Most of us have heard the expression “like herding cats.” Anyone who has had cats knows, they do their own thing. Trying to get them to follow directions or consistently behave the same way is an exercise in futility. When it comes to marketing, corporate leadership might say the same thing about franchisee marketing.
When every store is privately owned, with store owners and managers creating their own marketing plans and ordering their own marketing materials, consistency can be hard to come by.
Once print materials are ordered, each franchisee might use a different print provider, resulting in slightly different colors from one franchisee to another. Messaging can be inconsistent, and errors are inevitable. One store might accidentally print an older version of a brochure, and another might use an outdated logo on their business cards.
Ensuring Brand Consistency
Enter corporate storefronts. You, as the site owner, create the templates. You lock down your brand colors, logo, images, and other key elements of the brand. Because all jobs are printed here at Full Sail Media, you get a consistent look and feel no matter which franchisee places the order. Brand colors are printed identically each time.
Templates can also be customized to the extent you choose. For example, you might allow franchisees to add their own store contact information or choose their own offers from a drop-down menu. In most cases, franchisees are choosing from pre-approved assets, so there are no surprises.
Want an extra layer of protection? Set up approval workflows too. Once a piece has been customized, it can be automatically routed to you (or whomever you choose) for approval.
Six Stores, Fully Predictable Branding
One of our clients, a bathroom remodeling company, recently launched one of these storefronts. The company has six different store locations, so there are a lot of users to wrangle. Its portal is stocked with a wide variety of products, including marketing materials, building and showroom signage, and recruitment flyers.
Franchisees log in and choose the category of material they want to order. Some categories, such as product brochures, are static. Others allow limited customization.
What might this look like? Say, the franchisee chooses “marketing materials” and selects a door hanger. They click on the product, choose the desired quantity, and check out just as they would on Amazon.com. Customization can be found on the building signage, where franchisees have the option to change out the logo, business hours, and contact information.
The result is not just access to professional branded marketing materials, but for the remodeling company, a consistent brand image across all of its locations.
Some of our accounts will allow franchisees to order Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) direct mail campaigns, as well. As with the remodeler’s site, the individual stores login to their storefronts, select a template, and input the number of pieces they want. For EDDM, they are directed to pick carrier routes, enabling targeting down to the precise neighborhood. Once finalized, the mailing goes out. The messaging is locked down, but there are areas where franchisees can customize to their specific stores.
Many of our clients include office products in their storefronts, as well, such as business cards or letterhead.
More Than Just Convenience
It’s not just convenience, brand consistency, and error reduction that drives clients to set up these storefronts. It’s pricing. Because these are standardized products with direct input into our workflow, we can offer lower pricing than jobs ordered other ways. (Fifteen percent lower, on average.) Once ordered, the job goes right into a hot folder and gets printed. This means clients receive their projects faster, too.
With branded storefronts, you can say goodbye to herding cats. Instead, you can say hello to convenience, brand consistency, error reduction, and pricing savings instead! And cats? Well, they just stay cats.
