Oct 26, 2007 | Coconut in the Media
Vicki Cunningham editor of Franchisor News recently invited Sarah Dyer, Marketing Specialist from Coconut Creatives Ltd to write a regular marketing feature within the Franchisor News magazine.
“I’m thrilled to be writing for the magazine,” says Sarah. “There are so many elements to marketing and franchised businesses can generate so much benefit from employing just a few of the tools that I will be explaining through the features.”
The magazine is full of franchisor examples and news from the industry. Vicki has ensured that the tone is light and the text large so that it is an easy yet informative read.
Watch out for the next quarterly addition which goes to print later this month and is available from the beginning of December. For more information about the magazine go to www.franchisornews.co.uk
Oct 19, 2007 | Clients in the Media, Coconut in the Media
Recently launched natural toiletry company BABY Beautiful has established exclusive distribution with www.greenerliving.co.uk so that they can offer their products to a wider audience thanks to their marketing house, Coconut Creatives Ltd.
After last months launch at the BBC’s Well Being Fair, BABY Beautiful attracted a great deal of interest and support from members of the BBC. After the launch Sarah Dyer from Coconut Creatives set up a meeting with online green product giant, Greener Living to discuss stocking the products in their Portsmouth based shops and online through their popular website.
Ms Sangar, BABY Beautiful’s c0-founder is looking forward to getting the products on the Greener Living website at the end of this week. “It’s been almost 2 years since we decided to form BABY Beautiful and it is wonderful that the products are finally ready to be launched onto the market,” explains Ms Sangar who has been working on the product lines from her London base since early 2006.
Ms Sangar employed the assistance of Coconut Creatives to help them take the products to market and establish good affiliations with key organisations. “Coconut Creatives has certainly done their job. We are delighted to have established exclusive distribution and with a great and creative marketing strategy in place for 2008 we have high hopes for our natural products,” explains Ms Sangar.
The products which include a hair and body shampoo named Hair and Body Blossom, a thick moisturising cream and an oil are available in a variety of natural scents including orange and tangerine, lavender, rose Geranium and absolutely nothing. The different scents are made from natural essential oils which complement different people’s personality types!
“We’ve found that individuals are either a lavender person or an orange person,” says Sarah from Coconut Creatives. “It is funny to watch which scents people are drawn to. I especially like the orange and tangerine while Ms Sangar is definitely a rose geranium person!”
The products went live on Friday 19th October in time for the build up to the Christmas holidays.
Oct 17, 2007 | Coconut in the Media
Marketing specialists, Coconut Creatives Ltd. expand this month with the introduction of PR guru Sally Butters to their growing team. Sally comes over from BournemouthUniversitywhere she is currently a Marketing Manager and manages the Higher Education marketing strategy of their six partner colleges and The School of Conservation Sciences.
“I’m excited to be working with the Coconut team and get back to my PR roots. I am particularly eager to work with their clients who have so much newsworthy potential,” says Sally.
Coconut Creatives offers a total marketing solution for independently owned businesses and businesses specifically within the franchise sector. Services range from copy writing and branding to event management and online, as well as their core offering helping with strategic business planning and getting stuck in with the tactical marketing activities. And of course now an additional PR specialist!
Sarah Cook, founder of Coconut Creatives, is pleased to welcome Sally commenting,
“We already have clients earmarked for her when she joins us later this month and we are excited about the additional skills that she brings from her background in media relations”.
Sarah is an active member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and with Sally as a member of the Chartered Institute of PR, this has added to the Coconut mix.
With the growth of the business comes a new exciting website coconutcreatives.co.uk building on the previous design which was so popular.
Oct 12, 2007 | Clients in the Media
A Mendip butcher turned franchisor, who helped a Somerset school win the best dinner 2007 award, will take pride of place in this month’s Mendip Food and Drink Festival (October 19 to 28).
Among the delights offered by Jon Thorner’s is the free range pork which helped Baltonsborough School near Glastonbury scoop the Somerset accolade.
Later this month he will be showing off why he’s among the best at producing and selling local food on a national scale, and why more than 60 schools across Somerset have chosen him as their food supplier.
As a main sponsor of one of the largest regional food festivals in the country the Mendip Food and Drink Festival. Jon Thorner and his wife Caroline, run two successful template franchise farmshops with a further 4 franchised butchery counters within established farm shops in Somerset and Dorset, say promoting local and regional food is vital to supporting our farming community.
Mr Thorner, who has previously been awarded Somerset Business of the Year, said: “The Mendip Food and Drink Festival offers a wonderful opportunity to celebrate regional and local food. It creates a focus on the good things about our region and brings suppliers, retailers and customers together to offer a deeper understanding of what goes on behind the scenes of so many wonderful local businesses.
The recent foot and mouth outbreaks in Surrey have reinforced his message that supporting local producers helps reduce the need to transport animals and therefore reduces the chances of spreading the disease.
He said: “We’re really glad that the Surrey foot and mouth outbreak has been contained and well managed. In promoting local and regional food, we further reduce the travelling of animals and produce which reduces the risk of diseases like foot and mouth spreading right across the country.
“Seventeen of our producers live within just 10 miles of our shops, most of our meat reaches our farm shops after travelling very few miles, ensuring full provenance and quality of the meat and other produce that we offer our customers.”
Jon Thorner’s has an established relationship with marketing specialists Coconut Creatives who manage their on and offline communications, seasonal events and annual marketing strategy to maximise on exposure opportunities such as the Glastonbury Festival which Jon Thorner’s has supplied with produce for almost 10 years.
Sep 26, 2007 | Coconut in the Media
Guide your new franchisees through their first few months with step by step enabling tools.
New franchisees often require quite a bit of ‘hand holding’ and it is during these first few months that they go through their real learning curve. Often franchisees require specialist training to be able to run their franchise within the given market sector or industry. Marketing is almost always included as part of the training package through the operations manual. However, there is so much more that can be achieved once new franchisees understand their new business and have a few additional solid enabling tools, focused on marketing techniques, to assist them.
Managing expectations through a marketing orientation
A big part of the process for franchisors is managing the expectations of their new franchisees (who are often eager to establish themselves and create a return on their investment). At this stage, marketing can play a key role to help focus their minds and keep them busy while setting some small achievable targets and objectives for them to aim towards.
Setting your standards through marketing
Every franchisor wants every new franchise sold to become a success. It has been proven that by setting franchisee standards through a specific 2 month launch marketing activity plan, you can significantly increase the chances of success and within a shorter time period. While this can be time consuming for the franchisor to create and implement, it can save a great deal of ‘fire fighting’ time later on.
Dealing with the ups and the downs. Being sturdy, consistent and strong
As I am sure most franchisors have experienced, franchisees often go through a whole host of emotions over the first 6 – 12 months of running their franchise. The mere fact that often they have committed their life savings, changed their lifestyle and working relationships which often causes a shift in family relationships. It can be a very stressful time. Franchisors need to be the parent in the situation and create that focus for the franchisees to concentrate on. They also need to become the understanding agony aunt when things get tough but most of all, franchisors need to reflect (at every opportunity) a consistent and strong disposition during every dealing with any franchisee.
Creating confidence through marketing
When marketing is done well, it creates a great confidence in franchisors from franchisees. Marketing should be used as a focusing tool of franchisors to help them keep control of not only their business and brand, but the whole host of people that have bought into their psyche and believe in the business model.
The Four Steps to new franchisee success
- Invest more time at the beginning in teaching new franchisees key marketing skills
- Provide a tailored and specific two month marketing activity plan to help focus your new franchisee
- Always remain sturdy and strong, giving your franchisees a consistent impression of their ‘leader’
- Offer lots of encouragement and praise at every opportunity to keep new franchisees positively focused
The best possible tools that I have given franchisors is how they can teach their franchisees to look after themselves. In doing this, the franchisor deals with far less problems and far more confident, happy franchisees. By teaching your franchisees to market themselves, you give them the keys to their own success which in turn, also leads to yours.
Next feature; Using PR to Launch Your Franchise (very topical as we approach Octobers National Franchise Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham!).
