How does one major franchise support new franchisees with local area marketing? Kendra Teasdale, group marketing manager at Bakers Delight, explains.
In the competitive world of franchise recruitment, companies are increasingly targeting the same, select audience with more creative strategies to distinguish their offering from other franchisors. But with more than 1100 franchise systems vying for the attention of prospective franchisees, they are spending more time and resources on developing and promoting their franchise support systems to highlight how they are different.
But in the internet age where everything about your business is available on the nearest search engine and can easily be compared to others, how do you differentiate your offering from that of competitors?
The answer is fairly simple. Show them how they can grow their business in a proven, successful way. One of the most important elements of running a bricks-and-mortar business like a Bakers Delight franchise is marketing, and local area marketing in particular. It puts your business on the map in your community, highlights your achievements and sponsorships and plays a vital role in promoting campaigns and busy periods like Easter and Christmas.
Bakers Delight has more than 30 years’ worth of experience developing high quality marketing strategies to help franchisees promotes all aspects of their business. We have a dedicated team who take this important element of running a business off franchisees’ plates so they can focus on building a successful business and keeping their customers happy.
Our local area marketing efforts are divided into two areas: local marketing support which directly helps them market their business, and our Online Local Marketing initiative which allows franchisees to customise and localise marketing materials.
When we take on a new franchisee, our LM team sits down with them to create a local marketing plan that details opportunities and ideas in achieving objectives for their bakery such as driving traffic, increasing customer spend and engaging the community. The Bakers Delight LM team will also include demographic information to help them better understand their local areas and tailor their marketing initiatives accordingly.
In 2012, our local marketing team completed over 1000 local marketing projects and produced over $100,000 worth of printed materials for local initiatives. This did not include the campaign materials which are updated in bakeries every three weeks and the group media spend for above and below the line advertising, a significant investment in itself from Bakers Delight to grow both the brand and franchisees’ businesses.
Our Online Local Marketing initiative is a special service we’ve developed for franchisees to order commonly used POS and merchandising material directly. It’s a user-friendly site that allows franchisees to simply choose an item, such as a counter card, and personalise it with the contact details of their bakery before the printed item is delivered to their door.
Franchisees can currently choose from over 80 templates for everything from posters and counter cards, to bounce-back offers and stationery. Once they’ve placed an order and personalised the materials, we organise delivery within seven working days.
This service gives franchisees control over their own POS materials and makes it easier for them to place an order and get what they need.
Over the years we’ve learned that franchising in not a one-size-fits-all model. Franchisees often want to initiate their own local activities, so it’s important to support them by providing the tools to achieve their objectives.
Local area marketing has a direct impact on the success of their business because it raises awareness among local communities who in turn support each and every Bakers Delight franchisee.