‘Brand experience’ encompasses the broader set of direct and indirect perceptions, emotions and experiences that customers have with an organisation.
Brand Experience (BX) thinking has seen a surge in popularity in recent years, with organisations increasingly eager to understand and map the entire lifecycle of a customers experience (direct and indirect) with their brand.
See the growth of ‘Brand Experience’ via Google Trends, almost double in search volume since the end of 2020…
Without Brand Experience thinking, an organisation’s array of marketing and communications activity becomes fragmented.
You’ve probably experienced this yourself:
- A software-provider has a slick website that sells you the world. Their salespeople are friendly and helpful, but once you’re inside, the onboarding experience is drawn-out, painful, and nothing like what you expected.
If only the onboarding process were as slick as the sales process. - You get referred by a friend to a local tradesperson. Their website is awful, making it hard to contact them. But once you finally manage to reach them by phone (if your patience extends that far), they are incredibly knowledgeable, trustworthy, and fair in their pricing.
If only it didn’t take five phone calls and a virus-ridden website to get to this point.
BX thinking helps organisations to map out their campaigns, digital infrastructure, organic communication. Not just in a linear, time-bound sense; but in an experiential sense.
Organisation’s who do BX well have a cohesive experience from the first moment you engage with their brand (via an ad, Google Search or social channel) all the way through your entire journey with their product/service.
What This Means for Schools
At Bolsta, we take the core idea of BX and apply it to schools through a specific lens: Parent Experience.
That means designing everything — marketing, enrolment, communications, events — around how it feels to be a parent moving through your school’s journey.
It’s not just a new lens. It’s a new definition of your role as a school marketer.
Your job description might say:
- website content
- advertising and events
- social media
- CRM management
But try this instead:
You’re responsible for the experience prospective parents have as they move from awareness to enrolment.
Where to Start with Parent Experience Thinking
The best place to begin is simple: map the journey.
Lay out all the different stages, touchpoints and tools that shape how a parent moves through your school’s enrolment process.
You’ll start to see two layers:
- Linear: Families move through each stage in a sequence — from discovery to decision to first day.
- Experiential: At each stage, parents have different questions, doubts, emotions and needs. Your comms, events and systems either support that — or get in the way.
Mapping both layers is what unlocks real progress.
You’ll quickly spot:
- Where trust is being built — and where it’s breaking down
- Where communication is clear — and where it’s confusing
- Where teams are aligned — and where things get dropped
From there, it’s about focus.
Strengthen the weak points.
Simplify where you can.
Do the essentials well.
