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Jan, 06 2016

What franchisors need to know about marketing tactics

Franchisors must know that franchise businesses fail because their brand doesn't get attention.

If you want to be successful and grow your business manifold, for your brand, you must get attention. There are plethora of great marketing ideas that can bring attention to your brand whether you or your franchisee is operating it. Also, money follows attention. We believe that marketing is not only the backbone of any business but is a complete tool kit for sure shot success. Let us see how the franchisors are creating opportunities by involving multi-ferrous marketing techniques.

  1. Enhancing brand visibility in the community
  2. Increasing customer loyalty
  3. Building brand awareness
  4. Boosting store traffic and sales
  5. Developing involvement & recognition within the local community

Sales and marketing strategies adopted by leading players

For its 50th anniversary on 27th August, world's largest sandwich chain, Subway gave double delight to its customers via the BOGO (Buy One Get One Free offer). As per the franchisees, there was an increase in the new customer footfall too. Subway celebrated the activity as nationwide customer appreciation day. Earlier this year in April, Subway did the same activity across its 43 outlets in Karnataka offering Buy one get one free scheme. The activity turned out to be a great hit.

Hero Cycles, world's largest bicycle manufacturer by volume, has signed Bollywood icon and famed movies star and youth Icon, Arjun Kapoor as the Hero Cycles' Brand Ambassador for its Sprint range of cycles.

To connect with the parents and with partners in Singapore, Green Gold Animation Pvt Ltd. organised garbha night along with their cartoon characters Chhota Bheem, Chhutki, Mighty Raju and others on the occasion of Navratri.

FirstCry runs a unique programme wherein the brand reaches over 70,000 unique parents each month by giving out a FirstCry Box. Under this programme, free gift boxes are given to each new parent across 7000 hospitals in the country as a token of congratulating them on the birth of their child. The box contains the basic necessities like diaper, lotion, oil, etc. and has already delivered three lakh boxes across India while plans to reach two million parents by end of 2015 with this programme.

HE marketing strategies are the driving force behind any business that can make one achieve success. Marketing and sales of any commodity or service involves identifying and implementing marketing tools in communities by engaging positively with individuals and organisations. Big time franchise giants are making smart strategic moves to sustain in the market

Tap the target audience

Any franchise brand sells the most when its customers relate to it more. Understanding the need, kids retail company FirstCry.com has roped in Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador. The campaign featuring Big B got him on board after its internal study found FirstCry is low on awareness despite the fact that repeat purchase on the website is 50 %, which is higher than its closest competitor. Thus, it thought of creating maximum impact with the campaign with Bachchan, a doting grandfather, as its brand ambassador.

In addition, FirstCry works on a hybrid business model and incessantly aims at creating an ecosystem by providing a well-integrated offline as well as online option for parents to avail whatever product or brand they needed for their kids. Supam Maheshwari, CEO and Founder, FirstCry.com asserts: “To make shopping a delightful experience, we installed kiosks at our stores. The kiosk innovation has made it exceptionally easy for customers to browse through 90,000 products listed on FirstCry.com.”

Local marketing is indispensable

Education is one sector that is more focused on imparting knowledge rather than earning. Though franchise business model is helping education brands to grow extensively but local area marketing is equally important aspects.

K V S Seshasai, CEO, Zee Learn Ltd opines: “Local area marketing is key for an education franchise, as no parent is going to send his/her child over large distances to get education. Hence doing marketing in and around the centre/ school is the best way to get enrollments. We encourage our business partners to take part in local marketing activities and completely support them in doing the same. We also encourage conducting local community connect programmes in sync with the business partner like organising the Navratri Utsav in Gujarat, etc that helps build a greater connect with parents and with partners.”

Punjab & Chennai have different tastes, market cautiously

Instead of keeping the visual display same across all the franchise stores, brands are customising the visual display across different franchise locations. This has led to an increase in footfall and sales, creating a win- win situation for both the franchisee and the franchisor.

Recently, Orra, a jewellery retail chain opened its third franchise store in Bangalore with its unique Umrao collection. According to Vijay Jain, CEO & Director, ORRA, “The Bangalorean customers are one of the most cosmopolitan in their tastes and it is a pleasure to delight them with our exquisite range of jewellery that is not just contemporary but also innovative. The uniqueness of the jewellery, large displays, prominent façade and subtle lighting that highlights the jewellery to give the store an international feel sets this store apart from others.”

Adding on glamour quotient

Celebrities have always lured both the investors and the customers. That is why; several brands across sectors are involving big shots in their ventures as promoters and brand ambassadors.

In the month of August, this year, Chennai-based beauty salon chain, Naturals joined hands with Times of India in organising "Mothers of India" awards. The brands tried to involve celebrities and eminent personalities including Sachin Tendulkar, A R Rehman, Sania Mirza, Chetan Bhagat, Shankar Mahadevan, Abhinav Bindra and many others. Naturals has also achieved a presence of 500 salons across India with large number of women entrepreneurs. “The cause of women has always been close to our heart as is evident by the strength of our women franchise family who now manage 400 of our stores. The success of Naturals is ample proof of what women can achieve and is an effective portrayal of what the future holds for women power,” says K Veena, the Founder of Naturals Salon and Spa.


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