We all know our at-store marketing campaigns are only as good as the support teams we have in the field. Field compliance can often be a challenge with many franchised organizations. How can you give these enforcers of your brand more support and in-turn, have a better enforcement of brand guidelines and marketing campaigns?
1. Plan-o-grams – Visual and written guidelines on where your materials go can make all the difference. Since all of your stores aren’t the same, there need to be detailed instructions on where things go in relation to each other. Even better, profile your stores so your franchises only receive the materials they need. This prevents waste and helps them to put up only the POP you intended for them to utilize.
2. Easy reordering – At-store marketing can get damaged easily because of the high traffic of your locations. Make sure that you work with suppliers that allow quick turn around on materials. Keep a close eye on inventory of commonly damaged materials and consistently analyze how to identify better solutions that don’t damage as easily.
3. Local marketing opportunity – Allow your franchises the opportunity to get involved in the community. This will help them grow their business and will be better for your bottom line. You don’t want to end up with Sharpie drawn signs, so provide an online portal or ordering site where they can customize signing that is compliant with your brand standards.
4. Training and support – Franchise owners often aren’t marketing experts, but they do know their business and what drives customers to buy. Empower them by offering basic shopper marketing and visual merchandising training. Not only will this facilitate buy-in from your franchisees on the benefits of the at-store marketing you implement, it will also empower them to get creative and build their local brand.
5. Listen to field feedback – Even if you don’t agree with all the feedback you get about your marketing campaigns, you need to listen and respond. Understand why they give the feedback they do and figure out how you can help them better. Your franchisees are the core of your brand and are the first line of interaction with your customer.
What are some creative ways you support your franchises out in the field? How can you achieve better at-store marketing compliance?