2. 1
Table of Contents
The Team
Situation Analysis
SWOT Analysis
Target Audience
Marketing Problems
Marketing Strategy
Tactics and Creative Execution
Success Metrics
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
12
3. 2
The Team
Alyssa Lagimoniere
Assistant Account Executive
Courtney Peacock
Strategist
Victoria Skinner
Account Executive
Emily Hood
Copywriter
Gabriela Aponte
Art Director
4. 3
Situation Analysis
Treehouse Kid and Craft is a DIY center located in Athens, Georgia. The store, established
three years ago, features a wide range of well designed and responsibly made products.
Treehouse is known to carry organic products as well as designer diaper bags, artwork,
décor, crafts, and many items that are created locally. However, they are not only a store, but
also a place to learn and create. The shop offers a variety of classes including illustration,
sewing, and puppet making.
For owner Kristen Bach, creativity and imagination are top of mind. After moving from
Wisconsin and having her daughter Maypop, she decided to create a place for others to
express their creativity here in Athens. As a big supporter of local businesses, Kristen loves to
join other locally owned shops to hold events and to promote the unique Athens culture.
5. 4
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
No other DIY centers in Athens
Unique product line
Eco-friendly products
Low priced classes
Offers baby classes
Weaknesses
Low brand awareness
Semi-obscure location
High prices
Threats
Stores like Target and Walmart offer less expensive children’s toys
Michael’s and Hobby Lobby offer art classes and are better known
Similar online competitors
Opportunities
Online Sales
Classes attendance/events
6. 5
Target Audience
Treehouse products are unique, slightly expensive and therefore attract a niche market.
Most of the products are geared toward children but Treehouse also offers whimsical
products for adults and instructional classes for all ages. Many members from our customer
base care about the environment and take pride in buying products that are natural,
organic, and made locally. The majority of the local customer base is made up of upper-
middle class stay-at-home moms. Many hipster parents come into the shop and while they
do not purchase as many products as other parents, they have proven to be very loyal to the
store. All of the customers share a love for crafts and creativity. The Treehouse website is also
able to reach the upper-middle class, craft loving mothers who do not live in Athens.
7. 6
Marketing Problems
Though the store has a very loyal, local customer base, their biggest area of opportunity
was increasing online sales and attendance at their craft classes. Some months, the store
made no money in online sales. One contributing factor to this problem was that, while
Treehouse Kid and Craft is unique to Athens, there are many other national stores who
sell similar products, some of which are less expensive. The store needed more online
advertising support as well as a more unique online image. In addition to these issues, the
only quantifiable success metrics the client used were dollars in sales.
8. 7
Marketing Strategy
We began the semester by creating a unique brand personality that would differentiate
Treehouse Kid and Craft from its online competitors. What set our client apart was her
story. She opened her store shortly after her daughter was born and her daughter is often
referred to as“Shop Baby”by her customer base. They all know her personally and love
Shop Baby. We played off of this story by conceptualizing the idea,“The Adventures of
Shop Baby,”which included a Shop Baby illustration to be used as a Treehouse Kid and Craft
icon. Through“The Adventures of Shop Baby,”the client was able to showcase promotional
products, her DIY craft classes, as well as special events.
After establishing branding, since we were trying to increase online sales, our strategy was
to focus primarily on reaching our online audience. Our group devised several tactics to
implement throughout the semester, focusing mostly on increasing website traffic.
In addition to these efforts, we placed more emphasis on success metrics, using social media
insights and Google Analytics in order to see which of our efforts were most effective. Using
these resources, during our second semester, we were able to shift our focus to concentrate
on Pinterest, blogging, and blogger relations.
9. 8
Tactics & Creative Execution
Rebranding
As mentioned before, we began our campaign by inventing a
Treehouse character for the store. Because the owner’s daughter,
known affectionately by customers as Shop Baby, was already viewed
as the unofficial store mascot, we created the character based on her
appearance. We had a cartoonist from Cartoon Network design Shop
Baby and then placed the image on our website and other online
platforms. We also had a life-size 2-D Shop Baby created and placed in
the store so that children can take pictures with the cutout.
10. 9
Tactics & Creative Execution
Traditional Advertising
As part of our strategy to increase Treehouse’s online following,
we created a social media handout, given to in-store customers
with every purchase, as a reminder to follow Treehouse on our
online platforms.
11. 10
Workshop
Midway through the semester we were approached by
another Talking Dog group. Because their client, City Salon,
had a similar target market, the group suggested doing a
mutually beneficial workshop. With City Salon, Treehouse
hosted a Valentine’s Day Mother-Daughter workshop.The
mothers learned hair tricks to practice on their daughters
and their daughters learned a craft.
Tactics & Creative Execution
12. 11
Tactics & Creative Execution
Online
Our first semester working with Treehouse Kid and Craft was spent increasing Facebook
reach, engagement and likes by posting popular products to encourage traffic to the online
store. We ran multiple holiday campaigns on Facebook that allowed the client to reach a
national audience and significantly increase her fan base. To encourage class attendance, we
also focused Twitter to remind customers about daily classes.
We used Google Analytics to gauge our progress so that we could see which online
tactics were most beneficial. We noticed that most of our website traffic was directed from
Pinterest, so during our second semester, we placed a stronger emphasis on Pinterest,
pinning all of the client’s online products, linking each back to the website.
In order to further boost website traffic, we set up an AdWords account. We set up several
AdWords campaigns based on products that Kristen specifically wanted to promote. We also
created an instructional worksheet about AdWords so she could easily run the campaigns at
the end of the year.
13. 12
Success Metrics
Since our focus for Treehouse Kid & Craft was generally online, taking over their social
media and increasing efficiency, we believe that our increase in followers for all of the
different platforms was one of our biggest measurements of success. Facebook likes
increased by 20%, Instagram followers increased by 77%, Pinterest followers increased
by 52%, Twitter followers increased by 18% and blog visitors increased by 284%! By
restructuring their current social media methods and strategically scheduling posts, we
were able to exceed our online and social media goals and, as a result, increase reach and
engagement among her online audience.
As far as overall success as a business, we accredit this increase in social media attention to
driving more traffic to her website as well as increasing class attendance. From October to
March, we achieved a 24% increase in class sales. This is a direct result of our social media
contests and events advertised and led to increased in-store foot traffic as well as increased
traffic to the client’s online store.
