Greg: Hello and thank you for joining us
for this month's Wednesday Wise webinar
brought to you by IFA Supplier Forum, advisory board.
This is Greg Cook, vice president
of Strategic Partnerships here at IFA.
And I'm pleased to have so many of you with us today.
This month's topic is local marketing and brand building,
drive revenue while growing the brand.
And our presenters are Justin Mink,
SVP of Franchise Brands at Scorpion,
and Shana Krisan, vice president of marketing
at Goldfish Swim Schools.
Before I turn it over to Justin and Shana,
I have a few housekeeping items to cover.
For starters, we'd like to remind you
that if you are enrolled
in the certified franchise executive program
you will receive 50 participation credits
towards your designation for attending this webinar.
And also, just as a heads up,
a recording of today's webinar, along with the slides,
will be sent out to everyone who registered
for today's webinar in the next week or so.
Okay, so that about covers everything on my end.
I will now turn it over to Justin and Shana.
Justin?
Justin: Hi, everybody.
Thanks for the great intro, Greg.
And appreciate everyone taking some time
out of your busy day to join us.
We're really excited about this topic.
We're gonna keep this hopefully light
and entertaining and moving along quickly.
And also provide some valuable tips
and some real actionable item you can take away
and you can implement in your business.
A little housekeeping note,
we'll have some time at the end of the presentation for Q&A
but encourage all of you to leave questions
as they come up into your mind
in the participant feedback field.
If any questions come up
during the course of the presentation that are germane
to what we're talking about at that moment,
we'll certainly stop and address them as they come.
But we'll do our best
to get to everybody's questions at some point
and certainly during the Q&A portions.
So quick introduction of myself
and then I'll turn the floor over
to Shana to introduce herself.
My name's Justin Mink.
I'm the senior vice president
of Franchise Brands at Scorpion Internet Marketing.
I've personally been involved as a digital marketing
supplier for franchises for about 10 years.
Believe it or not, 10 years doesn't seem like that long
of a time in the grand scheme of things
but 10 years ago,
you could speak with a pretty large franchise brand,
tell them about the opportunity
to drive new business on the internet
and a pretty common response was,
"Yeah, we're pretty good with the yellow pages right now.
We're keeping our eyes on this internet fad."
So 10 years is a long time in this industry
and I'm really passionate about this topic
and about franchising in general.
And a quick intro to Scorpion.
We're an internet marketing firm
established in 2001.
One of the longest peer play internet companies
in the country, really with a singular focus.
We exist to help businesses leverage
the power of the internet to grow.
We've got about 10 thousand clients
and we've been involved
in the franchise industry specifically
for just over four years.
It's our fastest growing division by far.
We count about 90 plus franchise brands
and several thousand individual franchise units
as part of those brands as clients.
We're one of Google's largest partners in North America.
And just last month we were honored
and humbled to receive recognition
from Entrepreneur Magazine as the number one
franchise marketing supplier in the entire industry.
So Shana, I'll cede the floor to you.
Shana: Wonderful, thank you.
I'm Shana Krisan and I serve as the vice president
of marketing here at Goldfish Swim School Franchising.
I've been here for almost five years
and I've been in advertising
and marketing for about 25 years,
either on the agency side in consulting
or on the corporate side.
So yes, I remember exactly
what you're talking about there, Justin.
(Justin laughs)
Most of my experience and definitely my passion
has been working with franchisees and franchises,
establishing marketing departments
and partnerships, creating programs and services
that really drive brand awareness
and support the business growth of the local franchisees.
A little bit about Goldfish,
it was founded by a husband and wife team,
Chris and Jenny McCquiston in Birmingham, Michigan in 2006.
Our first franchise was open
in Farmington, Michigan in 2009.
We provide swim lessons and water safety instruction
to infants and children from four months to 12 years old,
in stand alone, tropical-themed warm facilities.
We currently teach more than 100 thousand students per week
to swim and be safer in and around the water.
We're very proud also to have been recognized
as a top franchise in our industry
and in the child development space
by Entrepreneur, Franchise Times and Ink. 5000.
Currently, we have 73 locations
opened in 20 states in the United States
and one in Canada,
with over 100 schools in development.
Justin: Awesome, thanks, Shana.
So a quick little rundown of the agenda.
We're gonna hit a few high level topics today.
The growing challenge for franchise brands,
little double entendre there.
What makes a brand great?
I know you guys are all seasoned executives on the phone,
so we won't spend too much time there.
But I think it's important to frame
why it's so important for every brand,
whether it's a franchise or a lifestyle brand,
to really think about the power
and the value of the brand.
We'll talk about the paradox of franchising
and by that, really meaning the challenge is inherent
in the model of local operators
who have control over the brand.
And the challenges that brings to bear
in terms of making sure every marketing activity,
whether it's local, regional or nation contributes
and doesn't detract from the value of the brand.
We'll talk about, then we'll get into kind of the meat
of the presentation,
and the takeaways that we wanna leave you with.
How you can take control of your brand at all levels.
How key, important it is to keep things simple
and easy to understand, easy to grasp,
and easy to participate in for your franchisees.
We'll wrap things up by kind of summarizing
what the virtuous circle of great franchise brands look like
and then of course, Q&A.
And again, please keep in mind,
fire away with questions as they come
and by the way,
if we don't get to any of your questions today,
we'll make sure to email everyone
who asks a question offline
with answers to your questions.
So let's get into it.
So the growing challenge for franchise brands.
This is a really interesting dynamic.
Over the last, I'd say decade,
about starting with the time when still franchisers
were relying heavily on the yellow pages.
The marketing pendulum has really shifted materially
from branding mechanisms,
your typical offline, out of home, broadcast print mediums
all the way over to pure lead generation.
And really, the driving force of that,
the driving impetus of that shift
has been the advent of digital.
Especially mediums like PaperClick or PTC.
Because this has really enabled for the first time,
a granular degree of accurate tracking
and marketing attributions for you and your franchisees,
so that you can measure ROI
in a way that was never before possible.
And really close the loop between visibility,
awareness, engagement and ultimately
down at the bottom of the funnel, conversion.
An acquisition.
Revenue generated from that.
It's totally disrupted the existing model.
Again, which had almost been entirely focused
on things like yellow pages on local print,
local radio and TV, out of home marketing.
Now with digital, PPC especially and other forms,
but primarily PPC, especially 10 years ago.
You could, with some limitations,
but you like never before track almost every penny out
and how many pennies came in as a result.
Of course, this is incredibly attractive
to your franchisees who are hyper focused
on ROI and lead generation.
But this has created kind of a double edged sword
because it has created some challenges
for large and for growing franchise brands.
Shana: Yeah, and I'll just weigh in on that.
Franchise marketing is not for the faint of heart.
This is not as easy as it use to be.
And as we continue to grow here,
I think as marketers we have to keep up
with that ever changing landscape
and really understand the impact
and the affect each of those channels
can have on the brand.
While at the same time focusing on our franchisees
and helping utilizing each of these different channels
and tactics, allowing them to customize
in ways that will speak to their local markets
and really their potential customers.
Because at the end of the day,
that's what we're here to do.
And we need to do it in a way that is extremely integrated
and easy to follow as Justin mentioned,
and maintain and protect the brand.
So we have both sides of marketers today
that we have to be able to look at
and that's really where the challenge comes in.
Justin: Yeah, and I think, sort of,
let's take a minute to kind of frame why
it's important to think purposefully about the value
and the growth of your brand behind local lead generation.
Some of you on the phone may know
what this background image is, some may not.
But I really wanted to use something that especially
probably a lot of ladies on the participants will recognize,
to talk about what makes a brand great.
Those are Louis Vuitton shoes.
I don't know a lot about them myself (laughs)
but they're pretty iconic with the red sole.
And I can't speak first hand
but I think that the reason that these are so iconic,
and the reason that a lot of people out there,
customers, women who are looking for shoes love these shoes
and almost aspire to own these shoes.
It's not because they're some amazing quality
but because of that red sole
and what it says to the world
when they see someone wearing a pair of Louis Vuitton's
and how it makes them feel about themselves.
So whether you're a franchise, QSR, swim school, tutor,
you name it, health club, plumber.
The same dynamics apply
and ultimately a great brand is not owned by you.
It's owned by your customers.
And it's informed by how your brand makes them feel,
just like these shoes,
about how they feel about themselves
and how others perceive them when they use your brand.
You know, a really strong, powerful brand
can create loyal evangelists for life who talk about you,
who wanna tell people about their experience with you.
And then inspires others to adopt your product or service,
again because of the perceived value it adds to their life
and how it makes them feel emotionally.
At its core, the value of your brand
lies in how it makes your customers feel.
And how their lives are impacted when they patronize you
and that emotion that you generate.
A weak brand, on the other hand,
generates, at best, indifference.
And it can be quickly forgotten among a sea of competitors.
A weak brand can reduce traffic,
can reduce lead generation,
can reduce sales and revenue.
And weak brands don't tend to stick around very long
or grow very fast.
Shana: Absolutely and none of us on this phone
wanna be a weak brand, right?
So we are all doing what we can in the space
that we're provided
and the franchisees that we have to oversee,
to help to drive that brand experience.
So just example, Nike, Lululemon, Nordstrom,
it just really evokes an image to you in a brand
that says something without having to say anything.
So at Goldfish our target is obviously families.
More specifically moms with kids.
We need to understand them.
We need to customize our approach to their lives
if we want that to get their attention at all.
And we need to know that what they want
and what motivates them,
is what needs to motivate us.
And for us, and I'm sure many of you,
we need to understand that they don't want
over crafted marketing messages from us anymore.
They wanna know that our swim lessons
will provide a life-saving skill
but also life lessons like confidence, socialization
and that kids will enjoy the learning at the same time.
So the parents feel good about it.
The kids feel good about it.
That's really what guides our philosophy.
And we in marketing need to make sure
that we're painting that picture for them,
showing them why an experience at Goldfish fits their lives
and that we are a trusted partner for them
and we align with their values.
It's all about the customer,
not about what we're trying to teach them.
Justin: Awesome.
So what does make a great brand?
How do brands really instill that,
like Shana talked a little bit
about how Goldfish thinks about it.
Overall, strong brands are consistent,
really in every aspect of their business.
Operationally, marketing, you name it.
There's consistency there.
And in order to lay that foundation
that ultimately a strong brand is built on top of,
everything that you and your franchisees
present to the public should be in total alignment.
In a perfect world.
Your messaging, the values of the brand,
the consistency of the experience you offer.
And on top of that,
your customers should be able to rely
on the quality of service or the product
every time they engage your business.
Whether that's with the franchise
that's in Los Angeles or in Fargo or in South Beach.
So a good example of brand consistency is McDonald's.
Now think about McDonald's french fries.
And I've eaten at McDonald's
in probably 20 different countries
and every single McDonald's I've ever walked into,
you know exactly,
and it's usually when I go in
in other countries cause I miss home.
I miss the taste of home.
And I know that I'm gonna get essentially,
whether I'm in Shanghai or Belgium or anywhere else,
a french fry that tastes like a McDonald's french fry.
And that's the power of an incredibly strong brand.
You can recall the feeling of that experience
that it's given you because it's so routinely consistent.
And it's the positive experience, you want that.
You want that in your life.
You wanna continually patronize that brand.
Now today, digital is such an integral part
of how we all live our lives.
Unfortunately, I can tell you,
my phone doesn't leave five feet from me ever,
even at my bedside.
And I've told myself I'm gonna put it in the other room
and it never happens.
And I don't think I'm different
than really any of your customers or you.
Digital is an integral part,
it's weaved in every aspect
and component of how we live our lives.
So the consistency of the brand experience
really has to apply across all the touch points
and digital now is just as important as physical.
Shana: Yeah, it-- Justin: You really could
write a fully, oh, go ahead, Shana.
Shana: Nope, don't.
Finish your thought.
Justin: It's just a fully seamless brand experience
across all the ways in which a customer,
a prospective customer,
might engage with you and your brand.
Shana: Yeah, and that's so true.
And do think back to how advertising
and marketing use to be.
And it wasn't easier.
I believe it was an easier way to handle things.
There's been such a shift for those of us in marketing.
Before we would evaluate all available channels
and we'd choose those that were in line
with mostly our brand and our budget.
Then we'd just look at marrying
that to well-crafted messaging
and imagery that really evokes
what we're trying to get across
and then we'd push it out to that
research-driven demographic.
So we had some research there that said
here's who you push that message out to
and that's what we would do.
Consumers would see us where we decide,
we think based on our data
and what we know as marketers,
where they should see it
and we're gonna tell them what they should see.
Our customization's really come in
in how we would tell that same message
a little bit differently in each tactic
but it was more of a formula.
But with social and digital as Justin was just mentioning,
cells phones and tablets and on-demand nature
of our business today,
we're no longer leading the conversation.
I know we've all heard this,
I've heard it at every marketing conference I've gone to,
we're following, consumers are leading.
They're telling us where they wanna see us
and what they wanna see
and if we're going to be a part of the conversation at all
then we have to do it in speaking to them not at them.
So luckily tactics like social
and digital as Justin mentioned
really are the types of tactics that will help us
be able to address all this varying customization
that we now need to do
to give consumers what they're looking for.
Justin: Yeah and with that customization
and all the advent of all the different
digital levers that you can pull
or the tools you can provide to your franchisees,
still face the age old challenge of local marketing
and ultimately lead to national challenges.
It's a challenge that's, again implicit,
to the franchise model
and it's really ensuring this consistency
across the enterprise.
You know, in today's environment with,
again as we talked about when we first kicked off,
the emphasis on measurable local lead generation.
In a lot of cases what I've seen working with
lots of different franchise brands
is that franchise locations can be treated
from a local perspective almost like their own respective
and unique local brands.
And while franchisors typically I've seen
make efforts to provide resources, to provide tools,
to vet and qualify approved vendors
that franchisees can choose whether
or not they would like to work with.
Franchisees are the ones who ultimately
are accountable for executing this program.
And in turn, when they execute those programs,
they're representing the brand to the local marketplace.
Even when you have approved vendors lists
that you vetted, that have worked with you,
that you've fully communicated with
in order to ensure to the degree that you can
there's brand consistency at all the levels.
Ultimately, those vendors are accountable to franchisees
who are cutting the checks to those vendors.
And as such, the tactical execution of campaigns
are oftentimes subject to the directives
and the the whims of franchisees
who work closely with those vendors.
So even if the vendor knows the prerogatives of the brand,
the guidelines of the brand,
what needs to be compliant
with the brand in terms of execution.
If our franchisees adamant
that they go in a different direction,
a lot of times the vendor ultimately feels
like they're accountability is to that franchisee.
And even when you offer tools to franchisees
that they leverage themselves,
that requires you to invest a lot of time
and energy into convincing franchisees
that the function of that tool
is an important one to invest their time and energy in.
You've gotta then train the franchisees
on how to use the tool
and then you've gotta continually keep tabs
on whether they're using the tool correctly.
And continually engage that system
and how to use the tool.
What happens when there's updates to the tool?
A lot of times in our experience franchisees,
really just kind of like pulling their teeth
to get them to do just another thing they have to do.
Using these tools that take them outside
of their core business of spending time
with their team and their customers.
So this can present challenges.
And here's just some of the things
that when we see a failure,
to really think about an intentional way
to address these challenges.
There's lots of sort of downstream results
that are not really advantageous
to you or your franchisee.
What we've seen happen
and these are just some use cases.
Unapproved, in some cases ineffective,
or even harmful brand campaign tactics
being put into place in the local market.
We've seen franchisees who are,
in my cases, using different approved
and even unapproved vendors,
that you have no idea exist.
Competing with one another.
Stepping on each others toes.
Marketing outside their exclusive marketing territory
in a major metro.
Which is not good for anybody,
least of all your customer
who can be very confused by your presence.
We've seen disengaged franchisees
who don't use tools
because they aren't convinced that the time required
for them to actually learn how
and then to use the tool
benefit them more than the time they could be
spending with customers and staff.
We've seen franchisees who are just not happy
with the vendors and the tools that you've provided
and who are going out
and doing their own thing.
Going rogue, so to speak.
Launching things like their own unique
and often case, unapproved, website.
Not using tools that then lead to things like broken
or wildly inconsistent sites.
At worst, we've seen tools
actually make it easier for franchisees to go rogue.
For example, you might offer a social posting tool
that may engage certain franchisees
to post even more unapproved, off brand content.
Last dynamic, or couple final dynamics that we've seen
is franchisees might be protective about campaign data
and just not open to sharing results.
That they kind of feel personal ownership.
They don't want others to have access to their
just, kind of, secret sauce.
And then last but not least,
if there's challenges with multiple vendors,
some of who are maybe better aligned
with the brand than others.
And economies of scale
and buying power that vendor consolidation brings to bear.
Your franchisees in many cases
get off the rack rates
and they're not really benefiting
from the brand power of all these units
combined together to get really discounts.
So because of this distributive nature
of the marketing approach,
at worst ultimately the unity
of the brand message can get diluted.
It can detract from the power of the brand
and again in the worst cases,
the brand can be corrupted.
Because at worst, there's kind of an unorganized,
amateurish representation of the brand,
different experiences, websites, logos, content.
All over the web.
So it can just, it can really detract
from having that consistent, unified brand message
at every touchpoint, every level.
Shana: Absolutely and I am right there with you.
And it's these things that's making me break out in hives
just reading all of the different
and hearing all the different things
you had to say there
because those are the things
that we definitely work every single day
to try to overcome.
But customization for customer experience
and marketing is still pivotal,
knowing all of those things.
But in franchising, we do have to then weigh
that against the fact that the brand
is the umbrella under which the experience
was really created.
But the brand and the mission and the values
and the product and the systems
is what the franchisees really bought into.
So it's getting them to understand
both sides of that just as we do.
But at the same time,
we have to weigh the customization
against that protection of that brand.
So here we try to do that through
some very clear guidelines
which I think is the starting point, right.
We have specific social media channels
and specific brand standards and uses there.
We provide content and image through libraries.
We provide training, we have playbooks that go through
and really itemize each campaign
through each of those different tactics
and guidelines there.
We provide training, we provide ongoing support.
We have an awful lot of oversight
because we are little bit more of a high touch brand.
So we hae a lot of oversight.
I have a wonderful team here.
We do the same thing for our print and production.
We do use one approved partner
to make sure all of our campaigns
and their copy imagery offers
are the only ones that are utilized.
So that does help in what Justin was talking about.
It helps us maintain the continuity
and the brand integrity.
We know our materials will look the same.
The local placement is correct.
The colors are the same from piece to piece,
market to market.
We definitely add customizations for locations
within this print tool
but we allow for the different geographies
and the different demographics.
But it is all really locked down
to what has been approved.
One thing that my team will always say,
so we have franchisees of course that call in
and we support on an ongoing basis.
They're on the front lines
so they know what's going on in each
and every one of their individual markets
and we have to take that into consideration.
So if there is a good business reason,
and that's what I always say,
if there's a good business reason to make a change
meaning they will attract more members
into their location if we make a change,
and it fits under our brand standard, we'll do it.
And we'll figure it out
because the last thing we wanna do
is be so restrictive on our guidelines
that it's going to hurt the business.
So we do have to weigh the spokes.
On the digital side,
we do have one digital partner,
you might guess who that is,
that works with us to maintain our branding,
while working with our franchisees
to provide location-specific customization,
support, optimization and recommendations.
And that's very big.
I'd mentioned that we're a high touch.
Scorpion does a really great job at understanding
and really digging in to understand our brand
and what we're trying to paint the picture of
and get across in the marketplace.
But also understanding the differences
in the different locations.
And working with them to, with our guidance,
to make sure that the ads that they're running
and the displays that they're putting up there
do speak to the market differences that we have.
So as head of marketing for our company,
I sleep a lot better at night knowing
that our franchisees have really good partners
and programs to run their businesses
and that our brand is being protected at the same time.
At the same time,
I also know that franchisees would rather
hear about us from their friends
and those people they trust than to read ads.
Or customers, I'm sorry not franchisees.
And that's really profoundly changed the way
that marketing is done today and in general
and certainly for experiential brands like ours.
Justin: Yeah and Shana, that's a great point.
Controlling the brand, and we'll talk about here,
so now we're getting into kind of the good stuff
and that's some actual tips
and suggestions on how you can wrap your arms
around this effort.
But it doesn't mean stifling innovation.
You've some really smart, entrepreneurial franchisees
in your system and they have ideas.
And are more than willing to try things
that may or may not benefit the brand
but they're gonna try things.
So it's not about stifling innovation,
it's not about putting a choke hold on innovation,
it's about making sure there are controls
and there's sort of approved avenues
and venues by which your franchisees
can voice their ideas.
Give them a mouthpiece and let them be creative
but ensure that when there is innovation
and when they are testing things
that you have a part of that.
That there's collaborative process
so that you can tap your finger
onto the things that work and don't work
and quickly identify what works or what doesn't.
And scale the successes
and share them with the rest of the system.
But look, taking control over the brand,
of course your control over what your franchisees do
in any facet of their business is limited.
It's limited by law
and lead generation really should be,
it is and it should be their top marketing priority.
And of course lead generation
for each franchise unit impacts their revenue
which impacts the attractiveness of your item 19
and impacts your royalties.
So it's important for everybody.
But really what can you do?
As a franchise owner, ensure that all local marketing
and the funding of those efforts
that's typically being footed by the franchisees
incrementally add up to not only grow the power of the brand
but it also in turn can make their lead generation efforts
perform that much more effectively.
A powerful brand that's well known
and respected in each local marketplace
should always out-compete a lesser-known local Independent.
It should always make lead generation efforts
work that much harder on behalf of the franchisee.
At a minimum,
you need to ensure that all local marketing data is,
or as much as you can,
and digital really enables a lot of this,
is aggregated and consolidated.
When you pull in all that data into one place
there's a lot of power in that.
You can gain transparency into what's happening
at the local level
and insights into what's working and what's not.
And you can have a line of sight
into violations of brand standard
or franchisees who are stepping on other counterparts' toes
and overlapping into other territories.
With that line of sight
and with those insights,
you can confidently make recommendations to the system
based upon demonstrable data
to back up those recommendations
about how to replicate that success
and avoid any failures
that might be occurring at the local level.
With that insight,
you can cap those who are having the most success
to become mouthpieces and evangelists
of the things they're doing.
Give your successful and your most progressive
and innovative franchisees a voice
via webinars, testimonials.
They're the ones who have the most influence
over the system.
When you mandate something
or require something from the franchisor level
that has a lot less organic influence
than when a franchisee who has seen success
and seen the growth of their business
by implementing a certain marketing program or tactic
when they tell the system about it.
And say, "Hey, if you wanna have success like me,
you want this to happen to your business,
try what I'm trying."
That's a much more powerful way to influence the system.
And finally, you can identify again, those most aggressive
and progressive marketers in your system.
Those are the ones that are
really going to be raising their hands
to be, kind of, the guinea pigs.
To try new things.
And to let you be a part of that process.
Ultimately, you might even wanna co-op some funds
to test new marketing programs.
So if they're, you know, maybe you go 50/50
or you subsidize some of their budgets
when they're testing new programs
because then they're gonna be really open
about sharing results with you
and telling the rest of the system about the results.
Especially if it worked.
So having that single source of truth
can be a really powerful thing.
Shana: Yeah, definitely,
and I know I've said this before but this integration part,
and I'll talk a little bit about digital here
but integration really is so important to us
and with all of that's out there for consumers to see
and hear and learn about us,
we need to make sure that we're telling a story
that adds up in the end
but it's really hard to tell which tactics
and mediums are really pulling their weight
because it's a customer journey, right.
So we hear, I'm sure, I'm sure you do as I do,
that word of mouth is the number one driver of membership.
And that's absolutely true
and that's what we want for our friendship.
That's what we want for our brand.
But we need to be able to have all these other touchpoints
in the customer journey to get it there.
So we have to pay attention to all of that.
And really digital allows us to see
some realtime data that we can't see
in some of those other areas.
So system-wise, we can tell which messages
seem to resonate and when.
That's very valuable information for a marketer.
Allows us to really take concrete findings
and weave them into our overall marketing plan.
And that's what's really great about this dashboard in here
and some of the things that we're talking about
is getting that realtime information.
And from a franchise standpoint,
the ability to dig into each location
and identify what's working and what's not by location
also allows us to better help,
to help guide the conversations with our franchisees.
But when they're asking specific questions,
as Justin was talking about,
we can go back and look at another franchise location
that is similar in nature and be able to compare
and contrast what's working and not working.
And not only does that help us
make better decisions in digital with our partner
it also helps to take those same findings
and we can apply those across the system in other areas.
So it's really great for the customer journey
and the marketing plan in general.
Justin: Awesome.
So the ROI don't lie.
So the data, there's kind of two sides of the same coin.
So you have access insight into that consolidated data
but the problem or I guess the trick with data
is that you can very easily become
subject to paralysis of analysis.
And data is only as good as the insights
you can pull from that data.
It's almost like,
I might be dating myself a little bit here
but "The Matrix".
You guys remember that movie?
One of my favorite of all time.
When they see the screen of all the green zeroes
and ones running down
and then it morphs into a city.
So you have to be able to kind of dive into that data
and be able to easily interpret the story
that that data tells.
You have to have tracking
and reporting capabilities
that clearly tell an ROI story.
It's funny a lot of franchisees,
I'm sure, many of you guys will nod your head,
it's why I mention this.
But because of their experience
with some vendors in the past,
especially digital vendors,
a lot of franchisees have been kind of trained
to focus on what I call vanity metrics.
The things like clicks,
or click through rate or page rank.
Those things don't really
at the end of the day,
I mean they all lead into performance
but for a franchisee that should not be their focus.
Their focus should be even further downstream
on material revenue generation ROI.
So you're reporting and the way that you distill that data
should be crystal clear in plain English.
So franchisees shouldn't have to.
Now some might be more interested than others
in diving in deep.
And some are more marketing inclined than others
but franchisees shouldn't be required
to learn this language of the internet.
They shouldn't have to be literate in internet jargon.
In addition, that type of reporting,
that really clear reporting make success
and failure really easy to understand for everybody.
And if campaigns are clearly successful,
franchisees gain a ton of confidence
and trust in the marketing programs that you recommend.
And they're more than happy if those are kind of hands-free
to get that time back to focus on their core business.
In our experience,
noisy franchisees are typically not thrilled
with whatever they're making noise about.
Meanwhile, quiet franchisees
are typically happy franchisees.
So if it relates to marketing programs
when you don't hear a lot of noise in the system
unless it's things that are positive
that's a great indication
that your programs are working well.
Shana: Yeah as we mentioned marketing,
franchise marketing is not for the faint of heart.
We're not always the good guys in the whole thing
so to have something that allows us
to be able to give them realtime data,
that is such a powerful piece
and allow us to be able to speak to them,
to show them those end results.
So just as marketing tactics
and vendor partners are not all created equal,
neither are the franchisees that we serve.
Most don't get into business
so that they are marketing professionals.
They wanna know how much money they're spending.
They wanna know that it's based on some sound strategy.
And then that will help them on their key decisions
and then when it really comes down to it,
they wanna know how their money is working for them.
So in our case,
how many leads did they receive?
And how many of them converted to customers?
And at the end of the day,
that's what they care most about.
Course some do wanna dig in a little bit deeper
as Justin mentioned, and are interested in additional data.
Are actively engaged in reviewing the dashboard,
overseeing the journey all the way through.
We wanna accommodate both of those types of franchisees
and everyone in between
so that we're building trust as a marketing team
and as a brand.
And also so that we're hearing what's being said
and what isn't.
As Justin mentioned,
franchisees speak to each other
and they will speak about best practices
and they will also speak about things
they're not happy about.
So we wanna be transparent,
be able to show them what we're doing and why.
They're really the frontline.
And the partnership to best practices
is really a combination
of everything we just talked about.
So it's the vendor partner,
it's the marketing team
and it's the franchisees.
If we want them to adopt our programs
and help really spread the awareness for our brand,
that partnership between all of us
is really what's crucial.
Justin: Absolutely.
And here's the great news,
the wins will lead to more wins.
It really has a snowball effect.
But here's one of the challenges
that I know a lot of you face,
even as it relates to trying to enable this type of dynamic,
the snowball effect,
is that a lot of the approved vendors that you offer
and you communicate out,
you market to your franchisees,
are focused on local-paid media.
Which makes sense but the challenge there
is that paid-media is incredibly easy to flip on and off.
Just by its very nature it's pay to play.
And switching costs are incredibly low.
A franchisee can turn off a campaign,
shut off their budget
and the next day be working with another PPC provider.
And add on that that,
unless again you have a vendor
that's kind of feeding all that local data,
or if you have a system
or platform feeding that local data
into a single consolidated platform,
those campaigns are living in their own wild silos.
So if you are working with multiple
approved paid-media vendors
just make a concerted effort to compile data
and tell stories so that franchisees
are naturally gravitating toward those vendors
are consistently generating the most success
and of course, in a brand approved manner.
Again, circulating the results of that performance
and having franchisees talk amongst themselves,
tell each other about this story,
that should have a snowball effect
and lead to more and more adoption
at a faster and faster rate.
Shana: Definitely, for us at Goldfish
really it's the ability to keep a line of sight
into all our partnerships that we have going.
And all of our programs.
So we've found that at our stage of growth,
as I mentioned I started five years ago
when I believe there were nine
and now we're in the mid-70s,
we're at a different stage of growth now.
So we've found that at our stage of development
that a single partner with a strong strategic inclination,
really good data, a great dashboard,
and support that matches the support
that our franchisees need,
allows us to not only see
what is working across the system
but also to identify areas of improvement.
So this way we can identify not only what's working
but also the common issues.
So as we have been talking about franchisees,
by nature of the business model,
form relationships with one another
and really rely on each other
every bit as much if not more than they do
our teams and our partners.
So if we don't identify those gaps in service
or gaps in our programs or products,
they will and they will talk.
It's important to me, on our team,
that we look for those areas of improvement,
have good partners that will help identify
those possibilities for us,
so that we are able to do something about it
before they really notice a problem
with our products or services.
Justin: Awesome.
So here's a guiding rule to all of this.
It's a guiding rule in life, as a matter of fact.
Simplicity is key.
That's one of the hardest things to do in any endeavor,
is to make the complex simple.
But it's key.
And we use the image of an Amazon Echo here for Alexa
because it is so simple.
And if you've seen just the incredible
skyrocket adoption of Amazon or Google Home,
it's because of that simplicity.
Smart homes still scare the majority of us consumers
because there's hubs and how you make it all talk together
and how you integrate it all
but this one single device
that you plug in and then you talk to
is the most simple piece of sophisticated technology
today that I can think of.
And there's really, the same sort of underpinning
philosophically apply to your marketing programs.
Ideally, you wanna tackle more,
whether it's through vendors
or if you have in-house capabilities
and single point solutions,
that silo off all of these different marketing functions
into their own sort of walled garden.
Where they're not working together.
Where you're having to look
in all these different directions
to pull in a single story that you can tell.
And ideally you can deliver again,
whether it's via in-house or a vendor
or a partner that's helping you manage service.
It doesn't require your franchisees
to be uncomfortable.
To have to do more,
you have to make it easier for them to participate
in your programs than not.
Cause this will help ensure that multiple elements
of really what should be a holistic marketing effort
all work in harmony and add incremental value.
I mean if you just look at digital as an example,
it use to be a lot simpler a decade ago.
It was your website.
And now there's so many different fires
you have to have your irons in.
Your presence online is social media
and reviews and your website
and paid media and advertising
and the list goes on.
So you need to ensure that this all works in harmony
and if you pull one lever,
you understand how that impacts
all those other components
so that there's incremental value being added.
You also wanna have a full view
of all of those different elements
so you can tell, again, that single, complete
and simple story about performance.
Now you and your partners should understand
how they all play into that ultimate end-goal
of producing an outcome
that's desirable, measurable, and an easy story to tell.
That's a singular outcome
but your franchisees, again,
shouldn't be required to have to become experts
in all of these little functional areas
in order to get a full view of that picture, that story.
And then when you do have this type
of sort of holistic managed environment you can deliver
and execute consistently on brand
and ensure that both best practices for lead gen
and brand building are adhered to at all times.
Shana: That's very true.
And probably the one thing I will say
over the course of my career
I've had the most trouble with. (laughs)
When I started with Goldfish about five years ago,
just a quick little story.
At most, marketing professionals want to do,
we want to give the best to our company,
we want to give the best to our franchisees.
So to me the best was
can I give them everything?
Can I show them everything?
Can I teach them everything?
How fast can I go?
How much can I give them?
There's so much out there now.
So I had a really great opportunity
to build on an amazing curriculum
and a solid operation.
So I just really wanted to make that foundation of marketing
as successful as possible.
And I have no doubt
that I overcomplicated it
and made it too much for our franchisees.
And at the end of the day
I rolled out lots of new programs and services
with lots of bells and whistles
but likely too many.
And as a small department
with just a couple of vendor partners
it was too difficult to gain adoption
and train and support.
So I'm happy to say that I have learned my lesson
and over the last several years
my team has grown and we've evolved
and upgraded and integrated.
And we've really made sure that adoption,
training and support were at the forefront
of our minds and the front,
and definitely making sure
that we are keeping that in mind
as we're rolling out any new programs.
All of the improvements,
which sometimes actually were more about
simplifying than anything else,
allows us to add more transparency
and allows us to show the franchisees
instead of telling the franchisees how things work
and that's really made a big difference
in our marketing plan.
Justin: So quick reminder.
We're getting to the last couple slides
so Shana and I are almost done
with the presentation portion.
So any questions that you have,
please fire away.
I see a couple here that we'll address here.
We'll have probably about 10 minutes
to go through some Q&A at the end here.
But just a couple wrap up slides.
Ultimately protecting the brand and driving revenue,
local market by local market should be a singular effort.
And those two, what could be distinct
and really siloed efforts
ultimately really need to work in harmony.
And whether you primarily take this on
via in-house team
or technology that you build in-house
or whether you work with vendors, tools,
or full service agencies.
The right solutions really ensure that all marketing
produces clear and evident wins for you
and your franchisees.
It's kind of a virtuous cycle
because lead gen helps build the brand
and building the brand, in turn,
helps to drive better lead gen.
That really is kind of the upwards cycle
of these two efforts that seem distinct
and exclusive really working together
hand in hand.
Shana: Yeah, that goes very full circle.
Both are important.
They're interrelated.
I don't think anyone would disagree
but in protecting the brand
and generating system-wide awareness in franchising,
we are charged with scaling solutions and offerings.
And we may choose single point solutions,
partners and channels.
We have to sometimes limit
those customizations, however.
So again, we're back to the protecting the brand
and giving franchisees what they need.
It's not always a decision
a single franchisee may wanna see
for their location.
So if you're looking to be the popular kid in school,
again, franchise marketing is probably not for you.
But you can really navigate the waters between the two
and show how the programs
and partners together help drive awareness
and strength from the brand,
which then helps them stand out above their competition
and helps drive membership
and success in their local businesses,
then you really have something.
So being able to combine these two very important pieces
of the circle is absolutely important.
Justin: Oh, just by the way,
if anyone here in addition to questions,
if anyone has implemented things in your business
to talk to your franchisees about the value of branding
cause I know that, and Shana and I talked a lot about this,
there's pushback in many cases where franchisees
question your investments in brand marketing.
And if you put dollars into maybe a national ad campaign
or some kind of branding exercise,
they'll consistently ask,
"Well, what's this doing for me?
How does this benefit me?"
And you really have to continually
sell the value of branding
and how that ultimately benefits everyone.
So if anyone on the phone,
or excuse me, on this webinar
has implemented ideas about any of this
in addition to questions,
feel free to fire away with some things
that you've implemented into your own business
that has worked and we'll share that with the group
in the time we have left.
So some closing thoughts and some key takeaways
and then we'll get into the Q&A.
I see another couple questions here coming in.
Brand uniformity is difficult to maintain.
It's vital to both lead generation
and to increasing the value of your brand
which again increases lead gen,
so on, so forth.
To establish control,
look to aggregate that bottom-of-the-funnel
performance data across all those hyper local markets
where that activity is occurring
so you can gain insight.
You can make better decisions
and you can tell a clear, simple, performance story
to your stakeholders.
And ultimately breaking down the silos
that exist between marketing functions
and connecting-the-dots to tell that clear
and simple story, inspires a lot of confidence
and a lot of trust among the system.
Shana: Absolutely and I think that not only
do franchisees talk to one another
to gain best practices and insights.
I know we all go to conferences
and we all have speaking engagements
and we all think through this and work with our team.
But definitely I would love to hear
what other franchisees have to say.
You know, I'm on a group of consumer marketers
that talk about these same kind of things
over and over again
because the challenge really is between the branding
and how to tell that story
so that franchisees really see the value.
Justin: Awesome, so again.
Ideas and things you've implemented
into your own business that have been successful,
please fire away.
But let's get into questions.
First question is from Shawn Stevens.
And Shawn mentions that for ROI,
we are getting pushback from the franchisor.
That it needs to be more than just
regarding marketing spend
but it should also include things like
cost of goods and services and labor.
Any thoughts?
Yeah, that's really an excellent point.
Sharing that kind of information with,
I can speak from the chair of a marketing supplier.
That's amazing and the holy grail for a marketing partner.
That is really looking to help tell that clear ROI story.
We wanna know things like cost of goods and services, labor.
We wanna know sales.
We wanna know revenue.
We wanna know lifetime customer value.
We wanna know the value of certain types
of product lines or services,
relative to others and what your priorities are.
We really want to know those things.
Because when you share that information with a partner
we have a much better idea
of truly what performance looks like
so we can extract and do a better job
of telling that story
when we know all the different elements
that combine to really tell a performance story.
That takes into a account all your expenses,
your costs and what a customer truly is worth
at the end of the day,
bottom line to your business.
So as long as you and your system
are willing to share that information with the partners
who are charged with driving marketing performance,
actually that's one good way to vet
the true sort of nature of a partnership
versus vendor relationship
is test their appetite for that information.
And the ones who are really invested
in your success should be welcome
and hungry for that kind of information.
Shana, any thoughts on that?
Shana: Yeah, just if you do have a good partner,
and definitely there's a difference between a vendor
and a partner, right.
So if you do have a good partner,
they're asking those questions
and whether you've given them everything
that you should or not,
they're gonna dive in a little bit deeper
and ask those things.
And if you don't have any answers,
all of the answers,
they'll help you get there.
So it's that actionable data
that really shows the full picture
that a good partner will help you get to.
Justin: So next question I've got from Michael
for services that rely on form submissions
and phone calls to acquire new customers,
it's much easier to measure ROI on digital marketing.
For restaurant brands like mine,
how can I tie ROI back to digital marketing
when my customers aren't calling in or sending forms?
That's a really good question.
And I know, in particular, for restaurant brands
moving dollars that franchisees have been spending
kind of institutionally for years
on your traditional analog, print, broadcast,
out of home, coupon offers,
direct mail to digital has not really happened yet
because there really hasn't been
any kind of major disruption
to convince them to move those dollars.
That game is starting to change in a big way.
The online ordering prevents a huge opportunity
for ROI capture because your web platform, your website,
should really now be leveraged as a marketing tool
to integrate within your online ordering platform.
Ultimately, that will allow you,
if those two systems hold hands,
you'll be able to then get back information
from your point of sale,
your online ordering platform.
The traffic and the referring sources of that traffic
in the campaigns that actually drove not just clicks
but clicks that converted into an order.
And you can run campaigns designed to drive orders online
and really tell your franchisees,
for the first time ever in this industry,
an ROI story, a revenue story, an acquisition story.
In addition to what you can do with that data,
to kind of segment customers for personalized campaigns
based upon frequency and recency
and it's really an exciting time for this industry
and also, not to spend too much time on this single topic
but one exciting, Google.
Google knows that there's been a lot of billions of dollars
that they're not getting from the restaurant industry
because again that money is not shifted online.
So Google, and other internet companies,
are implementing new technologies
to help solve this problem and close this loop.
There's a Bluetooth beacon platform now
where it's a physical device you can stick up on that wall
and when you someone sees an ad or sees, for example,
a Facebook promoted post,
you can attribute that to them walking into your store.
And then if they spend five, 10 minutes in the store
you can actually attribute that to a purchase.
So this, the game is changing the QSR space.
It's something I'm particularly passionate about.
Next question from Mary,
I'm gonna give this one to Shana.
You are talking conceptional, fine.
But do you have an example of how you can improve results?
Shana: Improve results overall in digital,
do we think we're talking about?
Or just results with franchisees
and their relationships?
I'm not sure exactly which part on,
I can talk about the franchisee relationships certainly.
We have really implemented a number of programs
that are doing exactly what Scorpion does for us.
They give us actionable data
that we can share with our franchisees.
To show them that the marketing tactics
and the different programs and services
that we're providing for them
are driving revenue directly into their locations.
So from an actual standpoint,
that's how we're proving it to them.
From all the other,
Justin's absolutely right.
From some of the other things that we do,
it is harder to measure it.
And it is part of the customer journey
and we do have to explain all of that
and it is a little bit conceptual.
But at the end of the day,
if their numbers are up
that's really what they care about.
Justin: Yeah, and Mary feel free to ask another
sort of detailed question about that
and if we have time we'll address it.
Next question comes from Glenn.
Glenn asks does PPC work in all cases?
I used PPC for seven months
and I did not have any luck with it.
I spent a thousand dollars a month.
Glenn, I'm gonna try to give you a short answer
to a very long question.
It really depends,
just broadly speaking from across the board
with our client base.
I mean, again, we're talking about 10 thousand clients
in just about every business category you can imagine.
We've seen a decline in the efficacy of PPC
over the last 18 months.
Because of the fact that, as with everything else,
local business spend is slower to catch up to
where consumers are spending their time.
So years ago sort of the tipping point was reached
in terms of consumers using Google as their primary
resource for identifying local businesses to patronize
and they're doing their research.
And so that inventory which,
cause every time someone does a search that's relevant
for your business that you wanna compete for,
that's a piece of inventory that you can buy.
The relative volume of inventory increase
is not commensurate with the influx of dollars being spent
by local businesses competing for that inventory.
So it is an auction-based system.
It's totally driven by supply and demand.
And because of that factor,
it's just become more expensive and less efficient.
A lot of marketing agencies
who don't really have technology to help take advantage
of other marketing channels online
just recommend dumping more money into PPC.
So it can be effective,
not all PPC is created equally.
Every market has different dynamics
which require different budgets.
But really we're seeing a lot of performance today
being squeezed out of channels that are no so competitive
like Facebook and Instagram.
Geo-fencing, retargeting, where there's much more blue skies
and less competition for a very limited supply of inventory.
Tom, if you wanna ask,
I can address your question offline, more details.
Cause it's a pretty nuanced and long answer to that.
So I think we have time for one more quick question here.
Debo asks what type of strategy
do you recommend for franchises
where national campaigns surrounding promotional content
are not required for every location,
therefore leaving 50% of the brand non-participatory
in most national promotions?
We've been focused from a franchisor's perspective
on brand awareness,
we've got thousands of assets,
organic promotion, paid promotion, email marketing, so on.
But uniformity amongst national campaigns is difficult
because nothing is mandatory within the current system.
What do you recommend as a strategy
to promote the brand nationally
outside of brand awareness?
Not quite sure I fully understand
but I will just say in this case, Debo,
it's more important than ever.
Most brands are not dense enough
to really have a truly national program
because you don't wanna spend money
on advertising impressions in markets
that you have no presence.
That's just kind of a wasted spend.
So by ensuring consistency and uniformity
amongst local marketing efforts
that are being funded by your franchisees,
in aggregate that will add up to a really,
what amounts to a brand program in essence.
And I'm not sure if that answers your question.
Shana, any thoughts on that?
Shana: Yeah, we definitely have that same situation
as do most franchises.
Not everyone has the same exact products
and pricing and promotions.
So yeah, the local and regional programs
are the way to go on that
and really from the outside in,
it appears like a national program anyway.
For the people that are searching
what they're looking for in your individual area.
So as long as the company is capable
and is happy to customize by those local
and regional programs then you're kind of getting
the best of both worlds there.
Justin: Awesome and we've got a couple more questions.
I promise you we'll answer them offline individually.
But that about wraps it up.
We're just hitting our time.
So just, again, wanna thank the IFA.
Wanna thank Shana for your awesome insights
and wanna thank everybody on the phone.
Appreciate your time and your attention
and again you'll be receiving a recorded copy
of this webinar.
So we'll see you at the next one and thanks again.
Have a great day and a great rest of your week, everybody.
Take care.
Shana: Thank you. Bye.
Greg: Thank you, Justin, and thank you, Shana.
I really appreciate that.
You taking time to give us this presentation.
It was really in depth and insightful
and for that we, and on behalf of the Supplier Forum board
we thank you for taking your time to put this together.
Before we bring up the presenter's contact information,
I wanted to remind you to save the date
for next month's Wednesday Wise webinar.
Our topic will be innovative trends
and franchise lead generation.
So we hope you can find some time
to attend that webinar
and I'm sure we'll have some other suppliers
that will be presenting that as well.
We'll move onto the contact information.
It looks like there was a couple questions
that we weren't able to get to.
So feel free to jot down Justin
and Shana's contact information
and they will be sure to answer any questions
that you have offline.
Thank you again for attending
and we look forward to seeing you against next month.
Have a great day.