Assignment 3

1. ASSIGNMENT 3
By Charissa Hitchcock

2. MY BUSINESS IS A DROP IN CHILDCARE CENTER
• The three retail channels that can benefit my business are….
• Store
• Internet
• Direct Sales

3. STORE
• Store will be my biggest channel.
• This channel will show it all. People
who enter the center will be making
first impression on the appearance
and smell of the center.
• They will be browsing around to see
if the staff is interacting with the
children.
• People are able to pay in cash when
dealing with face-to-face contact. We
are able to offer other options to
make payments, but in store is the
only way to accept cash as a
Pros Cons
• If you are only using a store
location you are missing out on
potential customers who first
research online before going to the
store.
• Children can be naughty and that
would not be the fault of the
facility but it would be an eye sore
for those who came to look around
and get a feel for the place.
• Having only one location is a con.
Not everyone is willing to travel X
amount of miles for childcare.

4. INTERNET
• Internet is beneficial to the business
because it puts our name in the
selection. When people search any of
the keywords on my website my store
will pop up in their search along with
other daycare.
• Internet allows me to offer as much or
as little information on my business as
I would like.
• Internet allows me to personalize my
business with the customers search.
• Internet is also the fastest growing
channels, so if you are not on it then
you are not growing.
Pros
• Risk of the product not being what the
customer thought it would be.
• Having to always update the website
with the changing of the store
• Available on line may be different from
day to day activity in the store.
Cons

5. DIRECT SALES
• Direct sales are time
consuming.
• You have to pay someone to go
out and explain your product or
service.
• The states are not the best on
direct sales. You may get 2
customers out of 100 attempts.
Pros Cons
• Direct sales will be beneficial to
my business because I will be
able to interact with the
consumer face-to-face.
• Direct sales allows me to
customize who I market my
business to.

6. THREE CHANNELS THAT WOULD NOT HELP
• Catalog
• TV home shopping
• Automatic

7. WHY THOSE CHANNELS WOULD NOT
WORK…
• I am selling a service and my service
would not be something that could be
ordered out of a catalog, sold on TV, or
put in a vending machine.
• My service would only work face-to-face
or over the phone to answer simple
questions.

8. PRICING AND MERCHANDISE ASSORTMENT
• Pricing is a big part of my business.
• I have to be competitive with other
childcare facilities.
• I also have to cover all costs,
• I have to figure out how to charge the
customer less but pay the employee
more to get better care for the children.
• Merchandise assortment does not pay a
part in my business.
• Customers pay for a service and the
service is childcare.
• You can only hope that the best
childcare is the only childcare.

9. CENTRALIZED OR DECENTRALIZED
• Centralized
• My businesses main focus is the store
location.
• Decentralized
• My business will also be available to
search on the internet.
• My business will also use direct sales to
further the customer basis.
I would say that my business is decentralized because it uses more than one channel.