This was BrandPOP’s first time to sponsor and attend the Franchise Consumer Marketing Conference, held this year at the Ritz Carlton – Buckhead in Atlanta, GA. The conference was targeted toward marketing executives of franchise chains both big and small.
For their 3rd Annual 2-day conference, which has apparently doubled in growth year-over-year, the theme was “Where Old School Marketing Ignites New School Technology”. There were many great panels and speakers that touched on everything from Google Analytics to grass roots marketing.
I met some great people, both sponsors and franchisors, but for our clients and potential clients that did not attend, I thought I’d share some of my key marketing takeaways that may be of benefit.
Old School Media is NOT dead!
True to the theme of the conference there was plenty conversation around media mix with social media the most trackable and least expensive, but still not to be replaced by old school media, i.e. TV, Radio, Print. TV, if you can afford it, and Print still reach an audience that may not be using social media. Of course, an inexpensive medium is always recurring POP Kits year-round, but I’m a little biased and listened for this specifically in all sessions. But a good mix reaches different customer bases and can be very well supported if there is consistency with the promotion.
Know Your ROI = Win Over Franchisees:
Winning over franchisees was a common thread of the conference and the best success has come from being able to show return on investment. Bottom line, everyone wants the stores to be successful but convincing franchisees to spend their own money on campaigns or new product promotions can be difficult until ROI can be shown. This seems like a simple solution, but even with trackable ROI on social media, 60% of brands still do not know their ROI.
FLAWsome!
Erik Qualman, author of SocialNomics and Digital Leader, was an incredible speaker and offered a strategy that just makes sense: Listen, Interact, React, Sell…Repeat. Listen to your customers – duh. If you don’t have a way to do that yet, there is an abundance of systems and sources for that, including a good old fashion comment card. But often times what we miss is to “REACT” to feedback, to TAKE ACTION. You have to be “Flawsome”…admit your flaws and take action to remedy them. No brand is perfect, but admitting it is the first step and the results can make an immediate impact on your bottom line.
There were a lot of great learnings that I’m happy to share if you’re interested. Shoot me an email or give me a call to discuss.
