Franchise & Multi-Location

Whether you’re a large, multi-nation franchise or a growing, multi-location retail business, we care about what you do.


Your company’s needs when it comes to marketing are not just substantial, they’re significant. A company has the ability to experience exponential growth through their partner franchisees, and this why a full-scale marketing plan is vital. From enforcing brand-standards to collaborating with franchisees, it’s imperative that all aspects of a marketing campaign are assessed to produce the kind of outcome your company warrants.

Simply Design’s refined approach to marketing make executing your plan and achieving your goals easier. We revel in researching and developing strategies that serve not only the individual franchisees’ needs, but also align with the parent-company’s structure and brand. This research stretches from franchisee interviews and location visits to incognito-shopping. By starting with thorough research and sticking to fact, we’re able to develop ideas that not only look and feel great, but are effective in every market, no matter the location.

From here, rolling out a strategy within a multi-store franchise falls into the hands of our Operations Team. By having centralized call-sourcing, individual owners are able to contact Simply Design to submit, distribute, and gain access to marketing materials. This type of “brand diplomacy” has helped several different companies achieve awareness and buy-in from local owners. By feeling like they are part of the mix, franchisees are more likely to contribute to combined marketing funds and will often centralize and schedule bi-annual or annual marketing meetings to continue the progress and work started by our team.

Here are a few key activities we’ve employed for our franchise-based customers and the results they’ve obtained:

 

Multi-Unit Franchise Websites

More than a corporate website, multi-unit websites have a “micro-site” for each store or location within the organization. This strategy of localizing marketing helps to boost location rankings in search results, allows local owners to customize content, and lets customers feel more of a connection to the brand. These micro-site options can either be funded by a main advertising or co-op fund, or can be funded on a store-by-store, opt-in basis. Brand standards are maintained by template or themed content that allow for customization within the brand structure.


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Increase in Organic Leads
A dental organization enjoys an increase of 300% in local, organically generated web leads per practice and continues to grow in each market it enters.

Access for Shared Creative & Approvals

Too often we find that franchisees or owner/managers need access to basic creative and brand elements but fail to find them in time for local advertising/community support. Beyond missing possible valuable access to local, brand-building opportunities, these requests can saturate in-house marketing teams within an organization. By out-sourcing these roles, organizations can save time, aggravation, and increase operator happiness all in one.

A large beverage company is able to reduce the number of emergency requests by over 75% and as a result receives the opportunity to plan instead of react.

Social & Reputation Management

While every owner/operator has the best interest of the organization in mind, the internet, and social media in particular, has a unique way of distorting even the best intentions. Because social media and review-based websites are being widely used by operators, the need to quietly monitor and be aware of these channels has never been more pertinent. From sophisticated software that will continuously listen to customer and social media posts, to our Brand Awareness team that can coach franchisees on how to avoid or handle bad reviews and situations, Simply Design keeps brand reputations safe from harm.

A national restaurant chain increases good reviews by 45% and is able to now channel the majority of bad reviews to a management team instead of being published on the web.
 

Special & Promotional Creative

As the marketing life cycle has developed a near constant promotional pace, producing these specials and graphics can be a massive undertaking. Starting with planning, design, execution, delivery, and fulfillment, Simply Design can manage all or part of any franchise’s ongoing promotional efforts. These promotional items range in type and scope, but can be created and delivered without issue so the tracking and calculation of ROI can become the main focus of the in-house or franchise team.

A multi-store retail business is able to increase traffic and conversions by 24% while reducing in-house tasks by several hours per week.