Question: Marketing, how much should a play centre spend?
Answer: Nobody knows for sure but this may change your mind…
At our recent seminar for people starting a soft play centre, one Entrepreneur reminded us that companies he has previously worked with (large Supermarkets) calculate marketing spend based on anticipated lifetime value of a customer; a very different number to what they would spend if based on people who occasionally nip in for a can of beans.
This conversation reminded me of a post by Seth Godin that has rattled around my head for weeks, once again he succinctly outlines the business case for “Embracing Lifetime Value;” these two events got me thinking.
What is the lifetime value of a child to a soft play centre and what should consequently be spent on Marketing a soft play centre?
If you run some very basic numbers, you can begin to calculate (in Financial terms at least) the value of each visitor to your play centre.
(Excuse the simplicity of the numbers, these numbers are likely low but they illustrate the point).
Assuming the entrance fee is £5 and a child visits with one parent once a week, between the ages of 0 and 8, that would be worth £2080 to the play centre. The child loves the play centre and has each birthday there, inviting 15 friends at £10 per head, that is worth another £1200. Finally, Mum or Dad comes along on each visit and has a coffee and cake spending £4 per visit; this equals £1664 over the lifetime of the period.
In total, one child that loves your play centre but is an average or low level user is worth £4944; this does not include the intangible value of parent and child being your part-time marketers.
In terms of Marketing spend, this raises several interesting questions:
· What would you be willing to spend on Marketing to initially attract parent and child?
· What Marketing initiatives offer best value to you and the customer?
· Once your centre is known and liked by child and parent, what additional services can you offer that increases the lifetime value? (I bet in can easily but doubled or tripled)
· Perhaps most importantly, what do you spend on maintaining and enhancing the play experience so that the lifetime value is protected?
My plan for 2010 was to write shorter blog posts so I will save my “answers” for future posts, for now I just wanted to invite everyone to spend a couple of hours profiling customers, calculating lifetime value and thinking of their business plan for a soft play centre; it is an exciting number.
PS. Surely, a CRM system is a must for every soft play centre; I am constantly amazed at the priceless data that we let walk out of the door!
ShareAndComparePlay.com is the Indoor Play Supplier Comparison Website that Saves Play Operators £10,000s. The only source of independent reviews on every Supplier to the Play Industry, ShareAndComparePlay.com works to revolutionise the Play Experience for Children and to enable Businesses to profitably understand and meet the future needs of Families.
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