Executive Summary
The Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) exists to strengthen Christian schools and equip Christian educators worldwide as they prepare students academically and instruct them in their faith. ACSI currently serves 24,000 schools in more than 100 countries.
When Magneti first partnered with ACSI in 2016, the association didn’t have a clear marketing strategy, and its membership was declining. Over the next six years, Magneti launched three major initiatives to examine ACSI’s brand health and get a better picture of its members’ needs.
Driven by long-term research, Magneti worked with ACSI to improve brand perception, build and release a successful product, and create targeted value for its international community of Christian schools.
ACSI’s Challenge
With 24,000 complex, evolving schools in its network, ACSI faced a serious task: aligning its products and services with the shifting needs of its members. Magneti and ACSI teamed up to discover how ACSI could best support school administrators, educators, and students in their quest to establish flourishing Christian school communities.
How We Did It:
Over the course of six years, Magneti guided ACSI through a process of organizational change:
Initiative 1: Investigating Brand Health
In 2017, Magneti conducted 10 online focus groups and surveyed nearly 4,500 users of ACSI products to learn more about their perceptions of the association. We found that many members felt disconnected from ACSI, didn’t understand the benefits of membership, and thought that ACSI’s services weren’t diverse enough to help schools of all sizes.
Magneti’s research fueled a shakeup in ACSI’s marketing strategy. ACSI’s board invested heavily in new leaders, made several core promotions, and prepared the association to engage actively with its members and drive stable growth.
Initiative 2: Defining a Flourishing Christian School Culture
Armed with a firmer grip on the desires of its members, ACSI set out to provide value where it was needed most: on a school-by-school basis.
To help each ACSI school thrive, Magneti developed the Flourishing School Culture Instrument (FSCI). The FSCI collects data from administrators, teachers, parents, students, and other ACSI school members. Then, the FSCI turns that data into a contextualized report, designed to help the school understand its culture, manage its priorities, and create a plan for enduring success.
At its best, high-quality research doesn’t just reveal insights — it inspires action, too. By building the FSCI, Magneti turned our findings into a tangible solution, setting the stage for future growth in the ACSI community.
Initiative 3: Building a Foundation for Sustained Growth
In 2021, four years after Magneti’s initial dive into ACSI’s brand health, we administered another survey to more than 1,000 people in the ACSI network.
The results were decisive: brand awareness and perceived value had improved significantly. Better yet, ACSI’s Net Promoter Score among school leaders had jumped, even within younger age groups.
Though school leadership clearly favored ACSI, our research also indicated that teachers’ opinions of ACSI were stagnant. In response, ACSI began the development of a new digital platform that will make it easier for teachers in the community to achieve their goals.
In short, the effects of Magneti’s research were twofold: first, to confirm the strength of ACSI’s revamped marketing approach, and second, to illuminate areas that were still ripe for growth.
Conclusion
No doubt, basic metrics like cost-per-click and Net Promoter Score are crucial for a successful research initiative. Real marketing growth, though, requires a deeper understanding of how your company interacts with its intended market.
Magneti’s guidance did more than improve the perception of ACSI — it empowered ACSI to create targeted value for its members. With Magneti’s help, ACSI reshaped its brand in the eyes of school leadership and laid a foundation for years of data-driven success.
If you’d like to unlock deep research insights, connect with the right audiences, and equip your company for healthy, long-term growth, get in touch with Magneti today.
