Positioning Your Martial Arts School: Grow the Market, Don’t Fight for Scraps

Years ago I read a fascinating book, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind. A few of its ideas run counter to the direct-response approach I usually preach — but a couple are pure gold for a martial arts school. The biggest one: how you choose to position your martial arts school determines whether you grow the whole market or fight your competitors for scraps of a small one.

The IBM Lesson

When IBM launched its first personal computer, the market was a fragmented mess — Apple, Osborne, Kaypro, Tandy, Commodore, all with competing systems and no standard. IBM could have positioned its PC against those direct competitors. Instead, it did something smarter: it promoted why everyone should own a personal computer at all. Its ads — built around a friendly, non-threatening mascot — explained the value of a PC in the home and office, never once mentioning a competitor. The logic: grow the entire category, and you’ll naturally be seen as its leader.

Why This Works Perfectly for Martial Arts Schools

For a beer or soft-drink brand fighting over a shrinking market, that approach would be lousy. For a martial arts school, it’s ideal — because our real opportunity is convincing more of the population to train at all, not stealing students from the school down the street.

Beginning in 1983 in Denver, I deliberately emulated IBM. My ads always promoted the benefits of martial arts instruction and our approach to it, and never so much as hinted that any other business taught the same thing. The result: for years, when someone in Denver thought of martial arts lessons — especially for kids — at least nine times out of ten, they thought of us.

Have any of us truly saturated the market for children’s or adult instruction? Not even close. I’d much rather work to convince a higher and higher percentage of my community to value our activity than fight other schools over a sliver of a small market. And here’s the counterintuitive part: if my competitors do a great job, the whole market expands and everyone benefits. If they’re hucksters or poor teachers, the market shrinks for all of us.

Make Your School Memorable

If you’re going to advertise consistently for years, a few details matter enormously:

• Consistent look and feel. Keep constant elements — your logo, name format, and a recurring tag line — so your ads become instantly recognizable.
• Consistent appeal to a specific audience. Try to be all things to all people and you’ll be nothing to no one. Be known for a niche.
• An easy-to-remember name. Many schools pick names that are hard to remember or even pronounce. Years ago I chose “Mile High Karate” for Denver — the “Mile High City” — because it was easy to remember and instantly positioned us as the Denver martial arts schools.

Related Reading

• Who Is Your Real Competition? (Hint: Not Other Martial Arts Schools)
• Would You Rather Be the Apple Store or Wal-Mart?
• Targeting the Right Market: Why “The Economy” Isn’t Killing Your School
• Focus Your Marketing Dollars on a Specific Target Audience
• Case study: How Krista Wells grew Mercer Island Martial Arts to $1.2M with live events and renewals

Frequently Asked Questions

How should I position my martial arts school against competitors?

Mostly, don’t. Position your school by promoting the value of martial arts training itself and growing the overall market, rather than fighting other schools for a small pool of price-shoppers. Become the name people associate with the activity.

Should my marketing mention other schools?

No. Like IBM promoting the PC category, focus on the benefits of training and of your approach — never on competitors. Growing the category positions you as its leader.

What makes a school brand memorable?

A consistent look and tagline, a clear appeal to a specific target audience, and an easy-to-remember, easy-to-pronounce name that ideally ties you to your community.

Ready to Add 100 Students to Your School?

Position your school as the obvious choice in your market: get your free copy of Six Simple Steps to Add 100 New Students to Your School at SimpleSteps.com.

And to back your positioning with an experience worth talking about, study Extraordinary Teaching at ExtraordinaryTeaching.com.

Stephen Oliver, MBA, is a 10th Degree Black Belt, the founder of Mile High Karate and Martial Arts Wealth Mastery, and is known industry-wide as “The Millionaire Maker.”