Today I went to two hardware stores where one of them was way busier than the other even though there wasn’t a crazy sale from what I saw. But one thing one store did have was a kid’s workshop of sort and it seemed to have done the trick to attract parents to go to that store instead and at the same time they were making purchases that they needed. This isn’t the kind of stuff most companies think of it seems as it is usually trying to sway customers through sales or relatable marketing initiatives.
The food industry does this a lot though where there are often promotions specifically geared towards kids so that they nag the parents to dine there and usually that means even more money. There was this one example of a restaurant giving kids a free meal and the adults that ordered for themselves were complaining how the dishes were so expensive. Clearly that’s how they made up for the loss and it works for them.
What could you actually for for businesses that don’t usually have kid items at all? The examples that come to mind are some places create like a pseudo daycare of sort for free. For example, if the parents are attending a paid workshop of some sort the company will actually have a play room where the kids can play with toys or watch TV. So it gives the parents an inventive to choose one place over the other. Just an extra factor to try and address in order to stand out.