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Cotter Schools

Cotter Schools

Cotter Schools is an international learning community, guided by faith where character, personal development, and academic achievement inspire a world of possibilities. Cotter turned to CEL to tell their story that began in 1911, and update their brand, messaging, and marketing materials to better reflect their work in guiding students to reach their full potential in a nurturing environment.

Challenges

While writing their strategic plan, Cotter Schools leadership determined that they were not effectively capturing the essence of the “Cotter family” and the subsequent loyalty that emerges from their educational experience. They knew it was the key to effective marketing, but they were struggling with conveying it.

In addition, rapidly changing technology was requiring advancement in how they communicated their values, vision, and mission with students, staff, parents, and the community. With an overwhelming number of options for platform vendors, making choices on their own was daunting, knowing the outcome could have serious implications on school operations and expansion capabilities for years to come.

Solutions

CEL became Cotter Schools’ advocate and project manager, establishing and guiding leaders, staff and board members through the entire process.

CEL wrote copy and designed a fresh new look for all marketing collateral and publications and re-designed their website, assuring best practices, functionality and usability, integrated with all other online components. They selected a development platform provider and managed the process with developers and vendors to best ensure that the identified needs of administration, faculty, students, and parents were met. Cotter’s brand identity and key messages are now strong and evident throughout their website, marketing materials, and verbal communication. Leadership, staff, board members, alumni, and students take pride in clearly communicating the vision and mission of Cotter Schools. 

“CEL was a terrific gift to educators seeking to communicate more effectively. They know schools, communication, and technology. They hit the ground running without missing a beat, hit the mark with our updated brand and messaging, and took the weight of website redesign and management off our shoulders. No school administrator or board of directors should try to implement a communication plan without them!”

Sister Judith Schaefer, President
Cotter Schools

Published on: September 2, 2014

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