As a Program Manager at Balihoo, I have been exposed to diverse franchises, with very similar local advertising challenges. In the past two months, I have grown to know and love a national mattress brand, a kitchen and bath brand, a kidney dialysis brand, and a retail sandwich shop brand, all of which have selected Balihoo as their local marketing software provider. What do all of these brands have in common? More than you think.
They are all nationally recognized as leaders in their field. They have realized the need to provide a higher level of sophistication and assistance in local advertising to their franchisees. They recognized the fact that planning and launching an advertising campaign a the local level can be a painful, expensive and lengthy undertaking for a local store/center/showroom owner.
Enter Balihoo. We may not be the only franchise marketing software out there, but for these brands, we were the company of choice.
Giving franchisees the resources that they need to be successful in local advertising, co-op advertising, local media buying and media planning is a huge value-add provided by a national brand. We hope to see more of it!
Many people don’t really know the origin of the national holiday that we are celebrating today. Truth be told, I didn’t either. The short answer is today we celebrate the birthday of George Washington, the father of our country, who was born on February 22, 1732. Why is it called Presidents Day and not Washington’s Day? Well, in 1968, there was an attempt to change the day to President’s Day, to celebrate both Abraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809) and Washington ’s birthday on the same day. The attempt failed, but the name stuck – hence we are celebrating Presidents Day.
Most retailers look to Presidents Day as the first retail push following the dismal holiday shopping season. Many of the big chains rely on national advertising programs to reach their local audiences on big holiday sale weekends such as this. Local advertising may come in the form of newspaper, radio, direct mail and local internet marketing. We too believe in the value of these mediums to advertise screaming deals on holiday weekends. As much as I hate the idea of adding another insert into the pile of flyers that fall out of the newspaper on holiday weekends such as this, they inevitably work. Even better, franchisors are slowly adopting marketing software tools to help them develop local advertising strategies, tailored to their local markets. So, not only will their messages reach their local consumers, they may actually be relevant to them!
So, if you aren't working today, pick up a newspaper, turn on your favorite radio station and hit a few sales. The economy could use a little boost.
It's that time again......twice a year, the Balihoo team makes a trip national conventions for two of our large clients in the carpet industry, Carpet One and Flooring America. This is the gathering place for 
local franchise carpet store owners to come together for all things hardwood, laminate, carpet and installation. But convention isn't just about carpet, this is the place to make connections, meet peers, learn about new products and programs meet with vendors and most importantly (in our eyes), learn more about how to improve their local advertising to drive new leads to through their doors.
As I booked my flight, my room and began to prepare for thetrip to DC, I was reminded of how the meeting and business travel industry has come under attack in the past few years. I ran across this article, www.Meetingsmeanbusiness.com, which brings up some really interesting facts about the value of face-to-face meetings.
- For every dollar invested in business travel, companies realize $12.50 in incremental revenue.
- More than half of business travelers stated that 5-20% of their company's new customers were the result of trade show participation.
- According to business traveleres across all industries, 25% of existing customers and 28% of revenue could be lost to competitors could be lost if customers were not met in-person.
Convention has proven time and time again to be the best place to educate store owners on the value of marketing, developing a media planning strategy and the benefit of using the franchise marketing software made available to them by their franchisor.
We find it to be worth the time and investment to travel and build relationships with face-to-face meetings. Hopefully all of our carpet store franchisees will feel the same. See you at convention!
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