Kimbolton School Case Study

Alison Ainsworth, PR and Communications Manager at Kimbolton School, contacted MTM having recognised the ongoing growth of the Oxford-Cambridge corridor. The successful day and boarding school, who educate 980 pupils aged 4 – 18, recognised that there were significant opportunities, with the expansion in both residential units and technology enterprises nearby. At the same time, there was real opportunity for growth in various areas of the school and Alison therefore wanted to identify where to target their marketing activities, for the different age groups.

Alison and her team wanted to understand:

• The lifestyle and locations of current markets, estimating the size and their share of the addressable markets, complete with projections of how these will change over the next decade
• The impact of transport routes, namely the A1 and A14 corridors
• The differences between pupils from 2006/7, 2011/12 and present, along with the locations and lifestyles of non-joining enquiries
• The change in rolls of competitor schools since 2010, in order to understand the changes within their market as a whole over the period
• The changing numbers in feeder schools, both day and boarding, providing focus for any feeder school campaigns
• The residential and education construction planned within the catchment with a focus on areas to the west of Cambridge, detailing the number and size of properties planned

At the end of the project, MTM were able to provide Kimbolton School with an in-depth analysis of all of the above, giving the team a thorough understanding of the markets they serve, both day and boarding. This included clear areas from which to focus their marketing and PR efforts. Within weeks of completion, the MTM project informed the routing of a new bus service which has already had an impact on recruitment of new pupils, and Alison now refers to the GIS mapping portal provided by MTM routinely when planning her marketing strategy and campaigns.

In terms of applying the research and data in the future, Alison explained:

“I plan to use the GIS mapping portal to inform many of our future marketing decisions and will therefore be looking for regular updates to the data. I like to be evidence-led and can interpret a lot from data and maps. I find the tool absolutely invaluable.”

To find out more about our unique Market and Catchment Intelligence (MACI) and receive all the information you need to target your market effectively, get in contact.