Re-engineering Siblings

The Scene: An American home.

The Players: An 8-year old girl; a 5-year old boy

The Situation: At each other's throats.

The Solution:



Any parents reading this? If so, I'm sure you'll empathize. The key here is Media Placement -- frequency and reach: bedroom door, coming and going. Over bathroom sink and toilet paper holder. Insides of exterior doors so as to catch young eyes leaving for school in the morning. All strategically placed at the eye-level of a 5-year old.

This is actually the re-introduction of previously effective campaign. Our now almost 9-year old daughter was of course, once a 6-year old. One who had issues with her then 3-ish little brother. You know the story, "my toys are my toys, his toys are my toys." Ditto: My tv channel, my french fries, my juice, etc. Also, it seems the little guy was to blame for everything from a family dog covered in motor oil to the Johnsonville Flood. The boy, not being a very developed debater at the time, got the raw end usually. And strangely, he kept coming back for more. (Having grown up with an older brother who made sport of mugging me from time to time, I always thought it would have been "neat" to have a big sister instead. The last 6 years have cured me of that silliness.)

After a month of saturation coverage (pantry, bookbag, miniature versions for "Barbie's Playhouse", a copy taped over the TV screen) we started to note a decline in customer service complaints. The HR department seemed less stressed at the end of the day. The final check against placebo effects came with a call from a strategic alliance: A first grade teacher. It seems that word of mouth had traveled. Our erstwhile Angelica had been posting gains in her citizenship numbers and with her peers and the teacher was curious what the "care, share thing" was.

Victory! We hoped. We crossed our fingers and began slowly phasing out the horizontal media channels but stuck to verticals like bedroom doors and the bathroom mirror.

Result? The 6-year old was allowed to remain in the Fouroboros corporate fold and moved on to become a valued SBU, posting winning gains in core competencies as judged by certified educational regulatory bodies. Additional gains accrued to outreach activities such as swimming and soccer, nicely adding to goodwill and market awareness. She also does her homework and feeds the dog without complaining. Sometimes.

Of course, this is management.

The boy will be 6 in May.

The art for Care-Share 2.0 went to the printers this morning.