Purple Cow's and Remarketability

Have you ever seen a purple cow? Of course not - although if you did, you would really be impressed wouldn't you? Imagine driving through the Sumas Prairie seeing pasture after pasture of Holsteins - only to see a purple cow! You might even stop the car for another look - maybe even get out and take some pictures. If you were really feeling up to it - you might even research the farm and find out how a purple cow was bred - because having a purple cow is quite remarkable! "The Purple Cow" is a book written by marketing expert Seth Godin - who shares about the importance of becoming and being uniquely remarkable. He claims that the world of marketing has changed. We should find our purple cows and celebrate them, and then share this with those who know it best - and allow these people to share it with everyone else (word of mouth).

Among many things, January and February are in large part known to be "promotion" months in the rhythm of what happens in the business of school. This is the time of year that many Christian families (especially families with young children) truly are in the decision making mode about what school they will send their children to. As a result of this, schools (specifically independent ones) spend a lot of time and energy putting their brand in front of these families so that they will indeed choose their school. There are ads in the paper, on the radio, in magazines, and online, encouraging people to sign their children up at their school. ACS is no different as we also need to do this and do it well. Perhaps people have noticed our advertising push and market splash at the kindergarten level - believing that once families start at ACS they will stay for the next 13 years (generally proving to be true 95% of the time).

Although recognizing the importance of marketing ourselves in the way that people have always done it, at ACS, we believe that the best way to market ourselves has more to do with who we are. We believe in being remarkable, we believe in providing "Purple Cow" programs that parents can't help but share with other parents, we believe that we owe it to our image bearing children to be absolutely remarkable. Once we identify what makes us remarkable - we then finds ways to market this - thus the word "remarketability". This remarketability requires us to spend the time, energy and resources into being remarkable - so that we indeed can market ourselves in these areas. We would hope that our parents would then be the ones who share this remarkable story with others. People have said for generations that the best way to market yourself is through word of mouth - and we believe this wholeheartedly.

Another reason that we chose kindergarten as a place to focus our attention is that we truly believe that it is a remarkable place - a Purple Cow! In early January we held our annual Kindergarten Information Night: we shared the philosophy of ACS, we shared some of our stories with those in attendance, and then the current kindergarten teachers, Nancy Humphries and Debbie Goertzen specifically talked about the kindergarten program. We concluded with a couple of parents sharing what was remarkable about kindergarten from their own experience. It was clear to those who came that night, that our kindergarten is a remarkable place - something that has remarketability!

By now, most parents/guardians have re-enroled their children for next year (unless their youngest is graduating in June!). We are just entering into open enrolment season and it seems as though what we believe is remarkable is again making its way into the community - people are asking about us! Maybe even more so this year than in others. Even though it's natural for us to be making a huge push at the kindergarten level, we would love more families at others level as well (provided we have space). What are our Purple Cows, what is it about us that is uniquely amazing, what is it that you wouldn't hesitate to get excited about? Feel free to share ACS with others, be our mouthpieces and share with them what makes us remarkable!

-Julius Siebenga
Executive Director

Works Cited: "The Purple Cow" by Seth Godin, 2002.