I was speaking to a group of franchisors the other day.
(For those of you who don’t know the term, a franchisor (person or group/company) sits at the head of a franchise. They are the people everyone else buys their franchise from. They own the brand, have developed the systems and processes, and take a monthly fee from each of their locations.)
So anyway. I was speaking to them. I was there to give them a bit of input and advice about local marketing. It’s a subject that is particularly relevant to most franchises out there. I can’t tell you how many franchisees (the people who buy the franchise) get upset about marketing. Seriously it’s a high percentage.
The thing that drives most of them mad is this – they keep getting given generic marketing strategies that have nothing to do with their area, their competition or their customers. It’s all generic. What kind of support is that?
My company has a bit of a speciality in this area. We developed a comprehensive franchise marketing system to do just that. It’s all about getting results at a local level.
It’s also about learning. Why don’t companies take the time to learn about their customers? Why don’t they take the time to really understand the competition?
This is particularly true when it comes to the franchise industry. Most franchises will boast about their ‘world-class’ marketing support and, to be honest, 98% of them are talking bollocks. Their idea of marketing support is to print up a bunch of generic leaflets and tell the locations to distribute them.
Where? To whom? Why? All good questions.
The thing is, most franchisors miss out on one of their greatest local marketing assets – their franchisees. For the most part, a franchisee buys a franchise within the area they live. They know the history. They know the people. They know who is there and why people prefer one thing to another.
So why don’t they get asked?
When I posed this question to the group of franchisors, how many do you think actually asked their franchisees about this?
Not one. Seriously.
That’s an awful lot of local knowledge they missed out on. It’s silly, and it winds up costing you money.
It’s not just about franchising either. We’re currently bringing two new software products to the market for two separate clients. In both cases we have been doing an awful lot of groundwork to identify and connect to the potential customers. You have to do this, or you’ll end up with a very shiny system with nobody to use (or pay for) it.
Talking to people is important. Listening is even more so. If you really want to practice sensible marketing, take the time to engage with your customers (or potential ones). Take the time to really understand who they are. Look at the real competition, not just the obvious ones.
In short – you need to do the ground work and understand that every area, every city, every group of people, are all different.
Or you can call my company, and we’ll do it for you 
-jordan
(This was originally posted on Jordan’s marketing blog)
