Category: Franchise Marketing

The winners of the 2010 Franchise Marketing Awards in the UK were annouced last month. The winners included:

Best Overall Marketing Campaign - Dream Doors
The other finalists were Expense Reduction Analysts, McDonalds, Cartridge World & Platinum Property Partners.

Best Website - NBC Bird & Pest Solutions
The other finalists were Expense Reduction Analysts, Cartridge World, Popstar Academy & Home Instead Senior Care.

Best Franchisee Marketing Support - Granite Transformations
The other finalists were Gymboree, Auditel, No Letting Go, EnviroVent, WPA, Dublcheck, LighterLife, Select Group & X-Press Legal Services.

Best TV Advertising Campaign - Tumble Tots
The other finalists were Cartridge World, Dream Doors & Granite Transformations.

Best Print Advert - Dream Doors
The other finalists were EnviroVent, Cartridge World, Chemex & Platinum Property Partners.

Mega congratulations to all of the winners and the other finalists! Savvy marketing is important to the development of any franchise brand and so its good to see these franchisors rising to the challenge.

When I moved from Chicago to London four and a half years ago, I invited family/friends/colleagues to join me at: Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, etc. Knowing that I was going to be thousands of miles away, I viewed these social media tools as a way to stay connected. Very few of my contacts accepted my invitations in the beginning, but most have now woken up to the benefits of social media. Like me, they realise that it is not a fad but a fundamental shift in the way people communicate with one another. And for any company looking to take their marketing to the next level, integrating social media into the plan is a MUST!

An important reminder for any new business owner, not just franchisees: marketing can only succeed if time and energy are devoted to it regularly. Thomas Smith, a London based advertising executive put together the following list in 1885 to illustrate the point:

• The 1st time a man looks at an advertisement, he does not see it.
• The 2nd time, he does not notice it.
• The 3rd time, he is conscious of its existence.
• The 4th time, he faintly remembers having seen it before.
• The 5th time, he reads it.
• The 6th time, he turns up his nose at it.
• The 7th time, he reads it through and says "Oh Brother!"
• The 8th time, he says "Here's that confounded thing again!"
• The 9th time, he wonders if it amounts to anything.
• The 10th time, he asks his neighbour if he has tried it.
• The 11th time, he wonders how the advertisers makes it pay.
• The 12th time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
• The 13th time, he thinks perhaps it might be worth something.
• The 14th time, he remembers wanting such a thing a long time ago.
• The 15th time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.
• The 16th time, he thinks he will buy it some day.
• The 17th time, he makes a memorandum to buy it.
• The 18th time, he swears at his poverty.
• The 19th time, he counts his money.
• The 20th time he sees the advertisement, he buys what it is offering.

So once a proper strategy/marketing plan is developed, in order for it to be effective, the plan needs constant time and attention, for real success to be achieved.

Every franchisee starting out should read: Guerrilla Marketing for Franchisees: 125 Proven Strategies, Tactics and Techniques to Increase Your Profits written by Jay Conrad Levinson and Todd Woods. At the start they outline the formula for franchise success which includes:

1. Developing the proper success mindset


2. Becoming a lifelong student of marketing and business development


3. Owning your success


4. Accepting Accountability


5. Executing and TAKE ACTION

To help achieve this success, they offer franchisees insight on:

• How to write a powerful, 7-step marketing plan and prepare a successful marketing attack
• How to successfully launch & maintain an ongoing marketing attack using up to 100 marketing weapons; 62 of which are low cost or cost next to nothing
• How to understand their role as a franchisee when it comes to their own local store marketing
• How to reach and even exceed their sales and profit goals and much more.

Overall, it's a quick read with lots of relevant examples and low cost tips that any new franchisee can use to incorporate into their business with a view to increasing profits.

Congratulations to Wiltshire Farm Foods for winning the Best Website Award at this year's Franchise Marketing Awards.

The importance of the franchisors Internet site cannot be underestimated. Initially it was built to promote the company's products or services to prospective clients. However, once the company becomes a franchisor, the Internet site needs to serve a second purpose: promote the franchise to franchisee candidates.

Thus the site needs to be tweaked. By becoming a franchisor, the main task at hand is to position the brand and to bring on board franchisees who will be selling/marketing the products and services. This change needs to be reflected on the Internet site. Failure to do so means that the franchisor may not realise its full potential.

Case in point, one of the franchise brands that MatchPoint represents -- which I'm completely passionate about -- having spent a considerable amount of time to get to know the owners and franchisees, for the longest had a terrible Internet site. Thus, when franchisee candidates looked at the site, they often came back confused about what the company really did. Their value proposition wasn't clear and candidates did not feel inspired. However, after a £25K investment in a new site, things radically changed. Franchisee candidates I referred to the brand were more enthused and focused on getting through the process. The new site better reflected the brand and its offering.

However, the promotion of the franchise didn't overpower the site. There was the right balance in promoting the brand to franchisee candidates and providing information about the products/services to prospective clients. Overall, the site was just better designed, well written and presented in a more professional manner. Furthermore, from my franchisee candidates perspective, it peaked their curiosity enough to want to engage further. So from that standpoint, mission accomplished with the relaunch.