasons that govern such behavior. It is especially important to RISD that we understand the dynamic of why students choose to attend or not attend and any potential frustrations/misconceptions that the consumer may have with regard to RISD. Understanding this perception, the influences and decision process will help to craft better messaging to target groups, understand what barriers exist to enrollment for prospective students, provide better targeting of marketing initiatives, and ultimately provide a path to increasing enrollments and building a stronger relationship with the community.

The goal here should be resolution. It is important to uncover what is real and what the facts are. Confirmatory methods are applied to narrow options and concentrate efforts along the optimal path. Narrow questions along with numerical data from a sample of participants that answer the questions should be collected. The numbers should yield an unbiased quantitative result that can be generalized to the larger population.

Proposal due by January 13, 2017 to:

Chris Thweatt
Purchasing Specialist Roswell Independent School District
300 North Kentucky Avenue, Room 201
Roswell, NM 88201