Marketing Plan
Camp Thoreau
Marketing Plan
Prepared by:
Karen Rosio
Director of Camp Thoreau
August 4, 2012
Executive Summary
Camp Thoreau is a year-round extended child care program for children ages 3-12 years old. The program was developed for the convenience and benefit of the Thoreau Elementary community. It is designed to benefit each individual child emotionally, physically, socially, an educationally. To that end, our staff consists of qualified adults who have received special training through Milwaukee Public Schools Division of Recreation and Thoreau Elementary School.
Camp Thoreau would like to improve the budget we have now so we have the funding to develop our program as the needs of the families change. Changing our logo will allow us to attract more families, as well as, use of a website or school newsletter for advertisement. Educational workshops for our parents will be essential in our program.
1. Introduction
Camp Thoreau has been in existence since 1994. Our program has grown through the years. The enrollment has gone up and down throughout the last few years because of the economy. Our goal is to keep the budget with a good surplus so that we can put as much money as possible back into the program. We would like to develop a website, a new logo and offer some educational workshops for our parents.
2. Strategic Plan and Focus
a. Mission Statement
The mission of Camp Thoreau is to provide a safe, healthy, supervised educational and recreational environment for children on a year-round basis. Our program is designed to benefit each individual child emotionally, physically, socially and educationally.
b. Marketing Objectives
Create a website for Camp Thoreau to attract potential families.
Market our program through the school newsletter.
Change our logo for Camp Thoreau to better embody our program.
Introduce parent workshops into our program to bring resources to our families.
c. Financial Objectives
Increase our budget to include allowable expenditures such as improving staff education opportunities and marketing changes.
Keep our payroll at a controllable level so we can maximize our working budget.
3. Situational Analysis
Camp Thoreau is well established in the Thoreau Elementary community and has been for 18 years. We offer care on all non-school days, as well as, before and after care to the students of Thoreau Elementary year-round. Our program has continued to grow throughout the years and has made adjustments as changes have occurred.
a. SWOT Analysis
The following SWOT analysis captures the key strengths and weaknesses within our child care program, and describes the opportunities and threats facing Camp Thoreau.
Strengths
Our program employs MPS teachers and we have MPS Administrators at our disposal to help with curriculum and learning targets.
We are open year-round on all non-school days.
We offer a variety of educational and recreational programming.
We have a very low staff turnover rate.
Weaknesses
Our staff lacks a high level of education in regards to Early Childhood Education.
We are only open to Thoreau students which limit our demographics.
Wages are not competitive with what other centers pay.
Lacking in professional development.
We can’t offer second shift or transportation.
Opportunities
We have use of all school facilities and equipment rent free which allows us to more money back into the program.
We are able to offer competitive rates to our private pay parents.
We are covered under the MPS umbrella for insurance.
Threats
We lose funding from WI Shares because our staff lacks education.
Other camps are open to all children so we risk losing potential enrollment.
We have a hard time hiring anyone with a college education because MPS sets the wages and they are not competitive.
b. Market Analysis
Through the last 18 years, Camp Thoreau has seen its enrollment fluctuate as the enrollment of Thoreau Elementary has gone down and have made adjustments to make the adversity work. With WI Shares funding along with private pay parents, we have learned how many students we can service in order to stay within the budget we have set and still provide a quality child care program.
Market Needs
Camp Thoreau is providing the Thoreau Community with needed child care before and after school and all day for the 3 year old siblings of students. The availability of the program services parents who are able to provide transportation to and from the program and who work or go to school between the hours of 6:30am to 6:00pm on a daily basis year-round. We charge a weekly fee to the private pay parents that are competitive with the surrounding child care facilities. We offer a well-rounded program that includes a balance of recreational and educational activities.
Market Trends
Child care is a necessity in our area because of the single parent families and the families who have sustained economic crisis in the last years and have a need to work overtime, an extra job or go back to school. As the parents are spending less time with their children they have less time to help them with homework and really spend some quality time focusing on learning skills.
Competitor Analysis
1. Any franchised based child care facilities on the northwest side of Milwaukee that offer a second shift or transportation to prospective parents are our biggest competition.
2. Any other MPS camps who offer child care to students who do not attend their school.
4. Market-Service Focus
a. Marketing and product objectives
Camp Thoreau offers the Thoreau Elementary community the option to have all of their students housed in the same facility. Our hours changed to meet the needs of the parents as the hours of school changed. We expanded our hours to offer the service to more parents.
Keys to Success
· Tutoring and Homework help services.
· Health and Wellness activities to help combat childhood obesity.
· Safety.
· Low staff turnover/feeling of family.
Target Market
Our target customers are the parents/guardians of Thoreau students, any family that needs care before or after the school day because they are working or going to school and parents who would like their students to do their homework in a controlled setting and have the option of tutoring or give them access to many recreational activities that they can participate in while being safely supervised. These parents can be of any income level or educational level.
Positioning
Camp Thoreau has positioned itself as one of the premier camps of the Milwaukee Public School system. We gross the second highest amount of income per year. We are one of the few camps to remain open during the summer, on all non-school days and during Spring Break and Winter Break. We are constantly changing our programming to meet the needs of the parents so we will look to add educational parenting workshops. We are only as good as our staff. We have had very low staff turnover but are pushing to improve the educational levels of all staff members. Students who receive quality child care do tend to do better in school.
5. Marketing Strategy
The objective of this strategy is to increase our intake of funds by maximizing our strengths and adding some new services. Camp Thoreau could benefit from a change in the logo and some new ways to market the program. A website should be developed as well as some advertising going home in the monthly Thoreau Elementary School Newsletter. Lastly, the parents would benefit from the monthly educational workshops that will be offered to help as family resources. These few elements should draw new families along with the strong amount of referrals that occur from parent to parent and student to students.
a. Marketing Mix
Camp Thoreau is working with following approaches to pricing, advertising and customer service.
Pricing: A weekly fee is offered with many different options depending on when the family would require child care. No co-pay is charged to WI Shares families.
Advertising: A new logo, website and advertising in the school newsletter.
Customer Service: Parents are very happy with how they are treated when entering Camp Thoreau. They enjoy staying and visiting with the staff. We work with the parents when they have financial issues.
b. Marketing Research
A survey was administered to the current Camp Thoreau parents about Parenting Workshops. 83% of the parents were in favor of educational workshops that helped with homework help and other important topics such as, bullying prevention and health and wellness.
6. Financials and Budgets
The financial trend of Camp Thoreau has been very steady for the last two years. The expenditures do not exceed the revenue brought in by private pay customers and WI shares.
a. Yearly Revenue and Expenditures
Camp Thoreau brings in revenue from WI Shares in the amount of approximately $180,000.00 per year and from private pay parents approximately $70, 000.00 per year. Camp Thoreau pays out approximately $150,000.00 in payroll and benefits per year. The miscellaneous expenditures average about $40,000.00 per year for field trip fees, supplies, busses, contracted art teacher, etc. These amounts vary per year but we have budgeted in the amount it would approximately cost for marketing of Camp Thoreau and what it would cost to run monthly parenting workshops that are a relatively small amount, which is easily attainable (see the chart below). Camp Thoreau makes a surplus of about $50,000.00 per year.
7. Evaluation and Controls
The Camp Thoreau marketing plan is meant to help focus on what improvements need to be implemented. The following milestones serve as a guideline.
a. Implementation Milestones
Action Step Person Responsible Due Date Budget
Update the Camp Thoreau Handbook Directors 9/1/12 $200.00
Develop a new logo for Camp Thoreau All Staff 9/1/12 $0.00
Offer Parent workshops to bring prospective families.
Advertise in the school newsletter Directors 9/1/12-ongoing $1000.00
Research cost in setting up our own website
(final amount unavailable) Directors 12/1/12 $0.00
Update Handbook and flyers to include new logo Directors 9/1/12 $200.00
Total Budget $1400.00
Conclusion
Camp Thoreau is a program that has been sustaining itself for the past 18 years. The program has changed as the needs of the parents have changed. This marketing plan is designed to help move to the next level of programming. To focus on some marketing needs that may have not been met in the past. We will know success when we have quality programming that can be measured with the progress of the Camp students meeting the learning targets that are set by the school district. When we can use the extra funds attained by this plan to put back into the program to improve the overall child care and daily function of the families we serve.