Lboro University Nursery
Loughborough University Nursery offers a 102 place nursery for children 0-5 years for University staff, students and the local community. It has been provided children with a safe place for development, learning and play for over 35 years. In a sector where costs run high and margins low, the brief was to grow the nursery into a business where small fluctuations in enrolment had less impact on profitability.
Project scope:
- Full Diagnosis
- Market segmentation
- Strategy and objectives
- Brand positioning
- Tactical execution
- Website wireframing
Beyond a place where children love to be.
The nursery sector is a difficult place to be profitable, especially when revenue is split between government subsidy and parents who have to juggle work and alternative childcare arrangements. Nursery "occupancy" is particularly hard to plan for when few parents will opt for full-time nursery enrolment. The difference between profit and loss can often be swung by very small changes in enrolment numbers.
The challenge was to grow the business in a tight category by increasing opportunity at the top of the sales funnel, and converting it better at the bottom of the funnel.
Little learners.
As part of Loughborough University, the nursery has a totally different proposition to normal community nurseries or daycare centres. Children are part of the University ecosystem. Far from being a "babysitting" service, children at the nursery are just "little people" who are there to learn and develop, just as older students.
The value of Loughborough University Nursery is therefore about preparing your child for school, learning essential life skills and developing through learning and play.
Positioned for parents...
Through detailed and rigorous segmentation, we identified personas that represented the best opportunity for the nursery to target. By positioning around "better development", "preparation", and the "gravitas" of the university, it allowed us to position for and target parents who otherwise weren't being targeted by other nurseries.
This gave the nursery a clear point of differentiation, as well as positioning on the emotional benefits that come as a result of a better prepared child - namely support, freedom to carry on with their careers, and the confidence to live better.
Converting love into placements...
We knew from measuring the sales funnel that, once parents had visited the nursery and experienced the ethos, they converted into enrolments at a rate of 95%. In addition to creating more opportunity at the top of the funnel, we knew we had to get more parents to see the nursery for themselves. That's difficult to do in person because of available time and resource, especially considering practitioner-child ratios. So, we created a fully immersive 360 tour experience with solid information hotspots and calls-to-action to significantly increase the number of "site visits" and therefore drive much better conversion to enrolment.
Caroline Farley
Head of Nursery
"Marketing has always been the part of running a nursery that I’ve loathed and feared in equal measure - but working with Rob has completely changed that. He not only understands the unique complexities of running a nursery, but he also took the time to truly connect with our values. He crafted a strategy that was fully aligned with our ethos - placing children and families at the heart of everything.
His clarity of thought, analytical and research skills, and deep expertise helped us uncover what we truly excel at, how we stand out from our competitors, and how to better understand and serve our families. In just the first year, we’ve seen a significant increase in occupancy, profitability, and customer satisfaction, which is amazing!
Rob is not only an exceptional marketer but also an inspirational teacher. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to work with him."
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