Indoor play centres, how much is a customer worth?

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.

Follow us at Twitter.com/shareandcompare or (Un)subscribe to our Blog by e-mailing us.

How to lose an argument online...the socialisation of soft play

Since January, we have been encouraging the indoor play industry from soft play suppliers to play centre operators to collectively explore and discuss the future of play; only through intelligent and creative exploration can we grow the industry and share the positive impact of "activity without purpose".

As developers and enthusiastic users of web technology, we believe in the potential of online communities to discuss important topics and collaborate in developing insightful solutions, our aim is to facilitate these discussions as broadly as possible.

To some, the socialisation of information is uncomfortable but we are beginning to see the embracing of this change with people using and contributing information more freely. In the last few days, I read this blog by Seth Godin discussing how to lose an argument online and how to make the social web work for you.

As one of the most popular bloggers on the web, this guy knows what works and this is what he says:

"Earn a reputation. Have a conversation. Ask questions. Describe possible outcomes of a point of view. Make connections. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt. Align objectives then describe a better outcome. Show up. Smile."

Simple, but effective.

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.

Follow us at Twitter.com/shareandcompare or (Un)subscribe to our Blog by e-mailing us

Soft Play and the middleman...a Seth Godin posting

This is a recent article by Seth Godin on the role of agents http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/03/where-have-all-the-agents-gone.html , he is the world's most popular business blogger and below is an excerpt from the post.

"Key point: anonymous agents are interchangeable and virtually worthless. Agents that don't do anything but help one side find the other side in a human approximation of Google aren't so helpful any more."

In a world and market that is becoming increasingly transparent, the role and value of agents (a.k.a. a middleman) is increasingly called into question.

The indoor play industry is no different; for example, all soft play suppliers are middlemen to varying degrees.

If you are a (prospective) operator, it is perhaps worth asking "which supplier adds the most value to my project?" and "am I best to source some products or services directly."

If you are a supplier to indoor play centres then it is perhaps time to ask, "what does each individual customer value" and "how can I add considerable and unique value in this project?"

If other markets are any indicator, the old answers probably won't work for much longer and the industry will be better for it.

Seth Godin...Demonization, opening up & an offer to suppliers

The Soft Play industry is traditional to the extent that even the founder of the industry http://shareandcompareplay.blogspot.com/2009/02/inspirational-rupert-in-fine-form.html is frustrated with the lack of creativity and innovation in the last fifteen years.

However, there is hope because the next generation of suppliers and operators are beginning to open up and engage in discussions about the future.

Unfortunately, for the most part we still have to look outside of our industry for inspiration and innovative practice utilising the adoption of new technologies but we will share our findings so that you can consider if your organisation can utilise them.

We will be saying a whole lot more about the next generation of suppliers and operators in the next few weeks but for now, I recommend this very short article by Seth Godin, a leading business blogger on how to respond to the era of transparency.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/03/demonization.html

PS. We are offering to consult with all suppliers without charge or obligation to outline how our services are / will change the industry and how they can benefit; we will report back as we go.