Local Store Marketing

Ready to Learn

Saturday, March 13, 2010 by Kelly Mason

It's amazing when a lesson heard becomes a lesson learned. It's like when you go speeding past the speed limit sign only to find yourself pulled over a few miles down the road, practically crying to the terminator-like highway patrolman who obviously doesn't seem deterred by your pity-gathering efforts. You know then that you're going to get a ticket. You know that the sign was there to remind you that this is, in fact, a law that you're breaking by speeding and you know that you just learned your lesson - at least for another 6 months.

Well, our development and product teams just heard and then learned a similar lesson last week in regards the our most recent sprint. We have had the privilege recently of working closely with Jeff Sutherland, one of the inventors of the Scrum process.

We first met with Jeff back in September. He came onsite and dissected our current process. He saw our scrum board, which was embarrassingly off the mark. That feeling can only be equated to having a guest show up to your house and realizing, after they have already used the bathroom that your toilet is filthy. (Not that this has ever happened to me, of course.)

Jeff helped us get back on track. The team was excited about the things we learned and we implemented changes the very next day. The process for developing our local marketing software improved with each sprint.

This week we were able to learn from Jeff again, this time via video conference. Jeff focused on the importance of making sure a story is Ready. If a story is not entirely ready, it causes mid-sprint confusion. Teams are debating, clarifying and essentially scrambling after a story has already started. Now, we heard this lesson very clearly. We felt pretty confident in our current sprint, so we began identifying times when this had happened and ways we could alleviate that and talking theoretically about how to avoid this - in the future. Later on in the week, we learned that lesson the hard way.

The hardest stories to get Ready are the ones that are for a particular client. We have to rely on a third party to be thorough in providing us with the information, and we have to hold hard deadlines, which is also hard to do when working with our valued franchise marketing clients.

The team thought that this story was ready, but upon starting the work, we realized it was NOT. The story requirements did not match the local store marketing sample data. The sample data suggested that the scope of work was entirely different. And we were two days away from the end of the sprint. Rather than ignore the miss, we took drastic measures to adjust the sprint, and manage expectations with the client.

The bottom line is, on Monday, we heard the message from Jeff about the importance of making sure that a story is Ready. On Thursday, we learned what having a story Ready means and what it means to our success as a team. Valuable lessons learned. Doubled velocity, here we come.

Freebies Get Me Everytime, Especially from Local Businesses!

Friday, March 12, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

This MSNBC.com headline caught my eye this morning: Weak economy means it’s a freebie nation.

At a time when almost everyone seems to be tightening their purse strings, giving past and potential customers a product or service for free is a great solution for a business with local store marketing needs. What's more, with the adoption and immediacy that social networking tools provide, the cost of getting your 'freebie' message out to your local audience doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg! In fact, you could utilize facebook or twitter and have your message out to past, current and potential customers within seconds for absolutely zero out-of-pocket cost!

While many big franchises are on the freebie fad bandwagon - Starbucks (Free music downloads), Denny's (free grand slam breakfast), Auntie Anne's (free pretzels), Amazon (free ebook downloads) - don't think that you have to have a big brand budget to offer a worthwhile freebie that yields a big ROI.

While offering 'freebies' has routinely popped up during economic slumps, never before did businesses with local advertising needs have such a variety of affordable tools to get their message out. Not convinced that offering a freebie could help your bottom line? - What's more, Promotional Products Association recently found that consumers were far more likely to make a purchase after receiving an item for free than after simply viewing an ad or commercial for the product or service.

I've experienced this personally several times over the past several months. One of my (now) local favorite coffee shops gave me a free coffee mug a couple of months ago - at the time I didn't feel overly connected to that particular shop or brand and was surprised to receive the free mug....Looking back now, it is interesting to consider that I went from visiting their location once or twice a week to going nearly every day (seriously, if you come by my desk, 9 times out of 10 times there will be a Tully's coffee cup there). Come to think of it, I haven't consumed "office coffee" in weeks (perhaps even months!) Nice job with the freebie Tully's - see you on Monday!

Teaser Trailer for Twihards

Friday, March 12, 2010 by Leah Laskarris

The Twilight saga continues! It's true fellow Twihard admirers; the new teaser trailer of the third book, "Eclipse" was released to the public yesterday. The vampire series continues to captivate and totally annoy the nation. The one-minute-and-thirty-second clip that arrived online dabbles into the not too surprising events about what we'll see in the upcoming movie.

Watch the trailer below and let's break it down, shall we? When the music begins instant goose-bumps occur and Edward’s hypnotizing voice mesmerizes all enthusiasts. We all know that Bella and Edward love each other but for all you Jacob fans we believe that Bella should choose the irresistible Jacob (sorry Team Edward I’m loyal to Team Jacob). “The Vulturi do not give second chances” and Bella has to change from a human to a vampire but Edward is hesitant with the consequences to follow. Jacob will fight for Bella (shirtless) until “her heart stops beating” showing off his hunky, muscular figure. A new Victoria, with her firey red hair, is back to obtain her vengeance. Rest assured I will be standing in line alongside the die-hard fans to purchase my ticket for the midnight opening showing.

After reading the very popular Stephenie Meyer books, people of all ages (yes not just girl teeny boppers) eagerly search for the new trailer and click on whatever sight pops up first. Local businesses are utilizing the effective and affordable local internet marketing by posting these clips to generate demand to their sites. Local store marketing is taking advantage of the hype utilizing POS materials to drive sales of the last video which will release the 20th, even Volvo saw significant lift in their sales when the movie was released! By using co-op advertising and local marketing ideas, stores are placing Twilight posters, wall hangers, and selling fan gear to effectively drive brand awareness. This movie has spent significant marketing dollars developing and nurturing their name which has proven successful. Twilight set the opening-day box office record taking in $72.7 million on the first day and grossed $258.8 million! New Moon pulled in $26.3 million just on the midnight showings and broke the record for the most pre-sales for any movie! Let's see what Eclipse has in store for us.

Local Marketing via Slideshare

Thursday, March 11, 2010 by Shane Vaughan

Here's a quick local marketing idea for the day: have presentations lying around? Get them uploaded to Slideshare!

For those of you that don't know, Slidshare is a web-based library of presentations. I use it all the time for research on specific topics, emerging trends and competitors. I love the information sharing component and frankly, I'm impressed by the variety and excellence of the presentation.

From a local marketing perspective, this is a great opportunity to get your content and expertise out there beyond your own website. You have a wealth of knowledge about your product, your category and your customers - this is a great, easy opportunity to share that information.

Here are some of our presentations on the Balihoo Slideshare Channel:

Top Local Marketing And Media Trends 2010

View more presentations from Balihoo.

Local Store Marketing - Enabling Breakthrough Local Store Marketing

View more presentations from Balihoo.

Local Marketing Automation: Translating National Strategies into Local Execution

View more presentations from Balihoo.

Co-op Marketing Strategies: Building a Better Co-op/MDF Program

View more presentations from Balihoo.

Blazing the Trail out of the Recession....

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

And surprisingly the word 'Boomer' isn't in the forefront. This is surprising when you consider that our last three recession recovery periods largely centered around Baby Boomers; however, the past 18 months has been particularly rough on the Boomer demographic - the subgroup has experienced some traumatic hits on both their savings and retirement accounts. PricewaterhouseCoopers, predicts that Boomers' spending habits have undergone the largest change and may not ever be able to make a full comeback.

In case you are curious:

Greatest Generation: born prior to 1946 (Ages: 65-plus)
Boomers: 1946-1964 (Ages: 46-64)
Generation X: 1965-1976 (Ages: 34-45)
Millennials: 1977-1994 (Ages: 16-33)

With our beloved Boomers struggling, we are turning to the Gen X and Gen Y demos, with their disposable incomes, technology addictions and consumption-happy habits to perk things up.

Anyone with a medium sized family can see at a glance that there are some huge differences between how these three demographics go about consuming media - How do you seek out products or services? What media types do you turn to (or perhaps have attached to you) every day? Now compare your answers to those of your younger cousin, grandmother, nephew, father, etc...... While Boomers are more apt to still rely on their daily newspaper or respond to direct mail flyers, Gen X and Y'ers are far more likely to rely on the internet for both new and entertainment and are more likely to respond positively to email marketing and mobile coupons.

Been dragging your feet when it comes to looking into local internet marketing? Now is the time to take a step back and consider who your most viable target audience is - there is a good chance that your Yellow Page or radio spot just isn't worth the investment anymore.
As a small business, how are you planning on getting your local advertising in front of this audience? Perhaps it time to mix up your local store marketing and media planning strategy?

Apple iPad - A Local Marketing Software Tool?

Monday, March 8, 2010 by Shane Vaughan

Last night at the Oscars, Apple finally unveiled the iPad to the masses. For those of us in the tech world, it's old-hat, but last night was very possibly the first time "your mom" heard about this device. For those of you that didn't see the ad, here it is:

As I've followed the pre-launch efforts around this product, one of the more interesting debates that has raged has been around it's "place" in the market. We have laptops, we have netbooks and we have smart phones - do we really need a 4th device that falls somewhere in the middle?

After watching this spot and mulling over it for 12 hours, I had an interesting thought - could this be the ultimate hardware tool for local marketing? I'm not talking about marketing via the product to the millions that will inevitably buy it (though that's a very important point - save for a later blog post).

Instead, the question that came to my mind is, "Could this be the tool that should be in the hand of every local store owner, manager and marketing professional to drive their local store marketing efforts?"

Balihoo sells local marketing software (Local Marketing Automation software to be exact). However, access to this software obviously has to happen via a piece of hardware. Today, that's typically handled by a desktop (or laptop) computer either in the back office of the store or at the home of manager or owner that handles marketing. While this works, it still fundamentally separates the act of "marketing" from the act of running the daily business. A sophisticated, and relatively affordable, piece of hardware like the iPad has the possibility to bring the "marketer" closer to the business to take action immediately. Perhaps it's best described in a use case:

The manager of local sandwich shop is at the store at 9AM helping to prep for the day. Unfortunately, it's a typical rainy March day, and from experience they know that business will be down as a result. Standing at the counter with his iPad, the manager can access Balihoo's local marketing software and create a "delivery-only" special coupon for the day and automatically distribute it via email, SMS text, Twitter and Facebook to all of their opt-in customers (total time spent = 5 minutes). Their customers, not wanting to venture out in the rain, jump on the opportunity to get this special delivery deal. The customers are happy and the cash register at the shop is active. Crisis averted.

If you're a franchisor or product manufacturer - isn't this how you want your local outlets to be able to respond to changing local conditions? Are you putting the tools in place (whether hardware or local marketing software) to make this a reality?

Local Internet Marketing - Status Update

Friday, March 5, 2010 by Shane Vaughan

Good article from ClickZ here reporting on a BIA/Kelsey report that scopes the local internet marketing landscape.

The net result is that the report expects to see local internet marketing and advertising grow about 19% through 2014 and will be 25% of total local advertising.

Whether you're a national brand trying to help your local affiliates be successful or you're a local business looking at your marketing plan, you should take a long look at your local store marketing strategy in light of these numbers.

Are you prepared to respond to this shift? Do you have the creative and strategy/implementation pieces in place to keep pace with this industry trend?

Local media buying and local media planning are changing dramatically and it's critical that you're aware of these changes and are responding correctly.

Balihoo can help. Check out our Local Marketing Automation whitepaper or contact us and let's discuss how we can help keep your business on the forefront of marketing effectiveness.

Addressable Ads for TV - Local Store Marketing Benefits

Thursday, March 4, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

One thing you learn rather quickly working as a marketer or advertiser is that many "regular" people (i.e. not advertising freaks) react with disgust when you use the word 'target' to discuss current, potential or past customers. And while I do consider myself a pretty good shot, I don't think I am exactly a dangerous, merciless marketing sniper, destined to shoot down potential clients' wallets. Instead, when I think of identifying (i.e. targeting) a consumer base, I think it has more to do determining who currently has

genuine need or interest in your product/service and then ensuring that they know what it is and where to get it.

For years, advertisers have been toying with addressable TV platforms that would allow advertisers to target specific regions, zones and even individual households. With such platforms implemented, households with dogs or children would commonly see advertisements for products and services relevant to their lives - while bachelors who work 80-hour weeks would be exposed to advertisements that align with their lifestyles (all determined by their physical address).

If successful, advertisers would be able to almost ensure that their message goes precisely to the correct households (Example: an advertisers pet-focused spot might only be relevant to just 1/4 of U.S households - freeing up 3/4 of households for other ad buys). What's more, recent research by Starcom MediaVest Group, shows that viewers in households who receive ads targeted specifically to them are less likely (32% less likely) to switch channels. Less channel surfing = higher chance that your ad will be viewed by that your pinpointed demographic.

An addressable TV platform could potentially turn the existing TV sales model on its head. Some fear that if such a platform were implemented, that the TV industry will go the way of the newspaper industry and sink into advertising despair. In addition, there is debate regarding privacy issues. Some people might not appreciate seeing being so highly "targeted" by ads - "How do they know I have a lizard!?" With that said though, perhaps knowing that the local reptile and amphibian store in your town is having a blowout sale could come in handy.

For many small businesses, who rely on local advertising, having such a powerful targeting tool for TV would be huge! Many small businesses who currently struggle to afford television advertising could likely budget to do so. Businesses with local store marketing would likely flock to TV, simply because 1.) ROI would increase and 2) With less "wasted" spending, overall pricing could drop.

I would be surprised if somewhere in the future this platform isn't implemented - Tara Walpert Levy, presidents of addressable tech firm Visible World, noted that "The technology is here and we're doing [addressable ad deals] today. Until then your neighborhood business will have to keep doing the best they can with their local advertising efforts.

Clever Local Advertising / Local Internet Marketing - Tasti D-Lite

Monday, March 1, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

While many brands and franchises have gotten their local internet marketing feet wet by creating Facebook pages, Twitter handles, blogs, etc. the vast majority of them seem to fall flat quickly - allowing days and weeks to go by without updates, failing to respond to past or potential customers - finally declare that social networking "just doesn't" for them, or that they "just don't have the time".

However, there are obviously some fantastic exceptions (there to remind, encourage or perhaps taunt the others with the knowledge that it can be done).

One brand that has done incredibly well with local internet marketing and social media, particularly with Twitter, is Tasti

D-Lite. Before they embraced the microblogging service, the only thing I knew about the frozen dessert giant was that 4 ladies from Manhattan often devoured the stuff.

Tasti D- Lite's local store marketing efforts first grabbed my attention when they began tweeting Twitter-exclusive coupons for customers to print out and redeem. From the numbers, the Director of Information and Social Technologies at Tasti D-Lite, BJ Emerson, concluded that their Twitter coupon campaigns could outperform similar targeted ads on other social network platforms or certain PPC ads.

And then they just recently launched their TastiRewards program. This novel program allows customers to tie their loyalty cards to their accounts with Twitter and Foursquare. Customers can enable their accounts to send out messages to their social networks every time they use their card. For each brand-related Twitter or Foursquare update they earn points (50 points = free cup/cone). This program gets their message out quickly and easily - and what's more, the message is being sent out by a member of one's

social network (presumably someone they know, like and trust).

I think a great addition would be to auto-populate the flavor/dessert purchased. I don't know about you, but "Just scored 5 TastiReward points at Tasti D-Lite in Columbus Circle, NY with Mocha Almond Fudge Cone mytasti.com' (112 characters) sounds more appealing and tempting than "I just scored 5 TastiRewards at Tasti D-Lite Columbus Circle, NYC mytasti.com'.

Now, if only Tasti D-Lite would move to Idaho. For the time being I guess I will just have to watch my ole' NYC-based friends' Tasti D-Lite tweets roll in and leave me missing the Big Apple.

Decide as Late as Possible

Monday, March 1, 2010 by Kevin Donaldson

One of the core principals of Lean thinking is 'Decide as Late as Possible'. Like many aspects of Agile and Lean thinking, they can often be taken at face value and lead to less than optimal outcomes, leaving the organization with a sour taste in their mouth but with the correct application there is power.

In uncertain environments better results can be achieved with an options-based approach, delaying decisions as much as possible until they can be made based on better facts rather than uncertain assumptions and predictions. This is of course a continuum, not an end. If you wait too long to gather facts the organization can become paralyzed, and you may miss the opportunity. An iterative approach with short cycles promotes this principal, giving a team the ability to adapt to changes quickly and also and correct mistakes which might be costly if discovered after long development cycles.

We had a great example of this principal in action just recently. Back in early December a few of us got together to talk about possible product strategies for the IFA (International Franchising Association) Conference to be held in the first week of February 2010. We batted around a few ideas, and as it started to get closer to Christmas we felt that we had to make some decisions soon given that the holidays were upon us, and that we now only had a little over a month to get ready. However nothing seemed to be clicking yet.

After the holidays in early January we decided that introducing a social media offering within our local marketing software tool would be the ideal launch platform for the event. Social media was everywhere, but how to combine it effectively into a local marketing strategy is the question that franchisees are asking. Everyone in the room thought it was a great idea - The only problem was that we had less than 4 weeks until the start of the conference!

At this first meeting a quick sketch was made on a piece of paper of the new offering that would allow a local store marketer to publish a message and send it to Twitter, Facebook, an email list and a mobile phone list. They could then use this message with a shortened track-able URL link to a customized web based landing page for more details about the offer (all designd to tie into their existing local advertising).

Within 3 weeks we took the hand sketch and converted it into a ascetically pleasing, fully functioning prototype of the offering, that we deployed to the production version of our local marketing software on its regular bi-weekly release schedule the day before the conference started. We actually even had all the development work done more than a week prior to this point, so it wasn't an all night-er for our engineering team the day before! So what happened? The sales team at the conference promoted and used it on the trade show to produce one of our largest lead gen opportunities in months.

Just-in-time decision making is critical to allow a business to make the highest value decisions with the least amount of cost or waste. Yes, its a fine line between just-in-time and too late, but you will never get good at it until you practice. Think Lean!

Attention Media Vendors/Warren Buffet: Don't Forget The Little Guys Interested in Local Advertising/Investing

Friday, February 26, 2010 by Alex Fascilla

Warren Splits Berkshire Stock With One Swift Move of His Hand

As of the writing of this blog on February 26th, 2010, one share of Berkshire Hathaway stock will set you back approximately $119,010. That's for one share. Some think (Jim Cramer, relax, I can already see you getting all 'Mad Money' on me concerning Berkshire: "Buffet's a pretentious hack!" you yell) you'd need some major time to see meaningful gains on a single share of stock that's as expensive as that. Typically, that'd be correct. But that share would have cost you about $101,751 on January 26th 2010... a price just barely out of reach of what I could have afforded on my media buyer's salary. Sarcasm aside, really a pretty nice return on a single share that costs as much as most people's entire portfolios.

"But what about us little guys, Mr. Buffet? Can't you, nay, won't you just split the stock so we can own a little piece of Berkshire? ...Please?" Traditionally, Mr. Buffet has responded with, "No." See, he prefers "owners" rather than "traders". Someone in it for the long haul. Like him. Someone who wants to enjoy making that first life-changing gain when they're too old to enjoy it. That was, of course, the case until Jan 20th, when shareholders (all 12 of their super-rich asses) approved a 50-1 split of the stock. The price of one of these Class-B shares? As of today, about $79. Dammit, still out of reach!

Let's focus on the "little guy" in this example. Let's pretend Berkshire's Class A stock (the really expensive one) is a major metropolitan newspaper like Portland's The Oregonian. Let's also pretend that the "little guy" is a store owner with a single store in the Portland DMA--Designated Market Area--engaged in local advertising that wants to place an ad in The Oregonian. (Also, before our director of media buying jumps all over me, we're going to need to pretend there isn't such thing as wasted reach).

Previously, it would have been cost-prohibitive for this local advertiser to engage with The Oregonian--much like it was for me to buy that share of BRK.A back in January. However, The Oregonian, realizing they were losing potential business with these single-shop store-owners, effectively 'split' their paper, creating zoned editions that only go to certain zip codes and feature ads that are more geared toward those in those particular zip codes. The Oregonian essentially issued some Class B stock! The result is cheaper placements, better-targeted local advertising for clients, increased ad sales (and hopefully subsequent increased sales for their advertisers), and excellent fodder for a blog such as this.

Local store marketing and the ensuing media planning strategy for one that owns a single store in a metro area as large as Portland will never be easy. But when media vendors adapt and generate creative ways to "give the little guys a shot", all benefit. Oh, also, Mr. Buffet, how about some Class C? I know our tax brackets are so disparate you'd think I lived in Cambodia, but something in the $10-$15 dollar range would be perfect. See you at the shareholders meeting!

The Un-Homepage Homepage

Friday, February 26, 2010 by Kelly Mason

This last week, while in a meeting about how we can design our homepage so that it is more usable, our CEO Pete Gombert said something totally blew my mind: "Do we really need a homepage?"

Let me take you back a few weeks. I've been gathering feedback from various different sources, and then reviewing and compiling that feedback with one goal: To come up with a more usable, relevant homepage for our users. So to hear that statement as I was wrapping up my quest made me feel...dizzy. You know the feeling when you think you've thought of everything and then you're hit upside the head with something - simple.

But it got me thinking - what is the function of the homepage? I set out to look at some other homepages for inspiration.

Is it a place to promote yourself and others? All I can say is, I hope not. Although for some sites, that seems to be the case. I think of www.evite.com. 'Evite' became a common noun overnight, like, "Did you get my evite?" and I just received an evite for a moving party, like bring your trucks and your tie-downs, which isn't a party at all, so the uses for this site are broadening.
The first time I came to the site I was expecting a site that your grandmother could use, based on some of the not-so-technically-savvy people who had sent me evites. But unfortunately, it was hard to tell the difference between the basic evite function, and the many ads on their site. It was hard to tell what would walk me through the process, and what would open a new tab and shoot me off to some other site I didn't want in the first place.
Even on our own ad builder software homepage, it seems that we took up a lot of space promoting the client - but why? One user told me in their feedback that they didn't understand why the brand was trying to advertise to their own franchisees. They were already sold on the brand - now they just need local marketing ideas in order to promote it to the consumer!

Well maybe, then, the homepage is a way to direct and guide users in the path they should take. This is the premise I have been going on. As the experts in local media buying, and the creators of this ad builder software, it is our job to guide and direct users in their local advertising. But the question is, if we already know where they should go, why not just take them there?
Take a look at the music site Grooveshark. The homepage is one big search box. You can see there are other functions along the left-hand side, but rather than selecting an option that says Search for Songs, or Start my Playlist, it just gives me a search box. I know what to do with that.
It goes without saying that building a campaign using ad builder software is quite a bit more complicated than building a playlist of songs, however, there is something to be said for that kind of simplicity, and for removing unnecessary steps for our users so that they can reach their goal more quickly.

The answer to my previous question may be in the name itself - homepage. Whether you go with a traditional homepage or the un-homepage homepage, users like the idea of getting back where they started. Whether they get there via a Go Home link or the repetitive back button - it's a comfort zone and users don't have to commit to any decision, because they can always go back.

My lesson was this: we have been thinking too traditionally when it comes to a homepage. We thought of the homepage as the place where all 'important' functions should live. So anytime we built something new and it was deemed important, we wanted to shove it onto the homepage, thinking that that's they way we would ensure users wouldn't miss it. Well, they do.
What we should really be thinking about is how can we guide our users so that they have the best chance of meeting their local store marketing goals. No two sites are exactly alike, and no one knows how to get the most out of our ad builder software like we do, so why not pass a little of that along to our users?

Stay tuned to see a new and improved homepage!

Local Franchise Marketing Playbook - Download

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 by Shane Vaughan

Balihoo recently released a 24-page e-book that all you franchise marketing folks will find interesting, you can download it here.

If you're involved in local advertising, local store marketing, local media buying or franchise marketing, check it out and let us know what you think!

Download the Local Franchise Marketing Playbook

Social Media and Local Marketing Automation

Friday, February 12, 2010 by Shane Vaughan

Balihoo is a Local Marketing Automation company - that is, we help national brands execute their marketing strategy locally to drive demand generation into the stores (local store marketing).

As we all know, social media marketing has become the "darling" of the marketing world. Engagement with consumers in these channels has become paramount for national brands, and interestingly local businesses are not just following here, oftentimes they are leading. There are numerous stories, whether it's the twitter-powered taco truck or the numerous Facebook success stories.

Want some more proof? Check out this great video:

In fact, social media has become so important, last week we announced that we're integrating Facebook and Twitter directly into our local marketing software. Pretty cool, huh? Here's an example of how it's used:

It's 10AM on a Tuesday morning and XYZ Sandwich Shop realizes that because of the rainy weather, their lunch crowd is going to be very slow. In a matter of 5 minutes, the manager logs into Balihoo, creates a "10% off delivery" coupon (fully national-brand compliant), posts that to a temporary URL and distrbutes that link across Facebook, Twitter, SMS and email. In just a few minutes they've directly impacted their business THAT DAY and provided a valuable service to their customers.

If you're interested in seeing how this can work for your distributed marketers (franchisees, retailers, distributors), we would be happy to show you a live demo of Balihoo's local marketing software in action!

Mobile: The New Advertising Battleground

Friday, February 12, 2010 by Kevin Donaldson

I came across an interesting Ad-age article today talking about Apple and their move into the Mobile advertising space with the purchase of mobile ad network Quattro. The battle for mobile advertising is underway and the players are starting to move! Mobile as an advertising medium is still in its infancy but moving quickly. Yes, SMS ads have been around for a while, but that is just the beginning. (see more in a previous post about mobile advertising options).

In the past, the relatively low market share for smart phones has been the limiting factor in massive resource deployment in this field, however the signs of change are present. For example according to a study by Gartner in Q4 2009, almost 19% of mobile users in the US have smart phones and 50% of people plan to purchase a smart phone in the next two years. What's more the US is actually not the leader around the world. (Italy actually leads the world right now in smart phone penetration.) What's interesting though is that while smart phones are currently a category/subset of the mobile market I suspect that in the not to distant future we will be able to drop the word 'smart' as all mobile handsets will be smart as defined today.

So the market has a bright future, and Balihoo predicts that 2010 will be a transitional year for mobile marketing and more specifically its use in local store marketing to create more diverse and personalized options for these business owners.

However making these new mobile advertising technologies work can be challenging for a local business in the following ways:

finding easy and cost effective ways to create localized content for these mediums
getting support from experts to know how to deploy these strategies based on their target customer base
simplifying the process of executing these strategies under a self service model.
tracking the results of these campaigns in concert with other marketing investments and how they collectively translate into sales, new customers etc

That is where local marketing automation comes in! We are continually advancing our software and supporting services to create a cost effective and easy way to market across all mediums - both traditional and new.

For instance we just recently launched social media integration into our platform, that actually combines that actually combines social network messaging, with web based landing pages and mobile together! So far it has received great reviews, and I can tell you that this is just scratching the surface on what we have planned for the platform in 2010. Advanced mobile marketing is coming, and we will be ready as the battle beings to play out!

Local Marketing and Media Trends for 2010

Thursday, February 11, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

To say 2009 was a difficult year for businesses is a huge understatement — the down economy not only took its toll nationally, but posed some incredibly arduous challenges for small business owners in charge of their local store marketing efforts. Now that we are a month into the new decade and hopefully heading toward brighter times for local advertising, we've put together a presentation of including some of our local marketing and media predictions for 2010. Check it out and let us know what you think - or better yet, add your own local media buying or local advertising predictions!

Top Local Marketing And Media Trends 2010

View more presentations from Balihoo.

Of course you should judge a book by its cover

Friday, January 29, 2010 by Kelly Mason

Don't judge a book by its cover. I get the meaning behind it - don't make judgments based on appearance. But this seems like the wrong way to express this sentiment.

A book is a product, and typically gets produced when a publishing company makes the decision to do so. Their plan is to make enough money in sales so that the costs are worthwhile. In order to achieve this, it is their job to know the book enough that they can condense it into just a few important points. These points are then analyzed and condensed even more to come up with a marketing spin that will lure the target audience. That marketing spin is used to come up with just the right title, a perfectly constructed summary, and of course, an appropriate cover. Sometimes that cover may be plain, but it can be assumed that the plainness is a strategic decision used to create more sales.

Don't get me wrong, it is what is on the inside, the meat of the product, that truly matters. That is the way that retain loyal customers, and their word-of-mouth helps create new customers. But think about this: the average American adult reads around 250 words per minute. An average novel has around 80,000 words. That means a person will spend about 5 hours and 20 minutes reading a novel, and today that is considered a fairly large investment of ones time. Imagine if you didn't judge a book by its cover and you read them all? You would read dozens of books that don't align with your interests before finding one that does.

So how does this relate to the Balihoo product? In the online world, the home page is the equivalent of our book cover. Imagine if we told our customers not to judge a book by its cover? I guarantee they would not give us a 5 hour grace period to find out if our local marketing software meets their needs. In fact, the grace period of a website home page can probably be measured in seconds. And if they don't know how to start the process of using our local marketing software, then there's no point in analyzing usability in other parts of the ad builder software. The usability focus was clear: the home page - our book cover.

In talking with users, both customers and non-customers, it really is the meat of the product that matters most to them, and to us. They were much more concerned about discussing their local store marketing needs. All feedback is good feedback, and I gladly captured it all, but I had to prompt them back to the home page to finish my planned questions. Often they had a hard time remembering first impressions, or how they started an order, since they have moved on past the home page and on to the local marketing automation.

Once a customer becomes a customer, the cover matters less and less, and that's what we want to get to. But the idea that a book should not be judged by it cover is misleading, because they can't be a loyal customer until they're a customer.

In light of this realization, I'm working on a new saying: Never judge a playing card by the backside of the card. I admit, it's a work in progress, but the backside of a playing card is intended to look like all the rest in the deck. And even if the backside has red squiggly lines or cartoon characters or beer cans, you can't tell anything about it until you turn it over.

Enabling Breakthrough Local Store Marketing

Thursday, January 28, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

For franchise organizations, product manufacturers and national brands, enabling franchisees, distributors and affiliates to effectively generate demand at the local level is of utmost importance.

Check out this 'Local Store Marketing' presentation to see what local marketing ideas and solutions are currently available - and begin enabling your franchisees and affiliates to more successfully and efficiently represent your brand and generate demand with their local advertising efforts.

Local Store Marketing - Enabling Breakthrough Local Store Marketing

View more presentations from Balihoo.

"Kids Today" - Adults Tomorrow

Monday, January 25, 2010 by Marcie Blagden-Ellison

Lately I have been acutely aware that I am getting older (before you roll your eyes at the 26-year-old calling herself “old” hear me out) – everywhere I look I see kids and teenagers doing, wearing, saying and watching things that both amaze and unnerve me. When did I begin criticizing “teenagers” in such a blanketed fashion?

Before I begin pointing my boney finger or kick-off some grand theory on the downfall of our youth, I think it is equally important to consider how technologically skilled and proficient this group has become (which has undeniably fueled some of my previously mentioned concern). I would be willing to bet that my 12-year old neighbor, and perhaps even his 8-year-old sister, could teach me a thing or two about my iPod, laptop and/or smartphone.

When I got my first cell phone as a teenager, it was a big deal. Only 3 or 4 of my friends had cell phones. When adding ‘Contacts’ to my phone, I added home numbers, not cell phone numbers. Today, I automatically assume that 90% of the numbers in my ‘Contact’ list are cell phones because, well, they are. Today, I just immediately assume that just about everyone has a cell phone. In fact, I cannot think of anyone over the age of 12 that doesn’t have one (and that includes my 71-year-old, technology-phobe father).

To say that times have changed is an understatement. The way in which technology has engrained itself in our youth’s lives is particularly astounding. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found that children aged 8 to 18 spend as more time with media on a weekly basis than the most adult spends at work (53 hours)!

Mobile adoption is a huge contributor to this. Over the past five years, there has been a huge increase in ownership among 8 to 18 year-olds (from 39% to 66% for cell phones and 18% to 76% for iPods and MP3 players.) The possibilities of mobile local advertising just astound me. When I think about the future of mobile advertising, I do occasionally feel a little nervous that I might get bombarded more than I care to; however, I also predict that I will be receiving useful coupons, messages, facts, etc. from companies that I provide my number to, and what's more, receive them based upon my real-time, physical location. Can you imagine receiving an automatic coupon for Target when you are actually IN TARGET? That possibility for retail marketing is cool (and useful) to me both as a consumer and a marketer.

So I will end my ramblings with this - if you are a business, engaged in local store marketing that has refrained from looking into new, interactive advertising mediums, you had better take note. First, you are likely already missing out on a large majority of your target demographic and second, today’s teens are tomorrow’s coveted early 20’s, college-aged demographic and you had better believe they will be turning to the web, their smartphones, their iPods, etc. Will you be there? Local internet marketing not only works today but will increasingly be seen as a necessity for marketing success.

KFC Franchise Marketing Blunder

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 by Shane Vaughan

Interesting article in Blue Mau Mau about KFC Franchisees filing a lawsuit to maintain marketing control.

In a nutshell, the story goes: KFC introduced a new menu item, Kentucky Grilled Chicken, and part of that introduction was to offer a free in-store sample. They were crafty enough to get that offer mentioned on the Oprah Winfrey show, which caused an overload of requests at the store level. The franchisees were unhappy and the customers who were turned away were also unhappy. Lawsuits abounded.

I'll avoid for now the legal side of this issue and instead talk a bit about something that we discuss frequently here at Balihoo: franchisee empathy. From our perspective, a franchisor that feel franchise empathy takes the time and the challenge to truly understand the business from the local operators perspective. They understand the challenges to the business at the local level and strive to improve the day-to-day performance of their franchise locations.

In our experience, when this franchisee empathy exists in a franchise system, the net result is a consolidated, clear effort from national to local. In terms of franchise marketing, this means that messaging and tactics are supported from national to local media and marketing efforts. When local store marketing activities support the national brand message, everyone wins (including, by the way, the customer).

A franchisor that discounts franchisee engagement or buy-in is missing a huge opportunity - the ability to align local marketing strategy with their national efforts. When this alignment exists, the franchise brand realizes significantly additional value as the franchisees align their local media buying and planning efforts with that of the nation brand - dramatically amplifying any message. Isn't this what we should all strive for?