Sunday, June 21, 2009
Day trip diapering
We had a great day trip with the in-laws today. I put a goodmama on the toddler, put a couple of my motherease all-in-ones into my goodmama wet bags and off we went. Fun filled days with car ride, play ground, strollering around, lunch, running, climbing, more stroller, napping in the car, running at the mall and then home. Had a great day (the little guy even napped long enough in the car for us to run a few errands). Didn't think about diapers once - actually completely FORGOT about anything diaper related. Panicked a bit when I realized he had been in the same diaper for about 8 hours. No leaks, no complaints, just a damp bum. Bad mom? Jury is still out on that one. But certainly will use my Goodmama diapers on long days out again.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Keep up or get out of the way
As a marketer you never want to become complacent. But when you are the only service in town I can see how it could happen. If you don't evolve over time you provide an opportunity for a competitor to jump into the gap... and that is what is happening in the Vancouver diaper service game.
When we had our little guy we started cloth diapering with a service. Our objective was to cloth diaper part time and we really had no clue what to buy or if we would like it. So we started with a service to make sure we liked cloth diapering and to give us some time to get used to what was necessary. The only game in town at the time was Diapers Naturally. I heard about them through word of mouth and tried to find them online. I really looked hard to find somebody online that would let me look at what they had to offer. With no web presence we had to phone. They happily mailed us a brochure and information. We found their service great, price reasonable and very convenient. The only downside was that they only had 2 styles of diapers - pre folds, and contoured. Neither of which were fitted diapers and as our guy got bigger that wasn't convenient anymore (just didn't contain the necessary mess nor was the material thick enough to hold much pee either).
So after buying a couple of different CD styles to try, we went out on our own after 4 months.
Now Happy Nappy has come to Vancouver (and Victoria and Calgary). They are more expensive, but they offer thicker fitted diapers (very similar to what we use at home). They are online. They advertise. They make it easy for you to buy their service.
I believe that Diapers Naturally has a lot of commercial business (mostly the hospitals) and residential customers may not be their priority. But a mailed brochure, that offers a referal program, will not allow them to compete with a more vocal competitor - who in my mind has a superior diaper product. Diapers Naturally may not be losing existing customers, but they are most certainly losing potential customers. And as cloth diapering continues to increase in popularity they will likely lose more of their market share.
No matter how happy I was with Diapers Naturally. If I was to do it again, I'd go with Happy Nappy. In fact if Happy Nappy had been around when we stared out we might have never gone out on our own (and the marketer in me can't deny keeping existing customers is easier more and profitable).
When we had our little guy we started cloth diapering with a service. Our objective was to cloth diaper part time and we really had no clue what to buy or if we would like it. So we started with a service to make sure we liked cloth diapering and to give us some time to get used to what was necessary. The only game in town at the time was Diapers Naturally. I heard about them through word of mouth and tried to find them online. I really looked hard to find somebody online that would let me look at what they had to offer. With no web presence we had to phone. They happily mailed us a brochure and information. We found their service great, price reasonable and very convenient. The only downside was that they only had 2 styles of diapers - pre folds, and contoured. Neither of which were fitted diapers and as our guy got bigger that wasn't convenient anymore (just didn't contain the necessary mess nor was the material thick enough to hold much pee either).
So after buying a couple of different CD styles to try, we went out on our own after 4 months.
Now Happy Nappy has come to Vancouver (and Victoria and Calgary). They are more expensive, but they offer thicker fitted diapers (very similar to what we use at home). They are online. They advertise. They make it easy for you to buy their service.
I believe that Diapers Naturally has a lot of commercial business (mostly the hospitals) and residential customers may not be their priority. But a mailed brochure, that offers a referal program, will not allow them to compete with a more vocal competitor - who in my mind has a superior diaper product. Diapers Naturally may not be losing existing customers, but they are most certainly losing potential customers. And as cloth diapering continues to increase in popularity they will likely lose more of their market share.
No matter how happy I was with Diapers Naturally. If I was to do it again, I'd go with Happy Nappy. In fact if Happy Nappy had been around when we stared out we might have never gone out on our own (and the marketer in me can't deny keeping existing customers is easier more and profitable).
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