by Steve Cony
A recent New York Times article recounts children’s persistent use of
words and phrases such as “duh,” “yeah, right,” and “like.” The author
hypothesizes that these and other related figures of speech have emerged
because children need them to help sort through the vagaries, the hype,
and even the lunacy that fill the airwaves and thus their lives.
In a world where children are misunderstood and underestimated, falling
back on “duh” helps them. When they are bombarded by spin and oversell,
their defense is “yeah, right.” When they can’t discern an easy yes or
no or sort things from among confusing shades of gray, it is comforting
to feel that everything is sort of “like” something — not definitive,
just sort of out there.
This jargon is not isolated in big cities or major markets. Wherever
a cable system or satellite dish feeds images of the Cartoon Network,
MTV, and Nickelodeon, children put various responses and defenses in place.
These children are your campers — and, equally important, your prospective
campers. When you send forth messages about the value of the camp experience
and the unique value of your camp, remember to understand the dialect
and “talk the talk.”
If you communicate the overly obvious, you risk getting the response
of “duh.” If you communicate with superlatives, you risk the response
of “yeah, right.”
The following suggestions can help you sidestep the child-response land
mines and speak directly to your market.
Avoid Parent-Only Promotion
Children are major participants in the camp decision process. Regrettably,
they are often allowed too much impact on the final decision, but so be
it. You should promote to the child while promoting to the parent. Understand
what gets children interested, intrigued, and excited.
Do Not Underestimate the Child
Today’s youngsters (by the way, they would bridle at the word “youngster”)
are wise beyond the number of years for which you sometimes give them
credit. In short, they get it. Portraying a child as less mature than
appropriate or portraying camp as an environment of tight control is likely
to be a turnoff.
Do Your Homework
To better understand the world that surrounds your campers when they
are home, watch TV on Saturday mornings and then channel surf over to
The Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and — yes — even MTV. Finally, check
out the prime-time situation comedies. Network programming during the
early prime-time time block will help you understand children’s media
environment and the issues to which the media responds. In addition, read
the magazines produced for children.
Soften Up Stilted Imagery
Today’s children seek honesty and naturalness. They are more-than-willing
consumers, and they want the status of being decision makers. They do
not want to be blatantly told, “Be the first kid on your block to have.
. . .” Give a child more credit for sophistication, and you will almost
always be on the right track.
Resist the Urge to Preach
You know the superior value of a summer camp experience, and you also
recognize that a well-trained staff member can do more for a child in
a week than some parents can do in a lifetime. But making camp seem like
even more than a highly valuable investment — you know, “the ideal way
to save a soul, a psyche, and a society” — will point your message straight
toward “yeah, right.”
Most importantly, you have an urgent need to make the camp story appear
relevant and vibrant by looking and sounding current. If your marketing
package appears ready for consumption by Ozzie, Harriet, David, and Ricky
Nelson, you need to adopt an open and accepting approach toward changing
your image.
Invest in the value of color
The vast majority of children in the 1990s probably never have seen a
black-and-white television. Their television programs, movies, and Internet
experiences are full-color, and it is nearly impossible to get them excited
with monochromatic photos.
Modernize image along with facilities
You reserve part of every year’s budget to improve and upgrade your facilities.
This type of resolve must also be applied to your marketing materials.
Take an honest and subjective look at your “public relations face” and
ask yourself if any of these familiar terms might apply: nerdy, weird,
geeky, or cheesy. If they do, spend the money to update your look.
Project your fun expertise
You and your staff spend entire summers providing and facilitating fun,
so you’re experts. Do your brochure and your video look as fun-filled
as your camp? If your materials are limited to catalog-like enumerations
of rates, dates, transportation schedules, and similar austere matters,
you need to re-think the image you are projecting and what you want people
to believe about the value of your camp.
Use humor appropriately
Many of the most memorable and effective television commercials and magazine
advertisements use humor to attract attention and to make their selling
points. The advertising profession has known for years that humor works.
Camp is the perfect product to market with a light and humorous message,
and you should strive to incorporate this type of tonality into your marketing.
An important point of clarification: do not use sarcasm, aloofness, self-deprecation,
or offensiveness, which often characterize children’s own interactive
styles. You should never consider any camp advertising that even approaches
questionable taste. However, you must be willing to study the marketplace
to see if your marketing style is competitive. You cannot afford a response
of “duh” or “yeah, right.”
For those who answer to a board of directors or trustees, you must educate
your overseers to the reality of today’s marketplace. New and exciting
marketing concepts cannot be overruled by judgments such as, “We have
never done anything like that in this organization.” Prepare for your
next board meeting by coming equipped with copies of magazines aimed at
children and show what and how children consume.
Your marketing program is not meant for current campers and their families,
who remain loyal season after season. You invest in marketing primarily
to reach people who do not know you. Your brochure, video, and all materials
that pass between you and your prospects are your calling cards. They
create the first perceptions that will influence those all-important decisions
and the number of enrollments that follow.
The marketing planning you do during 1999 will help sell the summer seasons
of 2000 and beyond. For the promotion of summer camp, you are indeed on
the threshold of the millennium. What better time to adopt a proactive
and progressive philosophy: If we only do what we’ve always done, then
we’ll only get what we’ve always gotten.
Originally published in the 1998 November/December
issue of Camping Magazine. |
