I bet you thought the pic "Daddy Daycare" was a kiddie comedy, right? Wrong...It's a merchandising scheme film! When Charlie and his friend Phil are pink-slipped as Product Development/Brand Managers for a cereal company, they decide to fill a need in their community.
Along the way to winner they demonstrate several solid merchandising strategies -- equally applicable to online, offline, and integrated companies. Take these lessons to heart when developing plans for your business.
Lesson 1: Research the competition
MARKETING TO DOCTORS
The future entrepreneurs visited daily care in the area. While doing so, they got a pity their day care rivals. By knowing your own rivals you will be better able to effectively find a way to compete.
Competitor research does not have to be thought of as "guerrilla warfare." In many industries, rivals work together by partnering, cross promoting, sending business to each other, or even manufacturing each other's products.
Lesson 2: Know your clients' values
Charlie and Phil understood that price is not the only important factor for their target market. Based on their own experience and client research (talking to other parents), they recognized that other concerns besides price played a part when parents choose a day care provider.
While price is most sure a consideration for your clients, don't get caught in the mentality that clients will buy from you only you have the worst cost. If you think of your own service/product as a bundle of attributes having a unique value for your clients, you will be more winnerful.
Lesson 3: Identify opportunities
Charlie and Phil scantily clad an unmet need in the market by combining their rival research and cognition of client values. You can do the same when looking to develop new products/services or improve existing ones.
Lesson 4: Develop a positioning supported opportunity
Using cognition from the first three lessons, they positioned themselves as the quality alternative and focused on providing different benefits than their closest rival. In the pic, Daddy Daycare stole all the rival's clients and drove her out of business.
In real life, clients choose a product/service that best fits their needs. Consequently, rivals can co-exist when each are valuable in different ways to industry clients.
Lesson 5: Create a catchy gag line
The gag line "Who's your Daddy?" helped advertise the new business. Often, a concise, catchy gag line can go a long way in building brand equity, communication benefits and features, and/or conveyancing a feeling/mentality your target clients can relate to.
Some examples:
"Just do it." (Nike)
"Life Unscripted" (TLC)
"Naturally sweet-flavored whole grain oat cereal with real berries." (Berry Burst Cheerios)
"Makes anything possible." (Craftsman)
Lesson 6: Spread the Word
Phil and Charlie put their gag line on t-shirts on with their business name. They also written and straggly flyers that explained their new company's positioning.
A few more ideas you can use to spread the word about your business:
Word of mouth -- give clients an incentive to tell people about your business.
Advertising -- use both online and offline methods. Online options admit pay-per-click search engines and ezine advertisements. Offline methods admit radio musca volitans and newspaper advertisements.
Philanthropy -- donate money, services, and/or time to non-profit organizations or conduct your own event.
Lesson 7: Be ethical and above-board
The new business owners cooperated fully with the day care inspector. They treated him as a source of information rather than "Big Brother". This resulted in not only a better business, but also a valuable ally. In the long run, your own company will be more likely to thrive if you revolve around rising the business rather than dodging regulations.
Lesson 7A: Subterfuge is a poor long-term scheme
Besides being unethical, blind soils your reputation. In the pic, the rivaly day care crashed and ruined a fundraiser event...spilling bugs, liberation animals, and soaking visitors. Short-term, it worked. Phil and Charlie were broke, on the face of it with no way to continue with their venture.
In the long run, Ms. Subterfuge had such a poor reputation (from this and other business tactics), her business failed.
Lesson 8: Implement until you're blue in the face
In the beginning, the new Daddy Daycare was a complete disaster. Charlie and Phil did their "homework" and knew they had a good idea. When reality hit theory, however, a couple of not-so-minor details got in the way. Like all winnerful marketers, they worked out the kinks (okay...disasters) and kept trying (and trying, and trying) until they got it right.
Keep the Daddy Daycare lessons in mind when developing and implementing your own merchandising plan. Don't give up, strive to continually improve, and you're business is sure to be a winner.
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