1. PGP-19 | MICA
Integrated
Marketing
Communication Plan
for
Child care services
Akanksha Mittal
Gaurav Dhobal
Jayati Grover
Rohit Rohan
Tarini Bandhu

2. Industry
trends
and
forecasts

3. Trends and forecasts
SHIFTING TARGETS
• More parents are taking a careful look at child care costs, and decisions to reduce hours or
even pull their kids out of organized programs due to economic turbulences.
• As a result, more providers are offering flexible hours, keeping rates the same or even
reducing them in some cases, and working out pay arrangements for struggling families to
encourage families to stay.
• Special payment-programs or fees are also being scrutinized as providers scramble to find
ways to lessen costs while maintaining a quality care program for kids.
• On the other hand child care families are also pondering targeting the rising number of highincome families.
• There has been a surge in the number of young, double-income families that have high
disposable incomes and are looking for such services.

4. Trends and forecasts
Drop-In Child Care is More Common
• It's no surprise that drop-in child care is on the grow. What may come as a surprise to some is
that these facilities typically offer high-quality, safe, and affordable care options.
• The drop-in care facilities focus on fun activities for kids and often include mealtimes and special
theme events to provide parents with a worry-free evening or time away from kids.
Technology is Changing Provider/Parent Connection
• An increasing number of facilities offer parents the piece of mind of being able to check on their
child while at day-care as desired through video-streaming of classroom activities throughout the
day.
• Other providers regularly take photos of children and send to parents, post daily or weekly blogs or
e-newsletters online for parents to view, or even exchange emails or text messages throughout the
day.
• The technology provides parents and providers with another tool for staying "in touch" and bonding
with activities and events planned for youngsters.

5. Trends and forecasts
The Internet Can Help You Find Child Care
• Word of mouth or driving around a neighbourhood used to be the most common way to find
child care.
• Today, however, many families, especially those who have moved to a new community, rely on
the internet to find quality child care.
• Many websites offer free listings of child care; most states have a child care site for review
as well.
• Web-based babysitting and child care services are on the increase, and parents can type in a
zip code and find providers who meet the specifications designated.
• Entrepreneurs are increasingly advertising availability for child care as well.
• Of course, nothing replaces reference checks.

6. Trends and forecasts
More Child Care Options Exist
• Parents today can consider a wider menu of child care choices, and many families are choosing to use
a variety of care options based on current needs.
• Some families may use a nanny for an infant, an in-home provider for a toddler, and then switch to
a care centre for a pre-schooler.
• Occasional care service options can include babysitters, drop-in care, specified parent night out
nights, and even child care co-ops. Options do abound in most areas, although sometimes you have
to really seek them out.
Most Child Care is Becoming Safer
• While no system is absolutely fail safe, and occasional stories will continue to occur about child
pornographers or sex offenders found to be working around children.
• Increased security concerning picking up of children, additional background checks and screenings being
done on prospective employees, and more surveillance and monitoring (both overt as well as the
covert varieties) are helping to increase safety.

7. Trends and forecasts
Corporate Child Care is Raising Quality Bar
• Corporate child care is raising the bar in terms of quality child care.
• An increasing number of companies are either offering (or considering) in-house child care
centres as a perk for attracting and retaining top employees.
• In addition, more companies are partnering with child care centres to offer discounted rates
or even special hours for employees.
• Some developers are even focusing on including a child care facility as part of master planning
of new areas, knowing that having a quality child care centre nearby will make the area more
desirable for both employers and employees alike.

8. Major competition

9. Major competition
• Local day-care centres :
• Untrained employees
• More economical
• Lower quality of infrastructure
• Established in terms of trust and reliability
• No activities available, majority of the time is spent idly
• Babysitters :
• Provide services within the house
• Mostly untrained
• No activities available, majority of the time is spent idly
• Offer high convenience and flexibility

10. Major competition
• Company-provided crèches :
• More economical
• Limited infrastructure
• Limited activities available
• Offer high convenience
• Only a small number of companies offer these services
• Neighbours:
• Mostly free-of-cost
• Limited activities available
• Limited care of the child

11. Key insights

12. Key insights
•
•
•
•
•
•
When group size is large a lot of time is spent in routine activities and there is no
stimulation or interaction through play.
Too many age groups, lead to greater neglect.
Infants get some minimum attention because physical needs have to be attended to; while
pre-schoolers, with their communication skills and mobility are able to demand attention
and fulfil their needs.
But the toddler group is most deprived as they cannot yet communicate nor are they
completely independent.
Children in high quality day care centres were able to indulge in different forms of play
while the high quality family day care (run by the female head of the family in a homelike environment) provided child with greater opportunities for adult and peer interaction.
In a Mumbai study on dual earner, among all who used child care services, 65% used
Family Day Care while only 25% used Day Care Centres.

13. Key insights
•
Smaller group size and homely atmosphere help children to feel secure, social and involved in
activities with peers.
•
Convenience and flexibility is a key requirement for such programmes.
•
The location of the day care centre in neighbourhood is an added boon.
•
Most employees in day care centres have no training which reflected in the poor quality of the
programme which provides no mental or physical stimulation.
•
Through day care centre, parents wish to fulfil their children’s need for
safety, health supports, good nutrition, positive interaction with reliable adults,
the opportunity to explore and exercise their bodies and minds and love and affection.
•
Parents tend to feel guilty over not spending enough time with their children and would thus like
to be more involved.

14. Sources of business

15. Sources of business
The primary source of business will be young professional parents in metro cities.
• Nuclear Family
• Upper-middle income level (Annual household income> 10 Lakhs)
• Both the parents have a full-time in a corporate
• Children will be in the age group 1-10.

16. Communication
challenges

17. Communication challenges
• Convincing parents: Parents would be conscious and have apprehensions about the thought of
granting the responsibility of their children to someone else. We’ll have to deal with their
emotions of guilt, fear and insecurities.
• Substitutes: The day care centre would be substituting the traditional ’aayas’ and
baby-sitters. The centre would be providing facilities and infrastructure under
the purview of trained specialists. This needs to be used to convince parents
who still find the aayas convenient and cheap.
• Alliance: Collaborate with companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Funskool etc for sponsorship
and equipment.
• Cost of Production: The set up and maintenance expenses would need to be controlled by
optimizing services. The rates would need to be justified to the parents.

18. Communication
Objectives

19. Communication Objectives
• The idea of sending one’s child to a centre is not very known in India, and may even be
met with resistance.
• To inculcate readiness towards this new idea , it is essential that parents are made aware of
the very existence of this facility as a better alternative to anything else.
• The strategy, should thus , communicate to stand for one clear convincing message: “We
promise to nurture wholesome development in your child through love, care and unconditional
commitment.

20. Key
communication
themes

21. Key communication themes
• Busting myths about child care facilities
• Personalised care
• Safety
• Flexibility

22. Branding

23. Branding
Stay
connected
Fitness
Complete
care
Promise
Learn

24. Branding
Stay Connected
• The Day Care Centre shall be upgraded with the latest technology to help parents constantly
monitor their children.
Learn
• There shall be all round learning opportunities for the children in terms of knowledge, games
and hobby classes – music, dance, art etc.

25. Branding
Fitness
• Physical activities would be given prime importance (to channelize the energy appropriately)
among adolescents.
• This would also ensure that the focus of children at their tender age is more on activities that
would benefit their physical nurturing, rather than electronic gadgets that would not.
Promise
• “We promise complete care for your child”.
• The centre shall be equipped with all the necessary facilities (Mentoring, Medical, infrastructure
etc) and shall avoid the unnecessary ones (Electronic gadgets/ video games for children).

26. Offerings

27. Offerings
• All employees will be trained in child care and basic first aid. (The company will also recruit
graduate and post graduate students as interns)
• Rotation of professionals/ care takers, for job satisfaction and wholeness of skills. Also, we believe
that kids shouldn’t get too emotionally attached to any particular employee.
• In order to involve parents, we will hold activities such as weekend parties, competitions and will
provide monitoring options.
• Parents will be pre-informed about the monthly menus, weekly day-by-day activities, and
behavioural reports. All extra-curricular activities will therefore be pre-planned and distributed over
the week.
• Tie up with other institutes, such as Old-Age homes for weekly/bi-monthly visits for increased
interaction and sessions on mythology and story-telling.
• Collaborating with schools in neighbouring area to ensure localization.
• Activities focusing on mental stimulation and promoting cognitive development.

28. Offerings
• Collaboration with sports centre: Children from the age group 6-10 can opt for sports facilities at a
nearby sports centre. The company will provide transport from the day care centre to the sports centre.
• There will be a child councillor and a paediatrician available on call for each centre.
• At every centre, there will be a qualified nurse as a staff member.
• Children will be segregated according to age groups (1-3 yrs , 4-5 toddlers , 6-7 hyper kids , 8-10 preteens)
• Company tie ups , sponsors for events
• Constant monitoring facilities provided to parents though advanced software in order to maintain
transparency and involve them in the process. We will provide video monitoring through Skype(ondemand) and a live chat window on the company website.
• We chose to not target kids above the age of 10 since it will be difficult to take responsibility of their
behaviour.

29. Launch strategy

30. Launch strategy
Mascot
•
•
•
•
•
Our mascot will be the famous proverbial 'Mother Hen' who stands for nurturance and development
A giant pram (pulled by a van) will do the rounds of chosen areas with Mother Hen mascot.
This will be accompanied by children's rhymes playing loud
Activations at stores like Lilliput, Mom & Me, Plays and pets and other local kids stores.
Other locations like cinema halls, sports clubs, etc. will also be targeted. Activations may be designed
keeping in line with chosen locality and people. These places are chosen because
that's where our target audience meet after
work and discuss issues affecting them, like parenting.

31. Launch strategy
Sample activations
• Special Movie screenings for kids and their parents at a cinema hall or in a play school performance area
• In office complexes, organise a 'Bring your kid to work' day where working people can bring kids to
school and drop them at the temporary play area we have made in the complex lobby.
• Parents can pick up their kids at the end of work day, with strong brand association and hopefully,
preference
• Association with brands for sponsoring parts of the setup. For instance, Funskool
could provide toys in the centre. Same way, Johnson and Johnson, Pampers,
Navneet, etc. can be used

32. Launch strategy
Digital Strategy
• Golden Medium: Cheap and our target audience spends 1-12 hours every day online, some of
them are online 24 hours
• Strategic partnerships with social networks for parents like achabacha.co.in where parents can
network and discuss parenting tips and share their child's achievements.
• Mutually beneficial for the network as new people will sign up, and beneficial
for our crèche
• Alternatively, if traction on these networks does not pick up, utilising Facebook to allows
parents to share their concerns about their child.

33. Launch strategy
Digital launch
Partnerships with parenting magazines for advertising , paediatricians, etc. for frequent content
updates.
• 'Mother Hen' series of videos to make educational content for kids in terms of audio books,
stories in the form of videos, etc.
• Parents want to capture every moment of their children's growing up years
and also want to share it with others.
• Therefore, a Flickr/ Picasa or Pinterest stream where photos can be shared
with others
• Targeting working parents via ads on Facebook and through LinkedIn

34. Desired outcomes

35. Desired outcomes
• Every day care centre should have 20 children enrolled within the 1st month, and 150 children
by the end of 1st year.
• The mascot of Mother-Hen should be well-identified by our target group.
• Our branding and differentiating positioning should be clearly communicated to our
target group.
• Remove negative crèche myths

36. Methods of
monitoring progress

37. Methods of monitoring progress
• Track WebPages: The visitors/followers on the websites/social pages can help
determine the measure of visibility.
• Digital spread: The rate of awareness and popularity of the program can be
measured by observing how viral the page/mascot has become.
• Membership: The membership is a direct way of judging how
successfully the program is running.

38. “The End
Integrated
Marketing
Communication Plan
for
Child care services