Not Just Kid's Stuff: Web Design needed for child care company!
a small website (uncoded) project by kpaulin

Creative brief

The buyer added updates to the brief. Read them.

About us...

Guardian Childcare is a child care management company that provide centre management services to long day care centres and pre schools.

With a national presence and over 50 centres under management our staff provide management services to owners of childcare centres, property developers and institutions that have an interest in the child care sector.

Parent’s and families are indirect clients of Guardian - Guardian’s clients are centre owners those that pay it centre management or consulting fees.

Guardian has been described as having a “corporate feel” in an emotionally charged industry and there is special balance in how we are present ourselves to our clients, communities and families.

Responsible for more than $50m in revenues, more than 500 staff and 3,500 children per day Guardian has a huge responsibility with all its stakeholders.

Guardian relies heavily on the internet for new parent enquiries and parent communications.

What we need...

Guardian wishes to create micro sites for each of their 50 centres under management, creating a warm, welcoming, concise and easy to navigate personalised site for each centre, appealing to new enquiries and also serving the information needs of current families attending our centres.

In a deliberate move away from “big business childcare” Guardian wishes only a small brand presence on each centre micro site and does not want to heavily promote the Guardian brand to parents or the local community. Each centre associated with Guardian will have its own logo and must create its own community identity and market position under its own name and branding.

The principal reason for this is to make each centre better reflect its unique identity and location and engage /connect with the local community. The Guardian presence is to be more of a background “comfort” for parents so that they know that the centre is also supported by a substantial, quality oriented company.

Navigation and content will be similar to...

http://www.guardianchildcare.com.au/Content_Com...

Target audience...

For these micro sites our target audience is clearly parents, young families and people looking for child care in their local area or areas close to their place of work.

Key factors to convey...

High quality and very professional yet portraying a warm and caring theme.
Each centre must be seen as providing the best possible early learning and care provider in their community.

Each centre location has clear differentiators and this must be promoted concisely and clearly.

We must display that the children will be having fun in a safe environment.

We must have...

A micro site design that is highly flexible accommodating the varying logos/branding and that prominently portrays the individual centre branding, logo, location and quality positioning with only a small Guardian Childcare branding/logo/presence.
Bright, cheerful, fun, fresh, simple and not too “busy”.

Another key reason for this move is driven by our SEO needs so there will need to be a balance between engaging imagery and search engine-readable and keyword rich text

Call to actions:
• Every visitor must complete a basic enquiry function.
• For those with more time they can complete an enrolment form
• We want to encourage people to read the latest monthly newsletter.

The site must be able to tell the user:
• What we do
• Where we are and how best to get there
• Again, complete an enquiry form

We want to portray:
• High quality early learning experiences
• Highest quality parent communication
 
Reference sites...

Ours:

• http://www.guardianchildcare.com.au/
• http://www.guardianchildcare.com.au/Content_Com...
• http://www.guardianchildcare.net.au/ - corporate

Competitor sites:

Most of these are “corporate” multi-location sites but these will give you an idea of the competition...
1. www.earlylearningservices.com.au
2. www.koalachildcare.com.au
3. www.sunkids.com.au
4. www.kindypatch.com.au
5. www.chatterboxchildcare.com.au
6. www.sesamelane.com.au
7. www.tadpoles.com.au

Sites we like:
• www.qantas.com.au
• www.sunkids.com.au
• www.smh.com.au

One of the key reasons for developing these micro sites is to position each centre as a more independent, non-corporate member of the local community, usually locally owned with local staff but with the underlying comfort of knowing that the centre is supported by the resources of Guardian Childcare.

Final notes...

If the centres were a car brand they would be Volvos.

If the centres were a beverage brand they would be high quality bottled water - Evian.

And most importantly, if you were looking for a childcare centre for your own child, what would you like to see on the website of the centre you will be entrusting your child to?