ASTEME Academy
Brand Positioning Study for a Progressive School in LA
Consulting Research Project for Thesis
Examples of findings
Background
ASTEME Academy, a progressive K–2 school in LA, wanted to grow TK/K enrollment but didn't know how families discover and choose progressive schools, or where ASTEME was losing them.
Methods
- 7 hours of ethnographic observation on campus during the discovery phase, to understand what a day at ASTEME actually feels like.
- 21 in-depth interviews across four segments: current teachers (4), current parents (7), interested-but-not-enrolled parents (4), and general LA parents unfamiliar with ASTEME (6) as a comparison group.
- An interview guide designed to surface both explicit and implicit priorities.
- A competitive digital audit of ASTEME's discoverability on Google and trusted ranking sites like Niche, plus consultation with an outside expert on the LA progressive-school landscape.
So What?
We found ASTEME's real problem wasn't the product, it was trust and discoverability. Families who actually visit and meet a teacher almost always enroll. The drop-off happens before that ever gets the chance to happen. So our recommendations focused on closing that gap between interest and commitment.
