Advertising strategy and how it aligns with marketing goals
Advertising is an indispensable marketing tool especially for new businesses. Advertising enables a company to heighten products/services awareness among potential consumers (Fisk, Grove & John, 2008). If effectively executed, advertising is capable of increasing sales and generating immense revenues.
However, the tricky part is how to come up with effective strategies especially for small business like Joy daycare center. The main marketing goal for Joy daycare center is to increase its market share steadily with a targeted growth rate of 10% p.a. To achieve this objective, with we will engage the services of a website hosting provider to ensure that the business maintains on-line presence.
This strategy was chosen because most parents are conducting their activities (shopping, classes) online, thus they are likely to be looking for child care services via the same medium. Secondly, flyers, brochures and business cards bearing Joy daycare logo will be designed and strategically distributed within the neighborhood.
Measuring the effectiveness of the advertising
According to Fisk, Grove and John (2008), the effectiveness of advertising strategies should be measured based on the initial objectives for carrying out this campaign. Joy daycare advertising and promotional strategies were designed in order to inform customers about our services and by so doing increase sales. Moreover, promotional strategies strengthen brand image among existing customers.
We will test awareness based on the number of enquiries we receive from potential customers seeking further information. Secondly, the brand image and sales objective will be measured based on the number of inquires we receive via the various communication mediums supplied in the adverts. Furthermore, we will also follow up to establish whether these inquires translates to sales.
Promotional strategies that may be used in addition to advertising
- The center will design hats, t-shirts, mugs and bookmarks bearing Joy daycare logo and contact details, distribute them among existing parents, and give them extra ones to take to their friends.
- We will regularly conduct regular community clean-up activities and request parents to invite other families.
- A Christmas concert for children both members and non-members will be organized.
Measuring customer satisfaction for Joy daycare services
According to Hayes (2008), customer satisfaction is the key to businesses success. High level of customer satisfaction has been associated with increased customer loyalty which eventually increases a business market share and profitability.
Furthermore, high level of customer satisfaction promotes word of mouth advertising, whereas low satisfaction will lead to service/product switching (Hayes, 2008). On this note, a customer satisfaction measure thus becomes a critical tool in marketing since a marketer has to keep track on whether their product/service is meeting their customer expectations (Fisk, Grove & John, 2008).
To begin with, the center will introduce a customer care desk that is going to facilitate customer care surveys. Secondly, two questionnaires will be designed. The first questionnaire is for new customers and they will be given to new parents on the first day.
This questionnaire will contain simple questions where parents will be requested to list their expectations about child care services. The second questionnaire will be administered to continuing customers whereby they will be asked to state what they like or do not like about Joy daycare services. Questions in this second questionnaire will be designed to measure four levels of customer satisfaction;
- Satisfaction based on the quality of our training programs
- Satisfaction based on the flexibility of our working hours
- Satisfaction based on our staff friendliness
- Satisfaction and loyalty e.g. would you recommend Joy daycare to other parents? Why (not)?
These answers will be quantified on a weekly basis, to ensure that we are packaging Joy daycare center attractively to our customers.
Addressing gaps in customer expectations and experiences
Customer satisfaction is an individual’s evaluation of a product/service based on preconceived expectations (Fisk, Grove & John, 2008). Although we try to maintain high level of customer service, some instances of service failure might be inevitable due to circumstances beyond our control. On this note, the following strategies will be adopted to facilitate service recovery (Fisk, Grove & John, 2008).
Apparently, every parent within our target market has his/her own expectation about the kind of pre-school training programs they would wish their children to receive. Therefore, it is expected that some instances of dissatisfactions are likely to arise. To contain this likely customer satisfaction failure, it is upon Joy daycare customer care representative to make the parents understand why our chosen curriculum is better than the rest in the market.
Joy daycare will operate a flexible schedule that is likely to be suitable across the entire target market. To address staff friendliness gap, we will ensure that our staff receive constant training in customer service. Most importantly, a customer service representative will always be present to deal will extreme cases of customer dissatisfaction.
For instance, a child may get hurt within our premises and an irate parent engages our staff in unpleasant scene. In such a situation, the customer care representative will try to contain the parent, and as part of our responsibility to contain service failure, 50% of the medical bills will be catered for by Joy daycare center.
References
Fisk, R. P., Grove, S. J. & John, J. (2008). Interactive services marketing. Boston: Cengage learning.
Hayes, B. E. (2008). Measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty: survey design, use, and statistical analysis methods. Milwaukee, Wi: ASQ Quality Press.