I am the mom of two boys, and they’re three and six. Like many work-at-home moms, there are days when they watch more tv than I would like. Yesterday, I was trying to finish a project, and my three-year-old was watching his favorite show. As I sat there, it struck me what an amazing job this company does with their marketing. Keep reading for all the top marketing tips from my son’s favorite tv show!
If you have spent time with a preschooler in the last few years, you could probably tell from the picture above what show it is. If you aren’t familiar with it, my son loves Paw Patrol®. It’s a show that has been on Nickelodeon® for about five years, and they are marketing geniuses! I wanted to share some of the marketing tips I’ve learned from Paw Patrol® and how they can be applied to your small business.
This post contains affiliate links. I participate in the Amazon Associate Program and, if you purchase through these links, I will receive a small compensation at no additional cost to you. Here’s the full disclosure.
Marketing Tip #1 – Know who your audience is and what they need
There are actually two audiences that Nickelodeon® has to target when marketing their products. That can actually make it more difficult for them, but they do an excellent job of appealing to both target groups
My three-year-old is the primary target. They make products that appeal to the preschool age group. It doesn’t matter if the child is a boy or girl or what interests they have. There are Paw Patrol® episodes and products that will interest almost any child.
The other marketing target is parents of these kids. Creating mini super-fans in their children can be all the motivation some parents need to buy all the Paw Patrol® things.
That isn’t the case for all parents (at least it isn’t the case for me). Just because my kid wants a toy doesn’t mean he’s going to get it. I would be broke all the time!
That’s part of Nickelodeon’s® brilliance. They have a diverse product line that appeals to practical parents. I won’t buy every toy they sell, but I don’t have a problem buying a reusable Paw Patrol® cup or a Paw Patrol® backpack or Paw Patrol® shoes. And yes, my kid owns every single one of these. #walkingbillboard
Business tip: Spend time understanding who your audience is and what they need. If you do that, you’re more likely to create products that they’ll buy and market those products more effectively!
Marketing Tip #2 – Market where your audience hangs out
Nickelodeon® does an excellent job of making their products visible to their audience. They have commercials during kids’ tv shows, even on other channels. They know their small fans will see them and tell their mommies and daddies about all of the new Paw Patrol® products they need. There are Paw Patrol® games and commercials on websites and apps to grab the attention of small audiences who are on the go.
Nickelodeon® also knows where the parents hang out. You can find Paw Patrol products on Amazon, at Wal-Mart, at Kroger, and, most importantly, at Target. I mean, have you ever checked out the Paw Patrol® merchandise in the Dollar Spot?? This mama can’t resist!
Business Tip: Go where your audience is. Whatever social media network is the favorite of your audience, you need to be there. How can they buy from you if they don’t know about you?
Marketing Tip #3 – Have products at different price points
As I stated above, I won’t buy all the Paw Patrol® toys they sell, especially the really expensive ones. I mean, you won’t get the Paw Patrol® My Size Lookout Tower (affiliate link) unless you have a birthday and, in my son’s case, a really nice GiGi!
However, when I’m at the store, it’s a little more difficult to say no to a Paw Patrol® book or Paw Patrol® fruit snacks. I’ve never bought the fruit snacks, but I would definitely consider buying those before buying the Lookout Tower! They even had a rebate for the fruit snacks on Ibotta once, so their marketing department definitely knows their target audience and where they hang out. (Side note: If you aren’t familiar with Ibotta, it’s this amazing app that offers rebates on products at different stores. I’ve earned over $300 on Ibotta, and I don’t buy anything I wouldn’t normally buy. If you don’t have an account, you can use my link above and you and I will both earn $10).
Business tip: You never know what products and prices will appeal to your audience. That’s why it’s a good idea to have products at different levels. If you’re stumped on how to do this, the good, better, best model is great! A good product might be a how-to guide that teaches how to do something. A better product might be a consultation where you walk them through the process of whatever you’re teaching them, and the best product with the highest price point would be a done-for-you package where you do the work for them.
You can’t be sure what people will choose, and this model provides multiple ways you can make money with one idea.
[bctt tweet=”You never know what products and prices will appeal to your audience. That’s why it’s a good idea to have products at different levels. If you’re stumped on how to do this, the good, better, best model is great!” username=”mvirtualassists”]
Marketing Tip #4 – Build pre-launch hype for your products
Again, Nickelodeon® has this down! They will build excitement for new products or new episodes of Paw Patrol® weeks before they are released. Imagine you’re watching something with a three-year-old and the booming announcer voice comes on with “Coming in two weeks on Nickelodeon®…” with a trailer for a new episode.
When your child has a serious love of Paw Patrol® and no concept of how long two weeks is, all you hear is “Mommy, is new Paw Patrol® on this day?”
Business Tip: Even if you don’t have a booming announcer voice, you can build hype for your products! Create Coming Soon graphics and little teasers for social media. Send out emails highlighting the new product launch with the date. Set up a pre-launch list and launch party to get people excited. You don’t want to overdo it and annoy your followers, but those things can help build awareness and excitement.
Marketing Tip #5 – Don’t forget to promote evergreen products
No matter the time of day, it is likely there is a Paw Patrol® on tv or there will be one on soon. Nickelodeon® uses all of the episodes they have created and they use them repeatedly. According to Wikipedia, there are currently 121 episodes of Paw Patrol®. They seem to release 26 episodes a season.
The marketing brilliance comes into play on how Nickelodeon® shows these episodes. Sometimes they show random episodes. They also do themed episodes, which can serve as a whole new packaging for the episode. They might promote all of the flying episodes in a high-flying week or group all of the episodes where one pup is the hero. It doesn’t matter if my son has seen the episodes several times, he’s just as excited about the remixed reruns as he is about the new episodes.
Business tips: Continually promote your older products or content. If they are evergreen, you can give them an update with new graphics or new promos. If they’re seasonal, you can pull them out every year at that time. You can remix content in a round-up or link them in a new post. You’ve already created the product or post, so you should keep it working for you!
Applying these Marketing Tips
These are just five marketing tips I see Paw Patrol® and Nickelodeon® using successfully. There are so many more, but these marketing tips can get a small-business owner on their way to successfully marketing their products, services, and content. If you haven’t been marketing your products, I hope you can use these tips to get started. If you have already started marketing, I hope these ideas reinforced what you were already doing or gave you some new ideas to consider.
Are you looking for more ideas for working your small business? Check out this post on organizing your business with Trello and this post on free tools you can use to build your business.
As a special prize for making it to the end of the post, here is my little Paw Patrol® fan in his Halloween costume!
Let’s hear from you. Do you use these marketing tips for your business? Are there other tips that you could share? I would love to hear your thoughts and marketing tips in the comments below or on my Facebook page!
Until next time,
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