...Or how to welcome families?
In this new edition of the Kid's Expert Minute, Emilie, project manager at Com' des Enfants, explains what it means to be "Family-Friendly" and why it is important for brands or stores to be so.
What is "family-friendly"?
Being "family-friendly" means first of all paying special attention to families and this can be done in different ways:
- with specific offers or services,
- dedicated spaces,
- a personalized welcome,
- adapted furniture,
- a particular decoration, etc.
By being Family-friendly, the objective is to put parents and children at ease so that they can enjoy a meaningful experience in line with the brand's values and go beyond a simple commercial exchange to provide real added value.
Why is it important for a company to welcome families?
Welcoming and interacting with families to surprise them and create a positive ground contact is a major challenge for brands. Today, going to places where nothing is designed for families can be tedious for parents, who still feel unwelcome (for example in hotels or restaurants). Today's families are looking for consideration of their needs and expectations.
What are the impacts of a "Family-Friendly" approach?
A brand that invests in a welcome offer and spaces adapted to the well-being of children and adults will certainly stand out and create a special bond between itself and families. This will have an impact on its brand image, but also on loyalty, since attracting children is tantamount to building family loyalty. It is important to know that from the age of 8, children become prescribers and their parents listen to them in 98% of cases, especially when it comes to products or family outings. Clearly, welcoming families means generating sales and gaining notoriety with families, who represent a considerable market.
Is it relevant for some particular sectors of activity to be family-friendly?
The deployment of spaces and experiences dedicated to children or families is not reserved to certain sectors of activity. Our agency can intervene in commercial areas as well as in communities, hotels or restaurants. Of course, it may seem more obvious to some sectors to focus on welcoming families, but we emphasize to brands that do not directly target children that giving them a special welcome can be a real differentiating factor.
Is a large area necessary to deploy family-friendly spaces?
A family-friendly space can range from a simple corner to a larger area for a unique customer experience. Our design solutions can be adapted to any possible surface: there is something for every taste and every budget!
For example, we took up the challenge of offering shopping centers a fun and immersive experience dedicated to children and families on an average surface area of 9 m2. On the other hand, for Club Med, which wanted to enrich its children's entertainment offer, we gave free rein to our imagination on much larger surfaces (which we restructured into 3 thematic zones of about 100 m2), by recommending the furniture, decoration, floor coverings, wall colors, but also the animations for the children.
