Selling the Invisible: a field Guide to Modern Marketing \(Biz Books to Go\) pdfdrive com

To speed up the building of your brand, choose an unconfusable name.
Brands and the Babysitter
Brands are for the rich, you say.
Not so—as the story of the baby-sitter shows. Kate Thurman is the future
president of a very successful company, but today, she is a high school
freshman, a baby-sitter, and a born marketer. Kate seeks out every neighborhood
place that parents frequent: the toy store, Gymboree storefront, day care centers,
and school summer camps. She convinces proprietors they are serving parents by
posting Kate’s signs for her service, “KATE ♥ KIDS.”
Borrowing the idea from local remodelers, Kate also creates a red, blue, and
white sign: “KATE ♥ KIDS—World Class Babysitting: 555-1111” and mounts
it on her old red-and-white rocking horse. On the lawn of every house where she
sits, Kate plants the rocking horse.
Kate’s uncle Frank owns the neighborhood video store—another marketing
opportunity. Kate convinces Frank to let her place her red, white, and blue ad in
the clear sleeves on the back of each video jacket. Kate pays for this with three
free nights of baby-sitting for Frank’s baby girl—whom Kate adores and would
happily watch for free.
Kate then becomes a baby-sitter temp agency. She lines up other girls to
work in return for 10 percent of their pay. Local parents know they will always
get a sitter through Kate, so they are willing to pay Kate a 15 percent premium
for eliminating their hassle of finding sitters, especially at the last minute. So
Kate’s employees make more per hour through Kate than they would earn on
their own. Naturally, savvy local sitters start going through Kate.
Kate has created a dynasty. Everyone in her ten-square-mile neighborhood

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recognizes her name. When parents from other neighborhoods ask Sheridan
residents about sitters, they say: “Call Kate.” And those parents do.
The local press soon hears about the young entrepreneur and writes a story. A
reporter for the local CBS affiliate reads the story, calls Kate, and does a three-
minute feature on “WE ♥ KIDS” on the six o’clock news. Kate charms and
impresses everyone listening—all 170,000 people.
In the entire market that she serves, Kate has built a booming brand.
For about $32 in paint and plywood.