Consumer Marketing Case Study: KnowledgePoints
When we began working with KnowledgePoints, their marketing was so much in lockstep with the rest of their industry that they used the same stock photo as two of their competitors.
- The advertising provided by Corporate was so off-track that many franchisees preferred to use homemade flyers and other materials. Neither solution reflected the professionalism of the centers, their outstanding record with students, or the many ways in which they supported the families that came to them.
- Target markets included areas with large Latino populations. Some materials were in Spanish, but they didn't address the needs, concerns, and core values of Latino families in general and Latina women in particular. The same was true, to a lesser extent, of African-American customers.
- Likewise, the key decision-maker in the vast majority of tutoring decisions is the mom. Yet the existing ads didn't target mothers very well. In terms of physical space, some of the centers did a good job of making mothers feel welcome; others did not.
Considering that KnowledgePoints' entire annual creative budget was less than what their largest competitor spent on online advertising in a single quarter, radical action was needed to help them stand out.
Radical action didn't mean embracing trends.
It meant taking a completely fresh look at KnowledgePoints' target consumers to create messaging, strategies, and tactics that helped KnowledgePoints stand out from its competitors.
We took a holistic approach to problems. In addition to making the ads do a better job of reflecting the needs of the target audiences, we wrote up pointers for the franchisees about how they could make their centers as welcoming to moms as the franchisees that did well in that area. We helped franchisees to look at their community demographic, and to understand that they could grow their business by doing a better job of reaching all families in their target market. We even provided training to help franchise owners find new customers in their communities.
Not all franchisees chose to use the new materials and marketing plans, but those that did booked many more tutoring hours and enjoyed much more growth. Less than a year after debuting the new recommendations, an economic downturn impacted tutoring centers nationwide. Franchisees who were not using the new approach experienced a10% loss on average. Those who were using the C3 Advertising recommendations continued to grow, including adding new locations.
Before: A combination of homemade and generic creative did nothing to distinguish the brand from its competitors. In fact, it accidentally even used some of the same stock photos.
After: A fresh approach, better geared to the target consumers, offered flexibility and professionalism to franchisees. And it resonated better with parents.
