Marketing Strategy of Cuddles Child Care

Introduction

Childcare organisations are in increasing number in Australia, which are known for providing better caring services to the children (Penn 2013). Cuddles Child Care centre situated in Perth, Australia is a family owned operating business which is known for providing caring environment to the children so that they can develop socially, emotionally and intellectually through the philosophy of the organisation, ‘Learning through Play’. With the help of this philosophy the organisation has effectively communicated its purpose to the society and to its clients. The organisation belongs to child care service industry.

As far as the mission statement of Cuddles Child Care Centre is concerned it is seen that it focuses on providing safe and caring environment to the children who fall in the age bracket of 8 weeks to 10 years (Kleinaltenkamp et al. 2016). Moreover, the organisation clearly aims to extract the best out of the children by providing them learning and expressive environment. In addition to this, organisation’s mission is to create a stimulating and hygienic and playful environment wherein children can learn from activities such paintings, collage and indoor and outdoor games.

Similarly the value statements of the company are as follows-

To lend a helping hand to the parents and families of kids
To bring effective coherence between the staff members, parents and other professional members
To assign learning activities to the children as per their capability
To provide commitment to the society by ensuring better upbringing of children

From the marketing orientation conducted by the Cuddles Child Care Centre, it found out that children in Perth need to be taken proper care of (Hollebeck et al. 2016). Moreover a number of families settled in Perth are working and thus in order to take care of their children an effective child care centre is required. Therefore, the organisation provides services in the form of child care wherein children are made to engage in constructive, cognitive and creative activities.

The following report focuses on conducting a market analysis of Cuddles Child Care in Perth wherein affective marketing information is obtained through techniques such as SWOT analysis, 5 C’s of marketing and other marketing research techniques. On the basis of collected and gathered information, effective marketing tactics have been developed and then technique called 7 P’s of marketing has been done to formulate effective marketing strategy.

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5C’s of the company

The Five C’s of the organisation are explained as follows-

2.1 Company

SWOT analysis is conducted –

Strengths

Established brand name since 1995
Dedicated and efficient staff members (Penaloza, Toulouse and Visonti 2013)

Weaknesses

the family business is run by traditional means which lacks modern style of business conduct

Opportunities

More and more families are having earning parents and thus child care centre trend is increasing
Parents are becoming more conscious regarding the overall development of children

Threats

Tough competition from child care centres like Penguin Child Care Centre
Huge cost involved (Abdullah et al. 2014)

2.2 Customers

The organisation mainly deals with the families of Perth who want to get child children admitted in the child care centres. Thus the organisation is mainly serving the nuclear families of Perth where the child needs to be taken care of (Philip et al. 2000). The typical behaviour of the customers which is identified here is that the parents are conscious regarding the early development and learning of their children.

2.3 Collaboration

The organisation collaborates with its supplying partners, and distribution partners for delivering the services in the market of Perth. The main suppliers are the furniture suppliers and child care and nutritional health suppliers (Armstrong et al. 2014). The organisations follow a supply chain management procedure for acquiring the supply of these products. Moreover, the child care services are distributed to other parts of Australia by opening child care centre under the name of Cuddles Child care wherein collaboration is made through licensing (Kotler and Keller 2016).

2.4 Competitors

The prime competitors are the other child care centre in Australia such as Penguin Child Care Centre, Bright Horizon Australia and Umina Childcare Centre (Sheth and Sisodia 2015). However, there are no potential new threats in the market especially in the market of Perth as no new child care centres have been established in the recent time.

2.5 Context

A number of factors such as legal, political and technological tend to affect the overall business of the organisation (Meffert 2013). A number of technological aspects have been advanced for the cognitive learning of children such as video and audio screening of numerical lessons, which needs to be used by the organisation. In addition to this, legal aspects such as timely permission are required to be obtained from the ACECQA (Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority).

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Collecting information for 5Cs

In order to make proper decisions in the area of marketing, the organisation makes use of 5Cs to collect information regarding market research and market intelligence.

By collecting information of 5Cs, the organisation learns about the requirements as well as expectations of parents of the children. The parents want the organisation to provide better quality services to their children by ensuring that proper care is given to their children. They want that the staff members of the organisation to be aware and cautious regarding the safety of their children along with provision of proper facilities as well as care which act as a catalyst to children’s overall development (Hollensen 2015). All the above requirements and expectations of the parents were gathered by collecting information through an online survey which was conducted for the parents of Perth. Through this survey, the organisation came to know about the need of child care development ranging from 8 weeks to 10 years. Moreover, it was identified that about 80% of parents’ population is working and thus, there is a need for a quality childcare centre (Kotler and Keller 2016). Also, the perspectives of parents are changing regarding the development of their children as they want their kids to excel not only on educational grounds but also in extracurricular activities.
Cuddles learnt about its competitors by way of a Competitor Analysis Survey which was conducted to analyse the growth of the competitors in the last five years. Through this analysis, it was found out that the major competitors of Cuddles are Umina Childcare Centre, Penguin Childcare Centre and Bright Horizon Australia (Kotler et al. 2016). They are the established child care centres in Australia which pose major threat to Cuddles as it they show an increasing trend in their growth rate as per the Competitor Analysis Survey. However, it has also been analysed that there are no new entrants in the child care industry in Australia for the next two years.
With the continuous change in political, legal and technological factors, it has been analysed that the child care business is also going through these changes. These changes have been analysed by strategic technique named PESTLE Analysis and as per this technique it was identified that the organisation’ technological as well as legal environment are changing (Sheth and Sisodia 2015). For instance, the organisation has to obtain permission from ACECQA for legal requirements. For technological innovations, the organisation needs to cope up with technology changes like introduction of Video and Audio screening.

Through market research, it was found out that Cuddles needs to effectively collaborate with its suppliers as well as distribution partners in order to survive completion. It has been identified that the organisation has to make collaboration with its main suppliers, i.e. furniture suppliers and nutritional suppliers of the organisation by use of licensing (Hollensen 2015). Also, it has been found out through market research that the growth and revenue of the organisation increases by an effective supply chain management strategy. Thus, it is seen that Cuddles learnt about the efficiency and effectiveness of collaborating with partners through market research and intelligence

Developing marketing strategy

With the help of marketing tactics better services can be provided to the clients and the customers in the market. An appropriate market tactics can help in increasing the number of customers in the market (Meffert 2013). A proper market plan can be developed through an effective planning through which the business objectives can be fulfilled in an effective manner by reaching out to the customers in the most effective manner.

The fixed marketing strategy helps the business of Cuddles Child Care Centre to carry out the business in an effective manner. A SMART process is followed for the marketing strategy which helps in achieving the goals in measurable basis. Firstly the marketing segmentation is required to be done. As it is known that there are four bases of market segmentation which includes behavioural segmentation, demographic segmentation, geographical segmentation and psychographic segmentation (Hollenbeck et al. 2016). Thus, as per its marketing strategy, Cuddles Child Care Centre targets the parents who fall in the age group of 23-35 years of age as per demographic segmentation. Moreover, as per the geographic segmentation, the parents of Perth are specifically selected. Moreover as per the behavioural segmentation, those parents are considered within the marketing strategy who, are conscious regarding the upbringing of their children and want their children to excel. Thus, overall it is seen that the parents in Perth who fall in the age bracket of 23-35 years are targeted who are particular in learning and development procedure of their children.

Data Analysis

The value proposition which can be added for targeting the market in an effective manner includes mass marketing which offers entry of single product in the market. Moreover the organisation provides nutritional drinks to the children that help in targeting the market in an effective manner by adding value to the child care services (Penaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013). Moreover the strategy called single segment strategy is used which helps in the growth of small firms. Apart from that in order to add more value to the target market, the organisation ensures that target needs of the customers are met by creating a learning environment which helps in cognitive and behavioural learning of children through playful activities. In addition to this, the organisation ensures to maintain health and the nutritional value of the children and kids by providing them nutritional and energy drink twice in a day (Meffert 2013). Thus the value proposition has been maintained by Cuddles Child Care by considering the specific needs of the target customers in the market and providing them services accordingly.

A positioning statement refers to the expression which explains the manner in which the consumer needs are met. Thus, an appropriate market niche of the child care services was identified and these needs were met through an effective positioning statement. Considering the target market which consist of the children falling in the age bracket of 8 weeks to 10 years, the organisation positioned itself as the best child care centre where not only the cognitive and learning skills of the children will be worked upon but also the nutritional requirements of the child will be identified individually and will be met successfully (Penaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013). In addition to this, for the purpose of positioning itself in an effective manner in the child care service market the organisation has positioned itself as providing multiple types of child care learning activities and nutritional value.

Developing marketing tactics

After considering the marketing strategy that has been discussed in the previous section a detailed marketing mix strategy is required to be formulated (Kotler and Keller 2016). Following are the 7 P’s of marketing mix of the organisation-

Product- the organisation mainly deals with the providing child care services to the customers in the market. The services include a set of activities such as nurturing and home style environment to the kids. Before and after school care services are provided along with the pick-up and drop off facilities from the respective schools of the children (Penaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013). In addition to this beautifully carved modern building and learning equipments are provided to the kids.

Price- since most of the families and the parents of children in child care are earning members, therefore, a slight attractive price is charged by them since they can afford it. Apart from that, the price charged is as per the quality of services provided and since it provides one of the best child care services in Perth therefore, charging a high price is worth it (Kotler and Keller 2016).

Place– Cuddles Child Care Centre is basically located in Perth which provides child care services to the customers in Perth but it has expanded its child care services in other parts of Australia as well such as in St. James (Kotler et al. 2016). Thus the distribution is done in various parts of Australia.

Promotion- it is important for the care centre to effectively promote its services among the target customers (Hollensen 2015). Therefore, the organisation should identify that the target customers of age bracket 23-35 years are mostly active on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thus, the organisation should create its page on these websites and then should send the request to the target customers so that effective promotion can be done for the child care services.

People– this aspect includes dedicated staff members that cater to the needs of the customers in the market. For this the employees should be motivated through different means (Penaloza, Toulouse and Visconti 2013).

Physical evidence- the main establishment of the organisation is in Perth which acts as its physical evidence.

Process- the organisation should more and more on IT supported design so that advanced child learning services are provided. In addition to this, the organisation should maintain a high standards of services while delivering child care services in the market which will help in driving the competitors away (Sheth and Sisodia 2015).

Conclusion

On the basis of above discussion it is concluded that in order to successfully establish an organisation in the market a thorough market analysis is required to be conducted. In addition to this, it is concluded that in order to successfully place an organisation such as Cuddles Child Care Centre a number of aspects are required to be considered. In this respect it is concluded that the organisation should obtain appropriate information about the market in which the organisation is flourishing. On the basis of market analysis, it is found out that the organisation needs to develop its marketing strategy on the basis of identified information from market research. Hence a detailed 7 P’s of marketing is conducted which would help the organisation to effectively place itself in the child care service market.