Sharon's Marketing Missive

My daughter’s class will be taking a field trip to JA Biztown next month, a facility sponsored by Junior Achievement that gives kids the chance to work, earn, spend and save as part of a mini community for half a day. It’s an amazing setup. They’ll have checking accounts and paychecks. They’re assigned jobs like CEO, CFO, sales manager, and mayor. One team puts together a newspaper that day, another runs the TV station where kids broadcast commercials for their micro businesses. Each little business (i.e. group of kids) has to start the day with a business loan, then determine how they’re pricing their products to make sure they’ll earn a profit by the end of the day. They buy insurance and lease their storefronts; they pay utility bills and buy supplies. It’s incredible.

I’ll be one of the volunteers helping out with management of about 150 kids that day. When I went to the volunteer training, I got a sneak peek at the place. Wow.

It’s amazing to walk into this huge room that is the tiny city, with miniaturized versions of Washington Mutual, Home Depot, Ikea, and other big companies. As a parent, I was touched that all of these businesses are part of this unique educational effort, donating money and resources with no immediate return on investment.

As a marketer, I was struck with the brilliance of these businesses that donated something else too: their brand. But here’s where they see the long-term benefit of their participation. By being part of JA Biztown, Washington Mutual, for example, is planting the idea of WaMu as bank into kids’ minds. When they’re older and opening that first checking account, they’ll think of Washington Mutual without even knowing why.

I was telling another mother about this and she said in a slightly disgusted voice, “But isn’t that brainwashing?” Probably yes. Maybe all marketing is at some level an attempt to brainwash.

But more important is foresight, cultivating future customers, making a short-term investment now for a payoff down the road. Companies often don’t want to invest in indirect marketing like email newsletters, blogs, and other activities that aren’t immediately measurable but ultimately impactful. Too bad. Maybe those marketers should spend a day at JA Biztown for insight into what these other companies are doing. Hey, with 150 kids, at the very least we might need a few more volunteers.