Sep 4, 2007 | Clients in the Media, Coconut in the Media
Morrisons supermarkets are now proud stockists of Bridport based Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes in a move to support local quality producers.
Coconut Creatives client, Richard Bowditch from Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes, was approached by Morrisons a few months ago and now customers can find these freshly hand prepared cakes in Morrisons stores throughout the Wessex region.
“As a local producer, we are delighted to be able to share our cakes with a wider audience and the feedback has been fabulous,” says Jessica Bowditch, who was the original inspiration for Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes.
Coconut Creatives has been working towards preparing the marketing and in-house systems to allow for a greater demand such as the new Morrison’s contract. The implementation of a customer relationship management system for Richard and his staff to use has made a big difference to the speed of the operation. Coconut Creatives came up with the idea after a gruelling internal audit.
The marketing stance for Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes has always focused on being local. Hand prepared at Manor Farm near Bridport using local ingredients wherever possible, Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes has been using traditional recipes and techniques for three generations. If your mouth is watering at the thought of a five inch high chocolate sponge cake, pop to your local Morrisons and pick one up for the whole family to share.
For more information about Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes go to www.jessicasfarmhousecakes.co.uk
Aug 16, 2007 | Coconut in the Media
A franchisors national marketing campaign has two major uses; to raise awareness of the branded franchise offering and to support existing franchisees.
Showing them Value for Money
As most franchisors take a royalty from franchisees. It is important to show value for money. By demonstrating to your franchisees that their hard earned cash is being spent on promoting the brand nationally, it only helps to benefit them as more people will be aware of their business and what it offers.
Using your Franchisees as Case Studies
Testimonials are just about the best way of gaining prospects confidence, so use your existing advocates for your brand to help sell your franchise package. The other bonus to this is that everyone loves to talk about themselves and in this instance, give your best franchisees the opportunity to do this by interviewing them. You never know when you might be able to use the material that you collect from them within marketing and promotions all over the country. This material is great for inspiring other people to take the plunge into franchising and get in contact with you to find out more.
National Exhibitions
It just wouldn’t be right not to mention exhibitions in this feature, especially as we see the National Franchise Show at the NEC, Birmingham opening at the end of this week. Some franchisors find great success in taking a couple of existing franchisees along to the show to help promote the franchise. As well as being a good way of showing prospective franchisees what a ‘real live franchisee’ looks like and discuss how they are getting on, it is an effective way of engaging your franchisees and refreshing them of the brand and what it stands for. Select who you take carefully and this method will work well for you.
PR
In my previous feature on the relationship franchising has with PR I went into quite a bit of detail on how to make the most of the media. PR is also very important when creating a solid national strategy as there will always be specific regional areas which are your ‘ideal’ new franchisee zones. In most cases these are the areas surrounding your head office, so the new franchisee editions to the family will be easier to manage as they will be close by. With this in mind, concentrate on creating pockets of media coverage in areas that you really want exposure and then you’ll be more likely to get awareness, interest and eventually enquiries from the types of locations that you really want. An example of this working well is in the Yorkshire region where a new jewellery franchise called The Wharf has recently launched. Their PR campaign is going well and the enquiries are coming in from a targeted localised region which is ideal for their launch.
Affiliates
Use your head office to trial national affiliate campaigns. For example, one of the companies I work with has recently trialled a joint promotion with Subway. The trial is going well in the south region and it if continues to go well, it may be offered nationally as a promotion that all the franchisees can get involved in. So look for companies that are national but operate locally and make sure you carry out a thorough trial. If you regularly offer good promotions to help support your franchisees, you’ll be keeping them happy, profitable and ultimately lengthen the relationship.
If you have any questions about any of my features and want to know what I think of your franchise, please contact me at sarah@coconutcreatives.co.uk.
Aug 16, 2007 | Coconut in the Media
Every day, on the radio, in newspapers and on television, we’re being extolled to go green, reduce carbon emissions, eat more healthy food and use fair-trade suppliers – in fact, just live a better lifestyle. GreenerLiving magazine is there to help make sense of all the conflicting advice, by giving balanced information on each subject, allowing readers to make the right choices for themselves.
More than 30,000 copies are distributed free every two months through supermarkets and point of sale promotions and readers can subscribe and receive a personal copy delivered to their door.
Working with Dorset-based Coconut Creatives marketing house, Greener Living magazine will soon be launching the GreenerLiving Club, a loyalty scheme giving members access to discounts from a wide range of companies offering ‘greener’ products and services, as well as a regular e-newsletter packed with even more club promotions and information on greener solutions.
“We’re really excited about launching the GreenerLiving Club,” said Sarah, Partner of Coconut Creatives. “We’ve been working with Peter Batt, GreenerLiving’s editor for a few months now and the magazine has been really well received so far. We have big plans to for its continued success over the coming months.”
To coincide with the club launch later this year, GreenerLiving is also launching a special corporate Partners and Affiliates programme. With a number of options, ranging from a simple business listing to a high-profile case study, and coupled with website and e-newsletter banner advertising, the programme will offer businesses the opportunity to promote their ‘green’ products and services to consumers who really want to buy.
For more information about GreenerLiving Magazine or to download a back copy go to www.greenerliving.tv
Dec 5, 2006 | Clients in the Media
Since graduating from Bournemouth University in 2005, Tariq Ebrahim has had big plans to redefine the online dating market with a brand new concept; theICEBREAKER.
Launched on the 1st December 2006, with national newspaper and radio coverage, the business concept had a great start towards hopeful success.
What makes theICEBREAKER different from other online dating sites is that the real magic doesn’t happen online. Once registered and armed with cards, you could be absolutely anywhere, even stuck in a crowed public place where traditional ‘chat up’ lines just wouldn’t be appropriate.
Tariq explains “You sign up, order your cards and start giving them out. Then, next time you’re at a party, on a train or even at work and you see someone you’d like to get to know better, just give them a card… they go to our website and look at your profile and if they like you, they click to accept the date!”
Tariq also happened to give a card to Sarah Dyer at Coconut Creatives and began a new type of relationship… a professional marketing one.
Since it’s conception, Coconut Creatives has helped www.theicebreaker.co.uk make affiliations with Bournemouth University, Islandoo (owned by the Channel 4) and the BBC to help raise awareness of this unique online dating phenomenon and increase its growing online membership base.
Oct 3, 2006 | Clients in the Media
Coconut Creatives found out about this frightening Statistic whilst working with Dorset Company FitKid.
Coconut Creatives is now helping FitKid launch its Franchise in the UK for the first time, to help combat the emerging statistics on UK child obesity. You can find Coconut Creatives and FitKid at the National Franchise Exhibition stand M90 on the 6th and 7th of October 06 in Birmingham.
Fortunately, the government is fully supportive towards FitKid’s business aims, so it couldn’t be a better time for franchisees to get involved.
FitKid had a famous start, as it was previously owned by Rosemary Conley and now has over 14 years experience in running FitKid Clubs, so FitKid has the skills and knowledge to support franchisees in building a successful franchise business.
Coconut Creatives is working closely with Nicky Kay, FitKid’s Development Director (and mother of two!) to help make active play a priority in childhood through the FitKid Franchise offering.
“With a nation of computer games and cable television, children are becoming less and less active. It’s our job to make fitness fun and give the children of tomorrow an essential life skill,” explains Nicky.
For more information about FitKid go to www.fitkid.co.uk
