Finding the School’s Unique Factor
Watching the 2015 Open Championship from St Andrews reminds me of the challenges I faced in 2001/2002 at Loretto School in Edinburgh. The small but historic boarding school needed to identify its strengths and use those in its consistent marketing messages.
As Director of Development & Marketing, my establishment of the Loretto Golf Academy in July 2002, on the eve of The Open Championship ‘down the road’ at Muirfield, proved to be an instant and great success. It built on an aspect of the school’s tradition, whilst establishing something unique amongst schools throughout the UK and the world. Thirteen years later, Loretto is highly regarded for its Golf programme, its new indoor facility and is consistently the most successful golf school in the UK, out performing notable and larger schools.
The Golf Academy provided Loretto with something quite unique, it immediately attracted students from throughout the UK (not just Scotland) and overseas, and gave the Development Office exciting fundraising opportunities as we attracted funding to develop practice facilities within the existing school campus and provide scholarships and bursaries for talented junior golfers.
We created a unique selling point and an individual character, not only for the school’s educational offer, but the Loretto Community as a whole, which enabled the school to proudly stand out in the sector.
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