Download Why marketing?

CHCORG614A: Manage a service
organisation
Establish the profile of the organisation and
market its services
Contents
Why marketing?
3
Establishing a service profile and a marketing plan
4
First impressions
4
Promotional activities
5
References
2
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Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCORG614A: Reader LO 9378
© NSW DET 2010
Why marketing?
The Children’s Services industry is becoming increasingly market-focused. Our
services are more and more in the public eye; with ongoing political debate,
community sustainability, the demand and competition for high quality and
accessible child care all affecting the community’s perception of our services.
Your service may possess a healthy ‘waiting list’, families seem happy with the
centre, why should you be concerned about marketing?
Look at large conglomerates such as Harvey Norman or Grace Bros. They are
extensive and successful businesses. People will always need to buy clothes,
cooking implements, white goods and furniture—why bother advertising? Both
companies have an established profile, people know who they are, what they sell
and what to expect from their products. Yet, Harvey Norman and Grace Bros
advertise on a regular basis and not just at sale time, utilizing a variety of media—
such as television, radio and those catalogues which creep into your letterboxes
on a Sunday morning! Why do they?
The market place has a short and selective memory! We can no longer assume
families will come to our ‘nice little centre on the corner’, because people have
been coming there for years and years and we have a ‘good reputation’! That may
very well be the case, but with the increase in children’s services, the impact of
fees on families and, a heightened public awareness of what defines ‘quality care’,
we have a greater responsibility than ever before to tell people about our service.
The word ‘marketing’ can sometimes conjure images of ‘dodgy’ sales people,
telemarketers who ring at dinner time and people who command large salaries
and commute to tall air conditioned offices in the city. It can seem a world away
from child care! Yet an effective and accurate marketing plan, comprising of a
service profile, goals and strategies to achieve these goals, can be a decisive tool
in regards to the future direction of your service.
Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCORG614A: Reader LO 9378
© NSW DET 2010
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Establishing a service profile and a
marketing plan
Your service is unique. Your service philosophy may have
similar attributes to a centre down the road or 1000 kilometres away; but it is still
your philosophy. The philosophy is a product of the values, beliefs, objectives and
aims inherent to your service operation. The staff, families, management and
community who utilize your service and impact upon its operation are also
unique. The goals and plans of your service tie to your centre specifically, not the
services down the road, even if you do share a similar philosophy. It is this
information, particular to your service that forms your service profile.
First impressions
We all quickly form an impression of a person, service or product from an initial
contact or meeting. Sometimes this can be entirely incorrect; people we didn’t
like initially can become our closest friends! Maybe we just met on a ‘bad’ day or
at an inconvenient time, perhaps our ‘first impressions’ were off the mark that
particular day!
Regardless of this, first impressions do count and, are extremely important to the
successful marketing of the service. How would you feel if you walked into a
clothes shop, looking for a new outfit to wear to graduation, and the assistant
looked you up and down and said: ‘I don’t think we have anything that would fit
you here!’
You would probably never enter that shop again and may also tell more than a
few people about your encounter (and, these people will tell other people and so
on). Alternatively, you may have asked for a grievance form and headed straight
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Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCORG614A: Reader LO 9378
© NSW DET 2010
to management! Whatever your response, it is doubtful that you would have
formed a favourable impression of the service from this encounter!
Children’s Services are busy places, with commitments and deadlines to be met,
tasks to be organized and all manner of other activities to oversee and coordinate. As professionals, having close and ongoing contact with the community,
your profile is always on display. You may not always have time to give a
telephone query 30 minutes of your time discussing the centre’s program, but
remaining polite, friendly, professional and informative (perhaps you can send the
querying parent more information, or invite them to come and see the program in
action), costs very little and can form an impression which lasts a long, long time.
Activity 1
Promotional activities
Activity 2
What is promotion?
Promotion is a word that is used to communicate a number of different things.
Often people make the mistake of using the term promotion when they really just
mean advertising.
Promotion can encompass a whole range of activities such as:
•
•
•
•
advertising (in its many forms)
sales promotion
merchandising
public relations and publicity
Publicity, in simple terms, is how we communicate our offer to our potential and
existing customers.
Promotion is an important element of the marketing mix. Its goal is to:
•
•
•
inform
persuade
remind
the market about an organisation and/or its products.
Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCORG614A: Reader LO 9378
© NSW DET 2010
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Forms of promotional activity
Now let’s look at each item on the list of promotional activities that we’ve already
identified and discuss some of the main forms these activities might take and
some considerations about their use.
Advertising
If you want a nice textbook definition of advertising, you might choose a classic
definition such as: ‘The paid non-personal presentation of a product or service’.
While this may be technically correct it is a risky way to think about advertising.
The key words are paid and non-personal.
Advertising certainly has to be paid for and can cost big money.
And advertising is a way of reaching a mass of people at the same time.
But it is a grave error to think of advertising as ‘non-personal’.
Effective advertising is usually very personal. It is seem, heard, read and
experienced by individuals. Effective advertising is very much like having a one-toone conversation with a single person, except that it just happens with a lot of
people at the same time.
Choosing the right advertising medium
An important advertising decision is where to advertise.
There is a bewildering range of advertising media to choose from and it is easy to
waste a lot of money advertising to people who are not prospects.
Let’s look briefly at the different media we could use for advertising our child care
centre and get an idea of the advantages and drawbacks of each one.
Newspapers, for example local newspapers
Advantages
Drawbacks
Flexible and timely—ads can be inserted on
short notice and can be one columncentimetre, two pages, or just about any
other size
Short life
Colour is mediocre and expensive
Widely read—almost everyone at least
glances at a newspaper regularly
Good, but not in the same league as
magazines
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Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCORG614A: Reader LO 9378
© NSW DET 2010
Magazines
Advantages
Drawbacks
Longer life—usually kept for a time or given
to someone else
Costs can be high
Quality of reproduction is high
Able to be targeted accurately—for
example:
Waiting time is long—some magazines
require bookings up to four months in
advance
- To reach organic gardeners you might use
ABC Organic Gardeners Magazine.
- To target ‘high-end’ residential clients you
might use Vogue Living, Inside Out etc….
- To reach commercial turf-care prospects
you might use Golf and Sports Turf
Australia Magazine, and so on.
Radio, for example, community radio
Advantages
Drawbacks
Wide coverage
Can’t show or demonstrate
Some degree of market targeting
Short exposure—like television, it is
broadcast and is then gone
Less expensive than television—but to get
reach you must have repetition
Flexible—as with newspapers, radio ads can
usually be placed, changed or withdrawn
very quickly
Attention can be poor—radio can become
background sound
Direct mail
Advantages
Drawbacks
Can be very closely targeted—many mailing lists
are available, allowing you to send your direct
mail to exactly the kind of person you are trying
to reach
Can be expensive—when posted, any quality
piece of direct mail (involving say a colour
brochure) can be an expensive way on a per
head basis to reach your market
Volume—each week most householders and
businesses are bombarded with direct mail
advertisements. Yours will have to be very good
to be read.
Junk mail image—many people regard direct
mail automatically as junk mail and do not
trouble to read it.
Check out the website for the Australian Direct
Marketing Institute:
http://www.adma.com.au/asp/index.asp
Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCORG614A: Reader LO 9378
© NSW DET 2010
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Internet
Advantages
Drawbacks
Reaches wide audience (global) if you need it
People have to find it
Sound, movement, visuals can be combined
Buyers may be concerned about credit card
security
Easy to email for more information
Quick—technically an advertisement can be
placed and instantly seen
Some people do not have access to the Internet
Yellow Pages
Advantages
Drawbacks
Available on Internet as well as in print
The audience may have difficulty in
differentiating between advertisements
Reaches wide audience
The most important thing with marketing and advertising is to ensure that it is
directed at your target market—families with young children and/or people just
starting a family, or about to start a family.
Most services now develop brochures or flyers with information about the
service, such as operating hours, management and fee structure, staffing levels,
service philosophy, the program and special activities and achievements. These
are distributed to families who make an enquiry, and are occasionally used as a
mass marketing tool by letterbox drops.
Advertising with print media
A large part of marketing our centres is done in writing, so it’s important to know
what makes a ‘good’ advertisement. Below are some tips for producing effective
print media.
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•
•
•
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Capture the reader’s attention immediately by using headline, layout,
graphics or photographs.
Set out the information in a clear, accessible way and use unambiguous
language. (You may produce your brochure, ad or flier in a selection of
languages representative of your centre’s community. Interpreter Services
or perhaps a parent or staff member may be able to assist here).
Use a consistent, clear, attractive design, which ensures the message isn’t
swallowed by layout and graphics. Use these to enhance, not detract
away from the message. Keep it simple, but appealing and accessible.
If photographs are used ensure they are ethically appropriate and
permission has been gained from the child’s family. (A particularly
important point when issues of custody may be involved). Also check
Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCORG614A: Reader LO 9378
© NSW DET 2010
•
•
•
relevant cultural and confidentiality frameworks (such as the Privacy Act).
Be sensitive to the fact that some families may not want their children’s
photographs appearing in the centre’s publicity material.
Concentrate what the reader is interested in, the buying points, rather
than your viewpoint, the selling points. Survey after survey has found
more than anything else parents want their children to be cared for and
happy in Child Care. Research your target audience.
Know your audience. How will the brochure, flier or advertisement reach
its target audience? How will it be distributed and circulated?
Invite a response! Don’t forget to include the centre’s phone number,
address and opening hours for easy reference. Let the reader know how
you want them to respond to your advertisement.
Activity 3a
Activity 3b
No two brochures or flyers will ever be the same. You may have developed a small
flyer that gives the main details of the service, or something more elaborate such
as the example shown here:
Kanga’s House Child Care Centre (.pdf 37 kB)
Public relations and publicity
‘Public relations’ is a broad overall strategy. Its aim is to cultivate and maintain a
favourable image for an organization, product or service with important groups.
These groups may include:
•
•
•
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shareholders
employees
customers
unions
government
the local community.
Such ‘good things’ could include:
•
•
•
•
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supporting charities
sponsoring sporting teams
supporting community events (like a festival)
providing community facilities (such as a establishing a child-care centre
or donating books to the local library)
donating money to the arts.
Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCORG614A: Reader LO 9378
© NSW DET 2010
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Publicity is a somewhat more direct method and involves a promotional
communication about an organization, product or service.
Advertising is paid for. Publicity is not.
Publicity is usually implemented in one of three ways:
1.
By preparing a story about the centre and sending it (often with
photographs) to the newspapers, radio and/or other media. This is called a
news release or press release. If you have prepared it well it may be
published. As you can imagine, journalists receive many such releases daily,
so very few actually see the columns of a newspaper.
2.
Calling a press conference. Here you invite local media representatives to
hear about something from you in person. You could express an opinion on
a particular change or innovation (e.g. discussion of the possibility of
maternity pay) or a general interest story (how children are coping with the
heat during water restrictions). However, unless the item is extremely
newsworthy they will not come.
3.
Lobbying. In this exercise your centre makes personal contact with people in
power in the hope of influencing them. Much lobbying takes place around
government ministers. Some organisations retain a professional lobbyist in
Canberra to act on their behalf.
Other promotional activities
Services can also promote their profile by participating in community events.
Consultation with the media may lead to the service appearing in an article,
Community events, such as a fair or cultural festival, also provide a great
opportunity for raising the centre’s profile. A children’s service booth could be set
up, providing recreational activities for children attending the fair. This would
demonstrate some of the activities offered and provide an opportunity to discuss
with family members the program and role of your service. The service could
organise a food stall, offering culturally diverse food representative of the families
attending the service. There are many possibilities and all allow the service to be
seen as an integral part of the community. This is particularly relevant if the
service is community based and advocates a strong community involvement
philosophy
Networking
Networking is an excellent tool which will allow you to form both formal and
informal networks of communication that may assist in the marketing of your
service. You could establish an alliance with the local early-childhood clinic,
organising the preschool group to visit for an excursion to see how the newborns
are weighed and measured, or for the mother’s group to make use of your
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Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCORG614A: Reader LO 9378
© NSW DET 2010
outdoor playground or parents' meeting room for their next get-together. This
places the service within the community and allows first-hand verbal promotion
of the service.
The informal impressions that the community forms of you and the service are
long lasting. Close and ongoing contact with the community is often an aim of a
service, so it is important that when this contact occurs, the profile displayed is a
true and positive reflection of the service. Even though there may be conflicting
demands, a service should never consider itself too busy to reflect a professional,
informative and friendly manner. Enquiries should be dealt with in a courteous
and informative manner (even if it is the 100th enquiry you’ve received this week
about the waiting list!)
Confidentiality and sensitivity to cultural and individual factors
and legal obligations
It is imperative when promoting the service that we consider the confidentiality
and privacy of our families. Permission needs to be gained for the use of any
photograph and the printed or verbal disclosure of any families’ names.
Sensitivity to cultural and individual factors also needs to be demonstrated.
Written material should be produced in a selection of community languages
representative of the centre’s community. The organisation and timing of
promotional community events should be checked against major cultural and
religious events. For example, it would be insensitive to organise a family or
community picnic lunch during Ramadan.
Keeping track of what works
Since advertising can be a very expensive exercise, it is vitally important to keep
track of what is working and what isn’t. Always ask customers (and potential
customers when they ring to make enquiries on the phone) where they heard
about you. If they say they heard about you from a friend, ask where they got the
phone number from (e.g. the friend, or did they look it up in the yellow pages).
This will tell you where your advertising dollar is best spent as well as which type
of advertising should be avoided in the future!
Read what Paula has to say about marketing a service
Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCORG614A: Reader LO 9378
© NSW DET 2010
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Paula: We don’t actually advertise the service anywhere, but… I
absolutely stress to everyone (staff) that work there, that every
phone call, every family who comes in to enquire about the service,
is making a judgement or assessment on how they are greeted, and
therefore when a family walks into the place, or a parent or staff
staff member looks up and says ‘hi, can I help you’ rather than just
look away, that absolutely sells the service to that family. Or on the
phone if you take that little bit extra time to actually explain what
the service is or even find numbers to help that family because you
can’t help them, they will go away and talk about the wonderful
reaction they got over the phone. And that is the most marvellous
way that you can advertise your place.
I actually encourage staff when they go off to inservices or local
network meetings, to talk about Kangas. It’s also how they come
across. If they come across in a very professional intelligent way,
people have an idea about the centre. If they come across with a
commitment and advocate quality care, they have some concept of
what Kangas might be like. I also believe it’s really important you
join organisations that advocate for quality care. Again your
centre’s name comes up if many of you working in that centre are
out there in the field with your peers, spreading the word.
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Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCORG614A: Reader LO 9378
© NSW DET 2010
References
Children’s Services Central : Are you being served: effective strategies to market
children’s services:
http://www.cscentral.org.au/Resources/Phone_Link_ups/Are_you_being_served.
pdf
Family Day Care Australia marketing website:
http://www.familydaycare.com.au/marketing_resources.html
List of child care journals in which you could advertise:
http://www.mediabiznet.com.au/directories/magazines-b2b-magazines-childcare.do
National Childcare Accreditation Council (2008) Effectively marketing your
service:
http://www.ncac.gov.au/pcf/Effectively_Marketing_Your_Service_Dec06.pdf
Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCORG614A: Reader LO 9378
© NSW DET 2010
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