Professional marketing campaigns, an integral part of a successful franchise business

Lee Moore | General Manager | Poolwerx 

Two paths that might be of interest to budding entrepreneurs are to either start your own business or buy into a franchise business. One of the core differences is that a franchise business will usually provide their franchisees with a silver plater of pre-developed marketing activities, with easy "how to" guides on growing your franchise business. Then it is up to the franchisee to take advantage of this system to help their business flourish as well as benefit from National marketing campaigns designed to grow the strength of the brand and attract customers.

We caught up with Lee Moore, General Manager of Poolwerx, to discuss effective marketing practices that can truly enhance a franchisees' business.

The value of effective marketing support for your franchise business

If you' re looking for the best business for sale and you're interested in buying into a franchise business, you're probably weighing up several aspects such as the kind of support offered, the efficiency of the operating system, the brand and name recognition, and the marketing programs in place to attract customers to your franchise business.

One of the main strengths of a good franchise business is the strategic marketing programs developed and run at the group office level across different areas, such as advertising, public relations, pricing, merchandising, promotion and market research. Imagine for example the possibility of taking advantage of a large-scale marketing campaign developed by professionals of the franchise system rather than having to promote your business by yourself - especially if you're not too familiar with the marketing arena.

The franchisor has the ability and the budget to launch targeted and nation-wide campaigns that are beyond the reach of a single individual business. Logically, being part of such a franchise system gives you a competitive advantage compared to independent businesses: bigger budgets and deeper knowledge of marketing strategy and tactics translate into more potential and more chances to reach your target market.

However not all franchise systems are the same when it comes to the level of marketing support provided, so to be successful in selecting and owning your franchise business, there are some things you should consider.

"However not all franchise systems are the same when it comes to the level of marketing support provided, so to be successful in selecting and owning your franchise business, there are some things you should consider." 

Questions to ask

Start by asking the franchisor some questions about recent programs such as:

• Have the recent campaigns driven a positive outcome on customer's behaviours?
• How did the results affect existing franchisees?
• What is the level of brand awareness of the franchises brand name amongst its target audience? And how does that compare to its nearest competitors?

Responses to these questions should allow you to evaluate the franchisor's marketing program and ultimately discover how those strategies can effectively benefit your franchise business.

"However not all franchise systems are the same when it comes to the level of marketing support provided, so to be successful in selecting and owning your franchise business, there are some things you should consider." 
Lee Moore

Effective practices to drive customers' behaviour and enhance your franchise business

About two years ago, Poolwerx embarked on a research project to find out what drives purchasing and switching behaviour of customers and also to measure our brand awareness in relation to the competitive market. The findings of the research project helped us to develop a targeted marketing campaign ultimately aimed at bringing tangible results to our franchisees.

We researched an online panel of pool owners and found out that our brand awareness was below the desired target.

To counteract the result, we developed an integrated marketing campaign aimed to increase our brand awareness and give more visibility to our franchisees' businesses. Based on the findings of the research project, the campaign honed in on our primary target market and used key messages to encourage purchasing behaviour. We created partnerships with key media vehicles such as Australia's Funniest Home Videos and Better Homes and Gardens to reach our audience and then delivered messages that research had shown would connect with what they wanted from us.

We were really pleased as the outcome for our campaign increased enquires to our national call centre by more than 150% on the prior campaign period as well as experiencing a significant increase in enquiries through our group website, with enquiries up by 50% on the prior campaign period.

Through research we continually track the performance of our campaigns and saw brand awareness amongst pool owners increase by 36% as a result of the campaign.

Aside from researching brand awareness, we wanted to accurately gauge the consumer perception of pool and services rates in order to develop a pricing strategy which would increase the revenue for our franchisees. We acted upon the research to adjust our price levels according to the market expectations. Through the marketing campaign we endorsed our new pricing strategy by accurately depicting our service rates to dispel the perception of being expensive. This yielded a tangible increase in average spend and helped lift the franchise business owners' revenue by 17%.

This example really shows the advantages of the power of well developed marketing programs which you benefit from when joining a franchise business. It is in the franchisor' s interest that a franchisee succeeds. We believe that franchisees should always be supported with strong marketing plans to help spread the word about their business and give them a lead over independent business owners. So when you are doing your research of franchise businesses out there be sure to ask about the marketing support that is provided to franchisees.

   To find out more and enquire about Poolwerx view their listing page.