Marketing your camp often involves communicating with parents who are not experts at the selection process. In many cases, you are presenting your camp’s story to people who have never before made such a choice. For the purpose of this discussion, let’s call these people “neophytes,” defined as a novice or a beginner.

Parents in these families may or may not be camp veterans themselves. If they themselves are former campers, they carry their memories and perceptions, positive or otherwise, with them. If they are not camp veterans, their approach to this first-time process is based solely on what they have heard and what they have read.

Educating the Neophyte

You must take these people from their current perceptions, defined by the issues they raise, and gently yet purposefully move them to a higher point of awareness and understanding. The process of effective marketing is to explain your product and to position that product in its most favorable light. For the marketing of your camp, this process involves educating neophytes about those issues that are truly relevant to the decision. Conversely, it is equally important to use the marketing process to help neutralize issues that get in the way of an intelligent camp decision.

Answering parents’ questions
The questions parents ask you and your staff reveal common issues parents face as they consider sending their child to your camp. Here are sample quotations from parents and suggestions for appropriate marketing responses. Many of the quotations were provided by educational psychologist and camp consultant Barbara K. Sugrue.

• “She’s so disorganized. She’ll get so nervous if she can’t find her lunch!”
• “Do you have a lost and found? My son will be a regular visitor!”
• “How do you keep track of every child throughout the day?”

These questions express concerns not so much about the child . . . but about your camp! These parents want to know if you are the one who is organized. The very first way you can begin to communicate your own commitment to organization is through the appearance of your marketing materials. Typographical errors may seem innocent to you, but they suggest a lackadaisical attitude. Various flyers, none of which bear resemblance to each other, eat away at perceptions of consistency. Remember, most of your prospects do not know you, and they are not familiar with your camp operation. What they see is what they think they get.

• “Will my child have enough choices at mealtime? He’s a picky eater.”
• “Who takes care of my daughter if she gets hurt or sick?”
• “Will my child be able to call home whenever she wants to?”

These are in the myriad of important and practical matters that worry parents. Find a way to answer them up front, and you will project dependability. However, make certain that these issues do not become the primary focus of your communication. You do much more for your campers than serve salad bars and employ responsible medical professionals. The practical matters should be covered fully, but separately from more enduring and more value-infused messages about what makes your camp special.

Perhaps the best way to treat the practical issues is to include a Frequently-Asked-Questions (FAQ) piece with your marketing materials. The answers you provide in the FAQ will help parents recognize your care about their concerns and your willingness to deal with all of them. It is important to reinforce that anything not answered in the marketing materials can be discussed on the phone. Encourage this interaction and reassure neophytes that there are no stupid questions.

• “How will they know when to push and when not to push my son?”
• “His Grammy just died. How will they handle his tears?”
• “How do I know he’ll be safe from being exposed to . . . ?”

These questions tell you the parents need to understand and believe in your philosophy of caring for and nurturing children. They will entrust their priceless possession to you — or to someone — and they must have reassurance. Use a consistent, reaffirming message from the directors — in your brochure, Web site, and video. Include yourself and staff in your video.

• “How will the counselors handle it if someone hurts his feelings?”
• “Will he be safe at swimming lessons?”
• “Do the camp directors check on the counselors? After all, they’re human too!”

Find a way to uniquely feature your staff and your training program. Remember, if all you do is talk about your mature, caring, professional staff, the words will dissolve into the sameness of too many other camps’ messages. Design your staff recruitment and training messages around the following questions: Where and how do you recruit your staff? What do they look like? How do they feel about children? What is orientation like? How do you monitor their work throughout the summer?

• “I can’t do anything with him. YOU try!”
• “I hated camp, but I have to go to work!”
• “She’d better have fun! This is costing me a fortune!”

Well . . . take a deep breath, then carefully plan to deliver a high-impact value message about the camp experience at your operation. Parents who approach camp with any of the above perceptions are in critical need of a deeper understanding about the camp experience and about their own children. These parents will not benefit from a camp story describing equipment and facilities. Even if you base your entire story around programming, you have not gone far enough. To talk about only equipment, facilities, and programming is limiting yourself to talking features, not benefits.

You can make a compelling presentation based on a personalized version of your camp’s key messages about the value of what your camp has to offer! The first statement —“YOU try!” — lacks an understanding that the camp experience is a partnership in parenting. Parents who claim to have hated camp must understand that everyone is different, including their offspring, and that camp can be a life-altering experience. They must understand that, as a camp director, life-altering experiences are your goals. Finally, those who repeatedly discuss the issue of high cost must be encouraged to see their child’s camp experience as an investment in growth and development.

• “She wanted to go to a different camp, but I want this one!”

This is a big issue: Who makes the ultimate decision? Parents should retain decision power when the implications are significant. (Would the same parent abdicate the nursery school decision or the college decision totally to the child?) Parents should be encouraged to take the lead, but they should also recognize the reality of “child empowerment” in today’s society. While you encourage parents to make good mature camp choices, your camp’s marketing message should include appeals to the child as well as the parent.

Clear, well-planned messages explaining the value of the camp experience, your camp’s philosophy, and your commitment to excellence are powerful tools to help you answer tough questions and change parents and campers’ perceptions of you and your camp.

Steve Cony is a marketing consultant who assists children's camps with the development of strategic plans and the execution of marketing materials. Camp directors may contact him at 914-271-8482.

Originally published in the 2001 September/October issue of Camping Magazine.