Franchise Marketing

Dee Blick is a familiar face in franchising and has worked with new and established franchisees helping them to achieve business growth through effective and simple marketing tactics. Dee is a Chartered Marketer and a member of The Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Franchise Marketing
by Dee Blick

A practical marketing strategy will really influence your long- term business success. It is not about advertising, newsletters, mail shots or networking. These activities are addressed in your tactical marketing plan.

• In creating a marketing strategy you analyse what is needed for your business to achieve sustainable, long term business growth.

You need to include the following in your marketing strategy

• Marketing objectives – ones that are linked to your products, services and marketplaces. They should be measurable, and although they will differ depending on the size of your business and how long you have been operating, the principle remains the same.
• A competitor table. I have worked with many businesses who believed that what they offered was unique, only to find competitors already offering the same products or services. Save time and use the Internet for your competitor research. Use the headings below to gain relevant information on each competitor.
  • Name
  • Product / service range
  • Key selling messages
  • Content of website / overall appearance
  • Price structure
  • Difference to your business
  • Similarities to your business
  • Your strengths in relation to each competitor
  • Your weaknesses in relation to each competitor

Your customers and prospects will know about some of your competitors. Make sure you do!

• A clear definition of your customers - How are they grouped? What similarities do they share and what differences? You need to find out when and why your target markets buy from you and how many people influence the decision to buy.
• A concise summary of your product or service, standing in the shoes of your customers. Look at what you offer through their eyes - what makes you truly different from the other businesses in your market place? How does that difference benefit your customers?
• If you ignore your marketing strategy you run the risk of missing your target markets, or delivering the wrong messages. Find out what makes your customers and your competitors tick – This is key to your long -term success.
  

Five of the most frequently asked marketing questions and their answers…
by Dee Blick

Q1: What is marketing?
Over the years I have read many definitions of marketing, but my favourite quote is from the late Peter Doyle, a marketing guru of the 20th Century. He defined marketing as a ‘philosophy of business that placed the customer at the centre of the universe.’ Another good definition of marketing is ‘identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer demand and making a profit.’

If we are in the business of deriving our income from customers, then marketing should be at the centre of all our activity!

Q2: I have no marketing experience – where do I start?
Buying a franchise puts you at an advantage when it comes to marketing your business. You have a network of franchisees to talk to plus a franchise package that should include a broad platform of marketing support. Start by talking to the franchisees in your network. Ask them about the successful marketing tactics they have used to grow their business, and the marketing mistakes they made in their early days of trading. This will save you time and money. It will also focus you so that you know you are heading in the right direction. I encourage our new franchisees to do this as soon as Induction Training is finished. If a little bedtime reading appeals then I write a monthly marketing column in Business Franchise magazine, where I present ten top tips on a popular marketing topic.

Q3: What kind of marketing activity should I consider to promote my business to potential customers?
It will help if you draw up a list of all the potential marketing tactics you can consider before whittling down to the tactics that are endorsed by your franchisor and the franchisees in your network. You should consider all of the following: small, targeted direct mailings, telephone sales, advertising, PR, sales promotion (advertising gifts promoting your brand), electronic marketing, exhibitions, networking, cold calling and seminars. Once you have drawn up your activity shortlist, you will need to focus on blending! (More on this to follow)

Q4: How can I appraise my marketing activities?
Approach each marketing activity in a business like manner and ask the following:

• What are my objectives? What am I hoping to achieve?
• What is the full cost of this activity?
• How will I manage this activity? What timescales should I work to?

If you want to gain new customers or prospects, you need to establish how many. Don’t plan your marketing activity on the vague assumption that you want to ‘maximise your sales’

Q5: How can I gain the maximum impact from my marketing activity?
Blending is essential! Don’t plan and run each activity in isolation. Your customers will respond with more vigour if they receive two or three different approaches from you. So if you are planning to direct mail cold prospects to convert them to customers, you will increase responses if you telephone them both before and after the mailing. If you also have some local press coverage, running at the same time, then include copies in your mailing or refer to the publications when you make your cold calls. All this helps to build up a positive, rounded picture of your organisation, and it increases both prospect and customer awareness of what you do.

Back to Home Page