Marketing Your Franchise
Their “Box” – Your Business

Published: June / July 2008
By Dale W. Hutchings

Several years ago an interior designer who became manager of an interior design company franchise called on me to give her some help in marketing the franchise store. Prior to our meeting, she had spent several days in Chicago, at corporate headquarters, being trained in how she should market the store. They gave her all kinds of documentation and procedures regarding to whom, what, where and how to market the business.

A few days later upon her return I gave her some marketing consultation. At the end of the meeting, she said, “You know, Dale, in the last hour you have given me more concrete, good ideas that make sense in marketing the store than I ever got during my three days in Chicago at corporate. Thank you so much.”

The reason she thanked me was because many of the recommendations I made were marketing strategies that made sense for the Tampa Bay marketplace. After all, Chicago and its metro area have quite different demographics than Tampa Bay. Hence, the marketing strategies for the two areas should be somewhat different.

Sure, being part of a franchise system offers great advantages, one of the biggest marketing benefits being name recognition. But it also comes with certain marketing restrictions. These limitations can be almost anything from when and how you can use the corporation’s logo to what kind of inventory you should have in stock for customers.

However, despite these challenges, there are marketing initiatives you can take that are more out of the box than what corporate recommends and yet should pass your franchisor’s approval in many cases. Some of these are:

1. Know Your True Market Audience & Tailor Advertising & Promotions To Them.
No matter what corporate tells you, take the time to research the market where your franchise is based – don’t rely on what those from corporate headquarters tell you. Often times you will find there is an audience out there you weren’t even aware of that might want your product or service. Look for cultural factors and trends in the community. As an example, you may be new to an area where you have purchased your franchise and have no idea that there is a large Hispanic population in your community. If so, it might be important to hire people that are bilingual and to focus particular promotions specifically to reach this target audience. (As examples: host an Hispanic Fair or Festival, collect food or books for needy Hispanic families, recognize outstanding Hispanic businesses or Hispanic business people in the community, etc.)

2. Demonstrate That Your Business Is More Than Just Another Franchise In A Particular Industry.
Get involved in the community. Be a sponsor for events that help various charitable causes. Encourage your employees to volunteer and recognize them for benevolent work. Talk to groups (civic clubs, business organizations, etc.) about your industry. Position yourself as an expert in your business by becoming a resource for the local news media regarding your profession. Write and submit articles to newspapers, trade journals and web sites educating people about some aspect of your business. All of these initiatives will help to give you and your business distinction.

3. Take Steps To Encourage Repeat Business.
Make coupons available to customers. Create drawings (if corporate will let you) or other contests with a chance for a customer to be a lucky winner of a particular product or service that you offer. Offer specials in conjunction with special holidays during the year – Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc. Do your best to get customers’ repeat business.

4. Network! Network! Network!
Develop relationships with other business owners and discuss ways you might be able to help one another, including developing a referral system between your two businesses. An excellent partnership, for example, might be a children’s learning center and a fast food restaurant. At the learning center, children could be rewarded for doing outstanding work with free restaurant coupons. In turn, the restaurant could promote the learning center by having some kind of display on the counter or on restaurant tables, or better yet, serve as a “host” site for “graduation parties” for kids completing their studies at the learning center.

5. Think About Your Own Web Site.
A web site is important to many businesses. Often your individual franchise can tie into a corporate web site, although sometimes the problem with these sites is that they are just too generic. If you are allowed to have a site of your own that would be more applicable to the community you serve, go for it.
This will allow you the opportunity to make your business more unique than your competition.

Above all, keep an open mind. Just because you own a franchise, that doesn’t mean you can’t think out of the box when marketing your business. It’s not always easy, but it can be done.

About the Author
Dale W. Hutchings, APR, specializes in “out-of-the-box” marketing and has more than 30 years of Public Relations, Marketing and Advertising experience. Since 2001 he has had his own practice with a heavy focus on marketing consultation and copywriting for a wide variety of advertising mediums. For more information on his services visit www.dalewhutchings.com or contact him via e-mail at: hutch7@verizon.net.