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While the President-elect Barack Obama readies an economic stimulus plan to revive our failed economy, franchises can turn the current recession into positive and successful sales and marketing opportunities. There are a myriad of ways to help you ride the storm, one of them is to revise your marketing strategy.

John Quelch, a professor at Harvard Business School and known worldwide for his expertise in global marketing, branding and communications, discusses this issue in the Harvard Business Review. His original blog was posted in February 2008 and outlines some excellent ways to address marketing revisions.

Quelch was one of ten marketing experts profiled in Conversations with Marketing Masters, (Laura Mazur and Louella Miles). He also co-authored Greater Good: How Good Marketing Makes for Better Democracy (Quelch and Katherine Jocz). Additionally is a non-executive director of WPP Group plc, the world’s second largest marketing services company, and of Pepsi Bottling Group. He served previously as a director of Reebok International.

Please read the full article at the HBR, John Quelch, Marketing KnowHow: How to Market in a Recession.

The ripples of our nation’s recession have gotten wider and more far-reaching, touching everyone. Effects from the subprime mortgage crisis have stretched consumer confidence and spending (on credit) to its limit, both of which have been keeping our economy afloat.

Your 2008 marketing strategies are probably already updated this late in the year. We’ve distilled Quelch’s eight factors here. Give yourself some flexibility and consider these principles for your 2009 plans.

1. Know your target customer.
The economy has left consumers with less diposable income and everyone is now more frugal and savvy at finding the good deal. We will spend more time searching for goods and services, drive a harder bargain at the counter, or will trade off: put off purchases until a better deal comes along, settle for less, or buy less. We weigh: want vs. need more heavily. Although brand loyalty is high and those brands can pull off a new product launch, think about limiting new product lines and new brands – they may not be so successful in this market.

2. Home sweet home.
It’s human nature to retreat to the hearth-and-home in stressful times. Rethink and gear your advertising images from action-packed, extreme, and fear factors toward warm-and-fuzzy family images. We spend less by staying in, but still want to be connected, therefore, we will still spend on things that make our homes more comfortable (furnishing and entertainment), as well as greeting cards, telephone and internet use.

3. Maintain marketing spending.
As competitors cut their advertising budget, companies increasing their advertising during a recession experience a high level of success. They improve their market share and lower their return-on-investment. As more consumers stay in, television watching increases and lowers the rate of cost-per-thousand impressions. If you need to reduce your marketing, maintain your frequency of exposure by shifting to shorter advertisements; incorporate radio and direct marketing, possibly giving you more immediate impact on new sales.

4. Keep product line essentials.
Companies need to re-evaluate their product lines and trim the weaker products. Consumers look for good values now more than ever and opt for multi-purpose over specialized products; private label/store brands over more expensive national brands; goods and services a la carte rather than bundled. If you’re launching a new product that puts pressure on competitors by addressing current consumer needs, focus your advertising on a high level of price performance rather than trying to extend your corporate image.

5. Support distributors.
Give your distributors added incentive to stock your full product line by offering early-buy allowances, financing and flexible return policies. Acquiring some strong distribution channels that have been let go by other company and phasing out your own weaker ones may also be good way to beef up your sales force. Beware of damaging the strength of your existing distributors and brand image by expanding into lower-priced channels.

6. Make the price right.
Consumers are hungry for the best deal in tough times. Sweepstakes, mail-in rebates and other promotions requiring a customer’s time and effort are not very attractive. Offer temporary price reductions, lower quantities for bulk discounts, extended credit (trusted customers) and better pricing for smaller pack sizes.

7. Protect your market share.
In this present economy, market share can be a matter of survival, not just a battle for a share. Before implementing cuts or consolidations, make sure you know your cost structure to avoid adversely impacting your customers. Strong national companies with productive cost structures have the best chance at a possible gain in market share. Smaller, but still profitable companies can also vie for a bigger share by acquiring weaker competitors.

8. Put people first.
Companies have had to implement different cost saving strategies, including letting employees go, closing facilities and the like. Executives need to maintain employee and customer morale and confidence by focusing on quality products and services and continuing to provide these to their clients. In a recession when concerns are redirected toward profit and loss, it’s easy to concentrate on balance sheets and managing company capital instead of managing relationships with people – internal and external.

Our ElementsLocal™ online solution provides franchise systems an unmatched ability to give franchise leaders BrandSecure™ online marketing tools. ElementsLocal puts the power of online marketing in your franchisees’ hands, while consistently driving your brand across all web properties.
For more information, call us at 805-547-1160 x205 or visit us at http://www.elementslocal.com/cm/Home.html.

After Elements developed a model for creating and maximizing franchisees’ web presence, we’ve discovered one of the chief concerns is how to integrate franchisee and franchisor goals. The challenge from both perspectives is generating leads from local searches on Google and other search engines, and perhaps other untapped potential value of the broader network of franchisees.

As a franchisee, are you interested in evaluating these new marketplaces? Great! You’re still here! You’re in the right place.

You currently have a website, right? (Just nod.)…

And your website is a microsite of the franchisor’s website with a single page for each franchise? (Still nodding?)

As a franchisor, are franchisees dissatisfied with your corporate website solution that you’ve paid a lot of money to develop? From that dissatisfaction, franchisees violate brand agreements by creating their own websites to improve their local presence in their local market? (Nodding again?…)

****Because of this, your brand control is compromised because franchisee owners are impatient with what you’re offering them to print news in their local markets, capture local Google search results with local content. As a result they create their own website…accurate, so far?

What about marketing? Are you doing pay-per-click (PPC) or Adwords campaigns? If not, why not? You know your competitors are spending money to capture PPC results, right?

If you are spending on PPC, is the expense across all franchisees or just a limited number? If it’s across all franchisees, you’re probably spending thousands on AdWords campaigns; it’s a pricey solution.

Consider this: research indicates most users will IGNORE the Adwords ad in the right sidebar when they can find RELEVANT search results organically in the regular top 10-20 searches. Do you really think your Ad Words campaign is working efficiently and effectively for you?

How sophisticated is your lead distribution and tracking mechanism? You collect an email and redirect it to the franchise. Is there any way to track what happens from there? What level of ROI on leads can you establish for each franchise? Would you like a better approach?

With the typical web marketing system, each of these problems has its own independent solution, costing you and your franchisees thousands to set-up, maintain, and – if lucky – control. Most likely, you’re company and brand is STILL FAILING to show up in Google and still failing to satisfy the problem of creating localized content for franchisees to display awards, portfolios, case studies, local club memberships, etc.

THE CHALLENGES FOR FRANCHISE WEB MARKETING

• ~The Franchisor:
  • ~Must control their most valuable asset – their brand
  • ~Must be able to track changes and performance
  • ~Must facilitate local marketing to and for franchisees

  ~The Franchisee:

  • ~Must have a highly professional and easy to update website
  • ~Must show up in search engines to compete with locally business
  • ~Must be able to easily choose to participate in Franchisor sponsored marketing or initiate their own local marketing campaigns

Can your existing website, SEO expert, AdWords campaign, or single-page website provide affordable and effective solutions to these challenges? Unless you’re passing the Google tests we run, we can tell you it’s likely you need some better strategies so you’re not FAILING in areas where you should be WINNING.

OUR SOLUTION:

• ~ElementsLocalTM
  • ~Provides family of fully autonomous, networked websites for all franchisees while providing Franchisor control
• ~Client Example
  • ~Manage brand look and feel of websites and local marketing campaigns
  • ~Manage brand messaging and content
  • ~Initiate national email campaigns with advanced tracking

REAL RESULTS:

We’re getting real-world results in record time.

Dig deeper into the ElementsLocal software platform and learn how to use the POWER of your FRANCHISE NETWORK to DOMINATE YOUR INDUSTRY.

Franchises may be concerned about recent financial economy news. An economic downturn may present positive opportunities to grow sales and marketing success. At the least, you’ll want to weather the storm. To fully capitalize on opportunities, you might consider a revision of marketing strategy. An excellent outline of ways to address a marketing revision came across my email today from Harvard Business Review, which discusses ideas by Author John Quelch:

The Author John Quelch was one of ten marketing experts profiled in the 2007 book, Conversations with Marketing Masters, authored by Laura Mazur and Louella Miles. A professor at Harvard Business School since 1979, he is known worldwide for his research on global marketing, global branding and marketing communications.

John is a non-executive director of WPP Group plc, the world’s second largest marketing services company, and of Pepsi Bottling Group. He served previously as a director of Reebok International.

Please read the full article: How to Market in a Recession

The signs of an imminent recession are all around us. The spillover from the subprime mortgage crisis is weakening both consumer confidence and the consumer spending–much of it on credit–that has been buoying the US economy.

Companies should bear eight factors in mind when making their marketing plans for 2008 and 2009:

1. Research the customer.

Instead of cutting the market research budget, you need to know more than ever how consumers are redefining value and responding to the recession. Price elasticity curves are changing. Consumers take more time searching for durable goods and negotiate harder at the point of sale. They are more willing to postpone purchases, trade down, or buy less. Must-have features of yesterday are today’s can-live-withouts. Trusted brands are especially valued and they can still launch new products successfully but interest in new brands and new categories fades. Conspicuous consumption becomes less prevalent.

2. Focus on family values.

When economic hard times loom, we tend to retreat to our village. Look for cozy hearth-and-home family scenes in advertising to replace images of extreme sports, adventure and rugged individualism. Zany humor and appeals on the basis of fear are out. Greeting card sales, telephone use and discretionary spending on home furnishings and home entertainment will hold up well, as uncertainty prompts us to stay at home but also stay connected with family and friends.

3. Maintain marketing spending.

This is not the time to cut advertising. It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times. Uncertain consumers need the reassurance of known brands–and more consumers at home watching television can deliver higher than expected audiences at lower cost-per-thousand impressions. Brands with deep pockets may be able to negotiate favourable advertising rates and lock them in for several years. If you have to cut marketing spending, try to maintain the frequency of advertisements by shifting from 30-to-15 second advertisements, substituting radio for television advertising, or increasing the use of direct marketing, which gives more immediate sales impact.

4. Adjust product portfolios.

Marketers must reforecast demand for each item in their product lines as consumers trade down to models that stress good value, such as cars with fewer options. Tough times favour multi-purpose goods over specialised products and weaker items in product lines should be pruned. In grocery-products categories, good-quality own-brands gain at the expense of national brands. Industrial customers prefer to see products and services unbundled and priced separately. Gimmicks are out; reliability, durability, safety and performance are in. New products, especially those that address the new consumer reality and thereby put pressure on competitors, should still be introduced but advertising should stress superior price performance, not corporate image.

5. Support distributors.

In uncertain times, no one wants to tie up working capital in excess inventories. Early-buy allowances, extended financing and generous return policies motivate distributors to stock your full product line. This is particularly true with unproven new products. Be careful about expanding distribution to lower-priced channels; doing so can jeopardise existing relationships and your brand image. However, now may be the time to drop your weaker distributors and upgrade your sales force by recruiting those sacked by other companies.

6. Adjust pricing tactics.

Customers will be shopping around for the best deals. You do not necessarily have to cut list prices but you may need to offer more temporary price promotions, reduce thresholds for quantity discounts, extend credit to long-standing customers and price smaller pack sizes more aggressively. In tough times, price cuts attract more consumer support than promotions such as sweepstakes and mail-in offers.

7. Stress market share.

In all but a few technology categories where growth prospects are strong, companies are in a battle for market share and, in some cases, survival. Knowing your cost structure can ensure that any cuts or consolidation initiatives will save the most money with minimum customer impact. Companies such as Wal-Mart and Southwest Airlines, with strong positions and the most productive cost structures in their industries, can expect to gain market share. Other companies with healthy balance sheets can do so by acquiring weak competitors.

8. Emphasise core values.

Although most companies are making employees redundant, chief executives can cement the loyalty of those who remain by assuring employees that the company has survived difficult times before, maintaining quality rather than cutting corners and servicing existing customers rather than trying to be all things to all people. CEOs must spend more time with customers and employees. Economic recession can elevate the importance of the finance director’s balance sheet over the marketing manager’s income statement. Managing working capital can easily dominate managing customer relationships. CEOs must counter this. Successful companies do not abandon their marketing strategies in a recession; they adapt them.

We recently surveyed 100+ franchise companies about local marketing and how they supported their local franchisees with local online marketing programs.

Online Local Marketing Survey Results

01. What’s your greatest challenge in generating local leads for your Franchisees?
(Please rank, 1-4, 1 being most important.)

• ~ 1.3 (average rank) Franchisees have limited time and budget to produce local marketing campaigns
• ~ 1.9 (average rank) Local franchisees have little expertise to effectively implement marketing campaigns.
• ~ 2.9 (average rank) Local marketing solutions rely on the franchisee to implement with little time & few resources.
• ~ 3.9 (average rank) Independent competitors are dominating the local lead generation sources.

02. How do you control your brand at the local Franchisee level?

• ~ 87.5% of surveyed franchisors have implemented a strict process with brand standards and approvals required for any locally generated marketing materials.
• ~ 62.5% of surveyed franchisors said that branding is controlled tightly at the national level with no ability for the Franchisees to customize any aspect of marketing for their local level.
• ~ 37.5% of surveyed franchisors allow franchisees to use approved brand assets, campaign programs and online tools to create customized, online local marketing campaigns.
• ~ 12.5% of surveyed franchisors have not implemented brand standards; franchisees target their own local markets.

03. How would your Franchisees rate their local online presence: 4.88 (average rating between 1 & 10)

• ~ 50% of surveyed franchisors responded that their franchisees were not represented online. (1-4)
• ~ 37.5% of surveyed franchisors responded that their franchisees had some representation online. (5-7)
• ~ 12.5% of surveyed franchisors responded that their franchisees were well-represented online. (8-10)

04. How are your Franchisees represented online now:

• ~ 98.6% of surveyed franchisors give each franchisee a page on the corporate website for local clients to find.
• ~ 28.6% of surveyed franchisors give each franchisees a 2- to 5-page micro-site that we list in the ”sponsored links” section of the search engines and the Franchisees pay for each lead that comes from their micro-site.
• ~ 42.9% of surveyed franchisors said Franchisees have their own website(s), domain(s) and email marketing which complies to brand guidelines, so Google ranks them very high in their local communities.
• ~ 14.3% of surveyed franchisors responded “none of the above.”

Based on these results, franchise companies are not taking full advantage of their national market segment and corporate branding by messaging in their local communities with targeted local online marketing strategies.

Franchise companies have many challenges, one of which is local marketing. Traditionally, it has been difficult to produce consistent local marketing campaigns that drive leads to the local office. These campaigns normally consist of some sort of direct mail, “yellow pages” or print advertising, all of which are becoming much less effective in these techno-savvy times.

A new recipe for local marketing includes 2 cups website, 1/2 cup email, 1 cup search engine and a dash of tracking. Mixed well to make a successful local marketing campaign.

2 cups Website – A website is made of visual imagery and textual content. When mixing up your website, please choose only natural and relevant text for your content. This will allow the search engine and website to blend well together and produce a better tasting (more leads) dish. Use the combination of visual imagery and text to produce the fragrant smell (call to action) that entices your guests (site visitors) heads toward the kitchen (your contact information)

1/2 cup Email – An email is one page of your website delivered to your contact’s email box. It’s a combination of problem-solving and education. If you can brew these two items together to create interest and anticipation then you have succeeded in stirring up interest in your website. Email should never outwardly sell your services, but should educate your customer.

1 cup Search Engine – Search engine is the final and most often forgotten ingredient to your successful local marketing campaign. Search engine is only effective if it is incorporated well with website. If your website and search engine have similar content then customers will find website in their search engine queries.

A dash of Tracking – To realize success is to measure success. Use Google analytics to track your website and your traffic sources to understand if these ingredients are producing an increase in customers coming to your website. This tool will also show you the increase the number of customers who contact you.

We hope you enjoy this new recipe! If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.