Question

Topic: Strategy

What Compels A Parent To Buy A Children's Book?

Posted by Anonymous on 1/5/2006 at 2:25 PM ET 250 Points
If you were selling a children's book series (3rd grade reading level).
Would you direct your campaign efforts towards children or towards parents? For view of product www.thebigbrownbox.com

Children impact parent spending more now than ever, yet the parents are the ultimate purchasers for this age group.

Do not have a lot of money for paid ads. Any ideas for how to cost effectively reach these markets.

Company will be expanding product line to include items for parents in the next few months that correlate to story lines of books.

Books are available nationwide, now I need to attract buyers to the product. Website is getting over 2,000 hits yet sales are slow.

Thanks any advice.

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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 1/5/2006 at 3:29 PM Author
    I agree. The Education Boards however will not endorse picture books. I even tried The National and Regional PTA, but they do not endorse either. I need to research PTAs more to see if they have mailing lists for sale or if their is a way to get into their newsletters.

    You have a lot of great information for people and I appreciate your taking the time to help me.

    Thanks.
  • Posted on 1/5/2006 at 4:21 PM Author
    Thank you so much. I have looked at books that are similar to mine and many of the things you have suggested. I will do it again maybe I missed some important information.

    I will view the website and get in touch with the person who does the maintenance. We should not have these types of errors.

    Thank you for your insight. It is greatly appreciated.
  • Posted on 1/5/2006 at 7:51 PM Accepted
    How is it possible that the book was finished and a website created before you had a marketing plan in place? Isn't that kind of backward?

    I agree with the posts that say PARENTS are your primary target audience. We sometime call this strategy "P4K" (parents for kids). You'll want to tap into parents' desire for their kids to enjoy learning. That's a parent need, not a kids' need.

    As for sales being slow on your website, it's hard to tell if that's because you're not attracting enough visitors (to the site), or if the proposition isn't appealing to people who do find the site. What are you doing to attract 2,000 hits (per hour, day, week, month?)? Maybe you're attracting the wrong people. And how do you know that 2,000 hits is good/bad/average? What are you using as a yardstick?

    If you haven't read Seth Godin's The Big Red Fez, you need to do that too. I haven't looked at your site yet, but you need to be very sure that the monkeys see the banana. (Read the book.)

    Good luck.
  • Posted on 1/5/2006 at 9:29 PM Author
    Wow! You guys are great. We are a two person business. So I have had to wear many hats to get as far as we are. It's not perfect yet, but rather a starting point.

    Andreya, your comments have been very helpful and please know that I will be working to incorporate your ideas on my website. When I am on the road it is easy to talk to people about the book, and they want to purchase it. I need my website to reflect what I would say if I was talking to someone face to face. The problem is there is so much information to relay. And I am trying to cover it all. I need to weed the garden and make the most of a few pages. I greatly appreciate your advice and please feel free to email me with any further suggestions.

    M.Goodman. I am new at this. I actually did create a business plan with target markets, sales projections, the whole nine yards. It is in a thick binder. The problem is I have been successful in some aspects such as media attention and PR, in getting distributors and venues for sale of the product. I haven't successfully made a connection with my primary buyers which are parents.

    I have been so busy working on the other aspects to gain credibility for the product that I have not invested time in looking back what should have been step 1.

    I have statics that I get from my domain host. I can see hits, crawlers, pageviews, geographical information, browser, etc. It is a pretty nice package. I can see 6 months worth of data.

    What is really boosting site awareness I believe are the articles I write, bookreviews, and PR that I have been doing. The media coverage also helps alot.

    Live and learn. I have learned more in 1 year about the aspects of business than I ever thought possible, and continue to absorb as much information as possible to be successful. I don't like to fail.

    Again, I appreciate your suggestions and guidance. This is a great forum of experts.

  • Posted on 1/5/2006 at 10:37 PM Accepted
    Two compelling insights as a parent I can add are

    1. - " I do not spend adequate quality time with my kid, I will do anything to make up for it"

    2. - " Is my child getting all it needs and is nourished emotionally?"

    I belive there is a lot of power in the above two thoughts and can be used as spring boards to affect consumer behaviour.
  • Posted on 1/6/2006 at 7:52 AM Author
    I agree. One of the things we are promoting and will focus our efforts more on bringing to the consumers attention is inter generational relationships. Parents and Grandparents reading to children and vice versa. I am collecting data that shows the benefits of reading to or with children.

    These are excellent, and very real concerns of working parents and are great points to incorporate into my message.

    Thanks so much for your valuable input from one mother to another.
  • Posted by Deremiah *CPE on 1/6/2006 at 8:02 PM Accepted
    Mgoodman,

    I think you have shared some interesting insight and I think you know I respect your answers and not because you came from P&G although I love my P&G 99.

    But getting back to her question and this is for everyone else too, What really does Compel or Cause a parent to buy children's books? Or how can we help Jackie to direct her search for this solution so that she gets the answer to her question resolved?

    I mean getting to the heart of the matter I just can't imagine a big berley man, a corporate executive or a small man for that matter going to the store or going online to AMAZON to buy a book for a child.

    Am I being naive when something is telling me that if children books are being bought it's probably from a target market that is directed to women, mothers, grandmothers, aunties and sisters? Well tell me what you think because although I think there have been some good answers given no one has really specifically answered the question "What Compels a Parent to buy a child's book". Maybe I missed it above somewhere or just had too much Eggnog (lol).

    Is there anything I can do for you?
    Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

    C-hildren's P-arental E-xtrapolation
  • Posted on 1/8/2006 at 10:47 AM Author
    Hi Andreya,
    Your insight has been of extreme value to me. Could you possibly e-mail me with your e-mail address. I have some things I would like to run by you as we work to make the website better. We are reworking a lot of things for the site and I greatly value your input.

    We are so on the same page with our thought process. You and other forum members have given me so many great ideas. I believe 2006 is going to be an awesome year for Browny Big Box.

    I hope to hear from you again, and I thank you for how much time you have invested in helping us to better our business image.
  • Posted on 1/10/2006 at 9:30 AM Author
    I will leave this post open until Friday, then it will be closed. I appreciate everyones time and thoughts on this question. Thanks.
  • Posted on 1/11/2006 at 8:56 AM Author
    Hi Carrie,
    You are right and we have and continue to pursue these venues. UHAUL is currently carrying our product, however, does very little to promote that they have it.
    We are on some military and moving websites. Some realtors have purchased our book as gifts for their clients.

    It seems all of these markets are very slow in purchasing products because of what they are spending in escalated energy costs such as gas.

    What would make you buy this book as a parent?

    When you moved what would have prompted you to buy this book for your children?

    Thanks for the great feedback!
    Jackie
  • Posted on 1/11/2006 at 11:32 AM Author
    That's great information! I appreciate your help and will be sure to contact your recommendations.
    Thanks again.
    Jackie
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