by encouraging parental involvement in the centers through monthly newsletters and reports, parent-teacher conferences and parental visits to, and inspections of, the centers.
Although most of the marketing efforts are performed at the field level, corporate headquarters assists centers in developing marketing programs, designing campaigns, preparing marketing brochures, strengthening the brand name, identifying strategic partners, and providing advice on ways to advertise and market the programs at the local level. In addition, KLC OpCo is actively involved in teaching the staff and directors business enhancing skills, such as cost management, local marketing and customer relations.
Employer-Sponsored Centers. Services that KLC OpCo provides to employers include onsite and near- site center operation, backup care, discount programs, holiday care and consulting services. KLC OpCo has dedicated sales personnel focused on expanding its presence in this market. It also markets its services through relationships with consultants, attendance and presentations with clients at trade shows, networking at conferences and through industry alliances and publications. KLC OpCo responds to requests for proposals, referrals from current clients and prospects to targeted mid-market centers for transition opportunities through mailings and networking. It also targets Fortune 1000 companies for its discount and nationwide backup care services which serve large distributed workforces.
Marketing to employers or corporate sponsors largely takes place at the corporate level. KLC OpCo markets to parents through its employer sponsors and occasionally through contracted resource and referral agencies. KLC OpCo is finding that the preferred method is through electronic brochures and messages as well as dedicated websites for onsite centers and services. KLC OpCo provides hardcopy materials and promotional giveaways primarily through employer-sponsored benefit fairs and events on client campuses. The centers engage parents and potential parents through brown bag lunch seminars, open houses, and visibility tables in client cafeterias and common areas.
School Partnerships
Champions Programs. KLC OpCo positions its Champions school age, preschool and summer programs as exciting combinations of learning and fun. It relies primarily on a regional, direct sales force in effecting a two tiered sales and marketing approach. The first tier consists of selling the Champions service at the appropriate administrative level in the school. This selling generally occurs at the superintendent or principal level. Selling fo administrators is necessary since the majority of Champions’ programs rely solely on the use of existing schoo! infrastructure. The sales and marketing effort in this tier involves participation in trade shows, featured articles in trade journals, trade magazine advertising and news releases. KLC OpCo believes that these efforts have been successful in heightening brand awareness, and as such, has enabled its sales force to gain access to entire districts versus individual schools.
Once a Champions program receives the endorsement of the appropriate decision-maker, the second tier of the sales and marketing effort begins, which targets the parents of children attending the sponsor school and, in some cases, nearby schools. Marketing is conducted primarily through flyers, open houses and school newsletters.
Supplemental Education Services. The sales and marketing process for SES tutoring involves several steps. First, KLC OpCo must seek approval to provide services in a state through a request-for-proposal process. This process entails detailed descriptions of the curriculum provided and how it correlates with state standards, testing and accountability, the operational model to be provided and company background information. Once approval is obtained at the state level, KLC OpCo contacts districts it is interested in serving, and requests that it be added to the list of approved providers. Af the same time that it makes the initial contact with districts, it also contacts local schools, often through such schools’ SES coordinator, and subsequently with the parents at each school.
Once KLC OpCo has been approved by the state, district and the schools, it competes with multiple SES providers selling to individual parents, who are the ultimate decision makers in terms of selecting a
86
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_024519