Nicole’s Child Care Company has been considered as the name of the company. Effective nourishment of the child through the providence of safety, care, and stimulating cognitive development is the mission set by the company. It is set that Nicole’s Child Care will admit children ageing 6 weeks till 10 years. Nonetheless, the company also visualizes inculcating education and knowledge concerning social, emotional as well as physical areas (Brennan, 2007). The vision of the company is relationship building with parents through cultivation of trust, rendering sense of security thereby ushering as a shining example while setting a particular trend. The objectives are as follows:
Concerning product strategy there are 3 strata that are considered. They are the core product, expected product and the augmented product. Core product refers to the basic product thereby concentrating on the aims set for which the product is designed. The expected product refers to the expectations set by the consumers in regards to the product whereas the augmented product signifies the additive values and benefits that the product brings in with it. Nonetheless these additional aspects differentiate the product from other products of same genre thereby creating its brand identity (Baines et al., 2009). In case of Nicole’s Child Care, the core product is the child care service provided by the company. Though the child care industry is saturated with many mushroom child care centres, still with effective unique selling proposition and service, Nicole’s Child Care centre can penetrate the Canberra market. In fact there are new locations that are opening up in Canberra. One such location is Stapylton Street in Holder. Over here the township planning is little different as it will also include apartments other than 2 bedroom houses. Therefore Stapylton Street in Holder poses to a good location for Nicole’s Child Care Centre (Peter & Donnelly, 2011).
The expected product of Nicole’s Child Care Centre is the security, assistance and helps to manage the children during their time of need, for example, while the parents are away or busy doing certain domestic chores. Opening up the Child Care centre in a new location of Canberra will add on mileage to it (Brennan, 2007). This is because that though there are few child care Centres in Holder, a child care centre offering expected product like healthy meal, cultivating learning and development in small children, equipped with efficient and caring personnel for small children will certainly be considered as the unique selling proposition of Nicole’s Child Care centre.
The augmented product of Nicole’s Child Care is the knowledge and development that is benefitted by the children. Moreover, the dependence and the relaxed feeling that the parents will get can also be taken into consideration. Nonetheless, these are again the criteria that differentiate Nicole’s service from that of others. Nicole’s product offers:
Therefore all the above services that Nicole’s Child Care will provide can be considered as characteristics for its product differentiation. This will certainly help the company to earn its competitive advantage in the market.
While it comes to product positioning, the first thing that strikes the mind is the mindset and need of the consumers of Holder. As there are few small child care centres and that it is a new location that has recently opened up, it does not seem too difficult for Nicole to position her product. The competitive pressures will be local and moderate. Nicole might use the social network and viral marketing to target her consumers. Moreover, she might print leaflets thereby circulating them to the apartments, community centres, churches and other parts of township (Thackeray et al., 2008). An image of the Child Care Centre from outside showing its park and the building along with few images of the interior might be circulated with lines:
Nicole’s Child Care Centre
Children from 6 weeks- 10 years are welcomed
Providing assistance to parents/ school goers
Imparting knowledge and learning through painting, dancing and music activities
Contact:
Moreover these are certain ways through which Nicole might actually brand her product. Moreover, how the product is introduced in the market, its positioning and branding decides for the life-cycle of the product. Similar is the case for Nicole’s Child Care (Porter, 2008).
The primary aim will be the positioning of Nicole’s Child Care as a brand.
Therefore it is recommended to incorporate penetration pricing for its services. This is a pricing technique that is mostly used while a new product penetrates a market where the pricing is competitively kept lower than the other similar products/ services in the market. There are 2 types of services that Nicole’s Child Care is offering- after school child care and pre-school child care. Taking a gander at the other child care centre rates, it will be feasible if the rates are kept as $180 weekly for after school and $ 170 weekly for pre-school. It is a sort of perfect competition market in the child care industry of Canberra. Now the location Holder is a part of Canberra where there is a moderate amount of child care centres. Therefore, there appears to be innumerale market players which make it difficult to change the pricing strategy that is prevailing (Lovelock, 2011). Therefore penetration pricing seems apt.
While it comes to promotion mix, advertising seems to be apt and viral marketing to propagate the message and offering of the product to the targeted consumers. Radio as well as print media can be used. 666 ABC Canberra and Mix 106.3 will be used to broadcast the services offered by Nicole’s Child Care. The slots and timings to be selected might be in the morning (the breakfast slot) and another in the evening around 6 to 7 pm for all the days. Print media in printing leaflets must also be put to use. Viral marketing can also be used to spread the marketing messages through different users and websites thereby increasing the visibility of the product which not only creates a marketing buzz but also promotes sales figures (Christensen et al., 2007).
Direct distribution, direct sales and also hiring of agents might prove beneficial in the child care service distribution process. Direct distribution can be achieved through viral marketing. In all these cases, Nicole directly gets the chance to market her products and communicate directly with the targeted consumers. Even while circulating leaflets, the agents might be hired or Nicole herself might work as one of the agents initially to present her product to the consumers. The location has already been selected as Holder which is newly opened and possesses apartments and town houses (Solomon, 2014).
The budget set for this marketing plan is $ 135 000. Moreover, it will be a small company opened by Nicole which emphasizes on the aspect that the budget planning must be realistic. The following chart is the budget and schedule design of Nicole’s Child Care for 2017.
|
May |
June |
July |
August |
September |
October |
November |
December |
Total |
|
|
Print leaflets |
30 000 |
||||||||
|
Radio |
50 000 |
||||||||
|
Agent |
15 000 |
||||||||
|
Social Media |
30 000 |
||||||||
|
Google Adwords |
10 000 |
||||||||
|
135 000 |
The evaluation process will incorporate assessment of the pre marketing campaign and the post marketing campaign thereby collecting feedback. After the collection of feedback, effective steps must be taken and implemented. For example, after the marketing campaign is done for a few months, certain consumer views and opinions must be collected and then implemented in the next quarter of the month to achieve better results (Armstrong et al., 2012). The return on investments must be noted.
Market evaluation can also be done through urgency basis, assessing market size and pricing potential, customer satisfaction and brand equity. Customer satisfaction feedback might be collected as well as brand equity might be evaluated through the targeted consumer perception. Market size can be determined showing number of consumers participating in active buying as well as on urgency basis which denotes that to what extent the consumers need the service (Porter, 2008).
Conclusion:
Therefore this marketing plan proposes the ideas and concepts on how Nicole’s Child Care might put up a marketing campaign. The location selected is Holder and the services offered to the children ageing 6 weeks to 10 years. Though there are several child care centres in Canberra, Nicole’s can actually earn its competitive advantage through the incorporation of successful marketing campaign. Further, it also stresses on the aspect that because there are innumerable child care centres in Canberra, there is certainly higher need in the target market. Nonetheless, the external environment assessment must be taken at regular intervals and contingency strategies to be implemented when required (Lovelock, 2011).
References:
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2012). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Prentice-Hall, London.
Baines, T., Lightfoot, H., Peppard, J., Johnson, M., Tiwari, A., Shehab, E., & Swink, M. (2009). Towards an operations strategy for product-centric servitization. International Journal of Operations & Production Management,29(5), 494-519.
Brennan, D. (2007). The ABC of child care politics. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 42(2), 213.
Christensen, C. M., Anthony, S. D., Berstell, G., & Nitterhouse, D. (2007). Finding the right job for your product. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48(3), 38.
Gebauer, H. (2008). Identifying service strategies in product manufacturing companies by exploring environment–strategy configurations. Industrial marketing management, 37(3), 278-291.
Lovelock, C. (2011). Services Marketing, 7/e. Pearson Education India.
Martín-Consuegra, D., Molina, A., & Esteban, Á. (2007). An integrated model of price, satisfaction and loyalty: an empirical analysis in the service sector.Journal of Product & Brand Management, 16(7), 459-468.
Palmer, A. (2012). Introduction to marketing: theory and practice. Oxford University Press.
Peter, J. P., & Donnelly, J. H. (2011). Marketing management: knowledge and skills: text, analysis, cases, plans. Plano: Business pub., INC.
Porter, M. E. (2008). The five competitive forces that shape strategy.Harvard business review, 86(1), 25-40.
Solomon, M. R. (2014). Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Thackeray, R., Neiger, B. L., Hanson, C. L., & McKenzie, J. F. (2008). Enhancing promotional strategies within social marketing programs: use of Web 2.0 social media. Health promotion practice, 9(4), 338-343.
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