Higher Dan = Better Marketing?

[Gwai Lo Dan]

For the school owners around here, do you find that prospective students evaluate your school in part based on your dan belt? Do you find for instance that if you are a KKW 5th dan you have a harder time attracting students compared to the school down the road with a KKW 7th or 8th dan? Do you think dan belt should be a factor?

 

[RTKDCMB]

People should be more concerned with the quality of instruction rather than the number of stripes on your belt.

 

[Jaeimseu]

Haha...people should be. They should also look into whether the 8th dan is actually teaching or not rather than sitting in the office while a 1st or 2nd dan teaches all the classes. I suspect, however, that the dan rank does influence buyers' decisions at least a little. I guess those awful super-thick belts with bars prominently displayed on them serve a purpose

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[msmitht]

In the past two months I've had 4 students come from a Korean kkw 9th dans school. I've been fixing their stances and basics. The 3 that are black belts do not have kkw certification. They paid 1000 each more than a year ago.
When I asked why they left the answer was that they did not like showing up for class and being told to teach.

 

[dancingalone]

No prospective students have asked me yet how many dans I hold in whatever art. They're most concerned with class schedule, programs, and occasionally price. I think the number of stripes on my belt is unimportant. What probably gets me a lot more students are my always clean facilities and my well lit building sitting in an active, newer shopping center.

 

[Gwai Lo Dan]

In the past two months I've had 4 students come from a Korean kkw 9th dans school. ..The 3 that are black belts do not have kkw certification. They paid 1000 each more than a year ago.

Going astray, did they know that they didn't have certification? Were they told it would be after so many hours of teaching? (That would be similar to another thread about delaying the certification after testing).

Last and perhaps it would warrant a different thread, when you perform testing at your school, is the KKW certification an oral promise, or is it part of the receipt that the $x testing fee is for BB testing and KKW certification?

 

[terrylamar]

Going astray, did they know that they didn't have certification? Were they told it would be after so many hours of teaching? (That would be similar to another thread about delaying the certification after testing).

Last and perhaps it would warrant a different thread, when you perform testing at your school, is the KKW certification an oral promise, or is it part of the receipt that the $x testing fee is for BB testing and KKW certification?

I don't wear stripes on my belts.

 

[msmitht]

Don't know about promise for kkw certificate or if it was in writing. I do know that one of them is a 4th Dan from that school and is taking his former gm to court over it. They brought in school certs. Pretty and better looking than current kkw certs, but not kkw.

 

[Earl Weiss]

They are probably more impresssed by a Korean instructor irrespective of any airplane promotion than any round eye. Even had a WTF Kukki Instructor tell me years ago "Your onky problem is you are not Korean".

 

[andyjeffries]

I've heard people looking at boards of martial arts clubs posters comment on "he's an X Dan", so I know they look at it and if they look at it on one poster then see another guy has a lower dan that's bound to be a factor in their mind.

I use my Kwan-rank above my Kukkiwon-rank, for this reason - purely because it's better from a marketing point of view (even though it's less official) to have a higher Dan rank..

 

[Thousand Kicks]

I know you asked for the opinions of those who owned schools. I don't but can offer an opinion as an assistant instructor.

Parents of new students who are younger and have no experience with martial arts generally find schools via word of mouth or the internet. From what I know by my conversations it's more about the class schedule and location. Since they don't know if their child will even like it they tend to find schools that fit in with their life more than finding the most qualified instructor. Some may ask what rank I am or what rank the head instructor is, but they don't really have a good idea of what it means or how to tell if this 4th dan is better than a 6th dan down the street.

New student who are teens or adults tend to put more weight behind rank, but put even more weight behind curriculum. I tend to get more questions about going to tournaments, how often do you practice self defence, do you cross train with other styles etc. I'm sure the rank of the head instructor influences, but they want to know how this school fits what they are looking for.

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

For the school owners around here, do you find that prospective students evaluate your school in part based on your dan belt? Do you find for instance that if you are a KKW 5th dan you have a harder time attracting students compared to the school down the road with a KKW 7th or 8th dan? Do you think dan belt should be a factor?

I find that instructors with high dan or equivalent grades in any art tend to advertise it. Does it help from a marketing standpoint? I believe that it does, though how much is questionable. Instructors who do not have that high a grade tend to focus on other elements in their marketing, things that are arguably more germane to what a potential customer may be looking for.

 

[Jaeimseu]

I find that instructors with high dan or equivalent grades in any art tend to advertise it. Does it help from a marketing standpoint? I believe that it does, though how much is questionable. Instructors who do not have that high a grade tend to focus on other elements in their marketing, things that are arguably more germane to what a potential customer may be looking for.

At our dojang we put our dan ranks in some promotional pamphlets/materials, but no one wears rank stripes on their belts and I can't remember the last time someone asked me for my rank. When I was in America I never had to ask someone's rank, either, but usually they had it prominently displayed on their belt or brought up their title in the first sentence of conversation.

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[Gwai Lo Dan]

They are probably more impresssed by a Korean instructor irrespective of any airplane promotion than any round eye. Even had a WTF Kukki Instructor tell me years ago "Your onky problem is you are not Korean".

That's another interesting angle - race.

I was at a school with 2 locations. One location directly under the GM (Korean), and the other location was under the GM's 4th dan son, another 4th dan (African American), and sometimes visiting Korean 5th dans. It surprised me when a few parents said they go to the main school since it is taught be a GM, not a 4th dan. I suspect they also meant Korean GM. I was expecting a more substantial comment, perhaps related to class structure, teaching style, depth of knowledge (with example), or even personality, but for them it seemed to just come down to the belt.

As for me, I chose to mainly train at the son's school due to other adults training there, and also the ability to spar/train with young masters.

 

[Dirty Dog]

I use my Kwan-rank above my Kukkiwon-rank, for this reason - purely because it's better from a marketing point of view (even though it's less official) to have a higher Dan rank..

I strongly disagree with the highlighted section. Two groups have given themselves the authority to issue rank. What makes one "more official" than the other?

 

[WaterGal]

None of our competitors are KKW ranked at all, because they're all TSD schools, though I know those school owners claim comperable ranking.

That being said, most people that don't already do martial arts don't have any idea about ranks. Mr and I get a lot of questions from the new students about how come he has 5 stripes on his belt and I only have 2 on mine, how long it takes to get more stripes, what level is master or grandmaster, etc. I think that being a 7th dan rather than a 4th dan would be a real selling point for a student that already has a dan ranking and wants to train with someone who's more experienced then them and can promote them, but otherwise I don't think it's the main thing people are looking at.

 

[andyjeffries]

I strongly disagree with the highlighted section. Two groups have given themselves the authority to issue rank. What makes one "more official" than the other?

Simple, my Kwan officially gave up their promotion rights, deferring to the Kukkiwon. They officially promote Kukkiwon syllabus and certification and indeed the maximum Kwan rank you can get is linked to your kukkiwon rank.

The Kwan still exists as a family/fraternal organisation and issues rank on that basis, but they consider Kukkiwon to be the official worldwide certifying body for Taekwondo.

So it's not my opinion, it's the opinion of the head of my Kwan.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

My instructor runs two classes. One has a couple of second dans and a first dan and the rest coloured belts. His second class has about 20-30 black belts comprising of about two 6th dans, 5 5th dans, 10 4th dans and the rest 1st to 3rd dans. People come from far and wide to train at the second class, some even travel two hours or more to get there. I drive past at least three other classes from our club to get there. New/prospective students are very impressed when they see the class. I can only assume the large number of black belts is a positive for my instructor.