Baby Michelangelo Direct Marketing Plan

The Baby Einstein series of DVDs are award winning baby development media produced originally by a company with the same name, started by Julie Clarke in 1997. According to Hughes (2005, p 35, see also Words ). the awards were from the Parenting magazine and also from the American Baby magazine. He also relates that (p 37), originally the only available medium was videocassette. After the Disney purchase in 2001, the media offerings were substantially extended to include not only videos but also CDs, DVDs, flash cards, software, books and educational toys. Jennifer Garner is a spokeswoman for the line.

These products are termed “infant development material” by Disney. Disney Baby Einstein products are appropriate for youth aged 0 to 3 years. Little Einstein, a separate product line, targets 3 years to Kindergarten. The Baby Einstein product line has an aim, as discussed on their Web site to “expose little ones to the world around them in playful and enriching ways. An opportunity for discovery” (see BabyEinstein).

According to Disney (see Staggs, 2007, p 9, and Disney Corporate), the parents who purchase Baby Einstein products come from wide ranging demographics. Hughes notes (p 35) that babies are the end user of the product. Wartella and Robb (2007, p 36) find that very young children, those under 3 are subjected to “massive amount of screen media.” This includes TV, videos, DVDs, computers, or videogames. The average exposure per day for children aged one and younger is 49 minutes while it is 1 hour 51minutes for children aged 1 to 3.

As an instructional exercise, a Direct Marketing Strategic Plan has been prepared for an ersatz new extension in the series, Baby Michelangelo. Spiller and Baier describe direct marketing strategic plans. The essential elements (2005, p 87) are:

1. Product
2. Offer
3. Medium
4. Distribution Method
5. Creative

I propose three offers in my direct marketing section of the Baby Michelangelo campaign. The first is a direct mail offer I call the Exclusive Offer. The second is the Web offer, a search engine marketing approach. The third is a direct response advertisement. The complete plan is at Baby Michelangelo Direct Marketing

References
Hughes, P (March 2005). Baby, It's You: International capital discovers the under threes. Comtemporary issues in early childhood. Retrieved on September 8, 2008 from EBSCOHOST.

Spiller, L. and M. Baier (2005). Contemporary Direct Marketing. Pearson/Prentice-Hall.

Staggs, T (February 8, 2007). Disney Consumer Products Presentation. Retrieved on September 8, 2008 at http://corporate.disney.go.com/media/investors/2007_irc_dcp.pdf

Wartella, E and M Robb (2007). Young Children, New Media. Journal of Children and Media. Retrieved on September 8, 2008 from EBSCOHOST.