Jul 22, 2011 | Coconut News
With just under a week until the next Coconut Creatives franchise recruitment marketing workshop (which is fully booked), on the 27th July, the timing for franchisors to get involved in future workshops could not be better.
The next workshop, held in Bracknell, is fully booked with a wide range of franchisors which span across industry sector and also in size. The content on the workshops is suitable for both new and established franchisors and covers the key areas of how to recruit more franchisees through marketing techniques, advertising, PR, copy writing, branding and utilising video in getting key messages across.
Sophie Brooks, Managing Director for Clive’s Easylearn Pop Music Schools attended a franchise marketing workshop a few months ago and now is working closely with Sarah on a specially devised mentoring programme. After winning the EWIF Franchisor of the Year Award, Coconut Creatives have been helping Sophie get booked up rwith activity ready for the show season ahead and ensure that she stays on track with marketing her franchise.
“I found the franchisor marketing workshop hugely beneficial, I have already been able to implement some great changes and improvements based on the advice and information given at the workshop. I found the one-to-one sessions with the experts very helpful as they were able to give specific advice on your business. Since attending the marketing workshop I am now working closely with Coconut Creatives in mentoring programme. This has so far helped us to look in more detail at our marketing campaigns, work on improving these, generating more leads and getting better results. The advice and support provided so far has been exceptional. I am really looking forward to continuing to work with Sarah and Coconut Creatives to build our business and would have no hesitation in strongly recommending Coconut Creatives to any franchisor,” Sophie Brooks, Franchisor for Clive’s Easylearn Pop Music Schools.
Coconut Creatives Franchise Marketing Workshops run monthly in different locations around the UK. Contact info@coconutcreatives.co.uk for an agenda and booking form or visit coconutcreatives.co.uk for a full list of published next dates and content.
Franchise recruitment marketing workshop, with guest speaker Nick Strong in June 2011.
Jul 21, 2011 | Coconut in the Media
Franchisor Advice Article written by Coconut Creatives Head of Media, Sally Butters:
Too often, companies forget that they need to take action to manage their reputation. They could have very happy customers but very few people really know about how great their products are or how superb their customer service is. How can you grow your business into new regions or markets without shouting about the great reputation you have? How will you attract the best franchisees?
The Chairman of the Institute of Directors, Neville Bain explains:
“Organisations need to apply more attention to managing reputation. Firms with strong positive reputations attract better people. This gives rise to a virtuous circle of greater efficiency, better relationships with customers and suppliers, and enhanced legitimacy in the eyes of society as a whole.
“In the absence of a good reputation, the ability of a company to create value is severely impaired. Boards need to be aware that reputation, like trust, takes time to build but can be lost in the blinking of an eye.”
In its most basic form, a franchise is a business opportunity that should already have a track record of profitability and market need which means that a franchisor just needs to help that good reputation become known to prospective franchisees.
In the Natwest bfa franchise survey 2011, word of mouth is top spot on how people first find out about franchising and specific franchise opportunities:
“When asking franchisees how they first heard about franchising, it immediately becomes apparent the extent to which word of mouth is key, both in terms of hearing about franchising in general, and about specific franchises. Friends and relatives are the most mentioned single source (24%) of initial awareness.”
Whilst the survey continues to evidence that people use a variety of sources and online and offline media in their research phase of the journey to becoming a franchisee and confirms that a franchisors should take a multi-channel approach to franchise recruitment, it is clear that testimonials are a must have in a franchisor’s marketing kit. This is confirmed within the decision-making process of a prospective franchisee:
“Again, as with the initial awareness of franchising, we see the importance of the personal touch in this industry, with high proportions citing a reason as ‘liking the people’ and ‘recommendation from existing franchisee’.
“Franchisees make careful decisions. Unsurprisingly given the personal and financial investment involved. On average franchisees said they had sought advice or made checks with 6 different sources prior to signing their franchise agreement.
Judgements relating to the franchisor offer and the impact of running the franchise on their lives are the most frequently made assessments, In terms of external consultations, contact with existing franchisees is crucial in terms of assessing profitability and their opinion of the franchisor.”
So, it is clear that franchisors need to take the time to review the reputation of their franchise business and how they manage it. I would recommend building this in to your marketing plan on a monthly basis; your advertising copy, online profiles, press release, video blogs, and internal communications. Every member of staff should be aware that everything they do can impact on your reputation and ultimately, the future of the business.
Here are a few tips:
- Take time to collect and review customer and franchisee feedback – quickly acting on poor feedback turns a bad experience into a good experience.
- Keep an up-to-date bank of testimonials
- Update your online and print marketing materials on a regular basis with your latest testimonials
- Take time to train staff and franchisees in your ‘perfect pitch’ – you have 90 seconds to explain what you do, how it can benefit who you are talking to and prove how it has benefited others
- Make your franchisees your ambassadors; take them with you to networking meetings, exhibitions, and discovery days.
A consistent message is king; communicate this in everything that you do and a prospective franchisee will feel confident in building a relationship with you!
May 12, 2011 | Coconut News
Sarah Cook, Founder of Coconut Creatives attended the EWIF awards ceremony on Tuesday 10th May and discovered she had won an award!
The Woman Service Provider of the Year 2010 title was awarded to Sarah Cook as recognition for her marketing work with Franchisors. This included, writing a book on franchise recruitment, a former trip to India, establishing Coconut Creatives as the only bfa accredited Marketing Company in the Franchise Industry and launching the popular Franchisor Marketing Workshops.
“The EWIF awards have succeeded in bringing together Franchisors, Franchisees and their Service Providers to recognise and celebrate excellence in the franchise industry. I am delighted to be recognised for the marketing work myself and the whole team at Coconut Creatives do in the industry across many sectors and with Franchisors both large and small,” says Sarah.
Clive Sawyer from Business Options both sponsored and announced the winner for this award.
Clive comments “We were absolutely delighted at the response to these inaugural EWIF Awards both from the number and quality of entries received. The large turn out for the Awards Ceremony is an indication of the level of support EWIF has from the whole franchise industry. As a Service Provider ourselves I was delighted that we could sponsor this Award. There was a lot of strong competition in this category and I am delighted that Sarah won as it is an acknowledgement of all she has done within the franchise industry.”
Mar 29, 2011 | Coconut in the Media
Sarah Cook and Emma Carter at Peace One Day in London
Racing 160 miles across the Sahara desert, travelling on foot through Antarctica, sailing around the world, launching a Sushi bar with Japense TV in Central London (yes Simon Woodroffe, we are talking about you!) – all sound impossible! But they all happened and Coconut Creatives Founder, Sarah Cook and our Coconut Design Guru, Emma Carter met some incredible speakers last week at the Peace One Day event in London who were all about achieving the ‘Art of the Impossible’.
These were some of the most talented and inspirational people in the world whether having achieved in business, in sport or overcome horrific paralysing injuries to concur life. They have achieved incredible, almost impossibly big things because they believed it could happen. Some of the speakers were Yo! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe, Inspirational Yachtsman Geoff Holt, the BBC presenter and author Ben Fogle and founder of Peace One Day Jeremy Gilley.
Coconut Creatives is a full supporter of Peace One Day and its mission to reach 3 billion people with the message of Peace Day by September 2012. Peace Day is on 21st September each year and this global day of peace has already enabled seemingly impossible acts to take place, such as persuading the Taliban to stop fighting so that aid workers could get into remote villages and vaccinate children against polio.
“It is so important that we all take time out of our businesses to really step back and appreciate what other people have achieved and to celebrate that,” said Sarah Cook.
So be inspired and get thinking of something amazing you can do. Whether it is for charity or for fun (or both), life is too short to keep adding things to the ‘someday maybe’ list. Get out there and get on with it. “I think I got a little bit too inspired at the Peace One Day event as I immediately went home and signed myself up for the Great South Run for later this year and I’m now in training!” adds Sarah.
If you would like to find out more about Peace One Day, visit www.peaceoneday.org. They also have another 1 day event coming up in June with an incredible speaker line up that Sarah will most definitely be attending.
Mar 22, 2011 | Coconut in the Media
Sarah Cook spent an unusual evening on Tuesday 8th March. She met Duncan Bannatyne, Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden at the Royal Courts of Justice in London for an evening of fine dining and conversation, along with a handful of other high profile business individuals. The evening was organised by the Make a Wish Charity.
“They were all absolutely lovely,” explained Sarah. “We talked about all sorts of things from Coconut Creatives to shoulder surgery. They each had a fantastic outlook on life, business and were thoroughly enjoyable company. Certain Coconut clients were also brought up in conversation which generated some unusual dragon interest in the franchise sector.”
With links such as these, who knows what future projects could be in the pipeline…
Sarah will be discussing more about her experience with the Dragons on the next Coconut Franchisor Marketing Workshop at the Langtry Manor in Bournemouth, 13th April. This workshop will focus on hot tips for franchise recruitment and look at ways franchisors can improve their franchise marketing during the individual 1 to 1 sessions in the afternoon.
