Posts Tagged ‘localization’

Local Marketing Webinar Series, Part 6

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By: Glenn Haertel
July 28, 2010 | No Comments

In our June 24 webinar “How to Execute a Successful Local Marketing Campaign,” we discovered that viewers had several questions concerning campaign development. In my post today, I’m including audio clips from CKE’s Brad Haley that feature his thoughts on how long a Local Marketing campaign should last.

Listen here:

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In this second audio clip from the webinar, Brad answers the question, “What are the top, low-cost LRM tactics that all franchisees should execute?”

Listen here:

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Tell us about your favorite, low-cost LRM initiatives.

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Local Marketing Webinar Series, Part 5

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By: Glenn Haertel
July 16, 2010 | No Comments

As we continue our dialog and recap of key topics covered during our June 24 webinar, “How to Execute a Successful Local Marketing Campaign,” we will be highlighting several viewer questions specific to marketing operations. In this first audio clip, CKE’s Brad Haley answers questions about how to motivate franchisees to do local restaurant marketing and how best to communicate to franchisees.

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In this second audio clip, Brad addresses dealing with the differences of market size and localization. Will an LRM campaign that worked in a large city also work in a small community? And in smaller communities, how do you set yourself apart from the competition?

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Tell us what you think. We’d like to hear from you on these issues.

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NRF Show 2010

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By: Doug Fergusson
January 26, 2010 | No Comments

I was fortunate to attend the National Retail Federation Expo in New York on January 11-12. I had not attended for a number of years so it was quite fascinating to see what has changed and what has stayed the same.

On the surface, the show continues to be a retail technology showcase; however software, not hardware, has become the centerpiece of the show. I was surprised to see that some of the same business problems that challenged retailers 20 years ago (POS automation, supply-chain management, etc.) are still a focal point of many of the solution providers. There was one clear emerging trend that appeared throughout the conference – retail is changing from being supply-chain driven to consumer focused.

Over the last 20 – 30 years, most retailers’ investment in technology and management attention has been focused on supply-chain optimization. I don’t think anyone was suggesting that this was wrong; after all, getting the right goods, to the right place, and the right time is essential to good retailing. It’s just that a lot of people are now saying the game has changed.

Consumer-centric retailing focuses first on the customer experience and then builds everything from that starting point – product/menu offering, retail environment, marketing, customer service, etc. Some think that changing this focus is necessary to respond to what is believed to be a fundamental shift in consumer motivation. The idea that many consumers, particularly active social media participants, are driven to retail more for the experience and less to buy “stuff” is very significant.

I can’t say that I have fully digested this concept and what it might mean to retail. However, it does raise some interesting ideas, some of which were mentioned at the show:

  • Localization – Stores that are merchandised (product, price, signage) uniquely to reflect local consumer tastes and interests
  • Pop-up retail – Portable “stores” that can be moved by truck throughout the day
  • Temporary stores – Stores set up for short periods (days or weeks) in response to local market events
  • Theatric spaces – Stores that have been designed as “must see” destinations with extreme art and architecture
  • Dynamic environments – Retail spaces that change frequently (weekly, daily or even throughout the day) through the use of lighting and changeable graphics to create a dynamic customer experience.
  • Fast fashion – New fashion delivered to stores within two weeks of concept

These trends point to a need for agility and speed in your marketing processes; I think these topics are worthy of future blogs posts. Let me know if you agree; send me your comments to blog@synqsolutions.com, and I’ll post them.

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Local Marketing – Media

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By: Doug Fergusson
January 7, 2010 | No Comments

Once you’ve determined your goals, messaging and audience, you’ll want to consider how to deliver your Local Marketing to consumers. I use the term Media to broadly describe message delivery tools.

I like to divide media into two groups: (1) Off-premise and (2) On-premise. Off-premise media includes any form of message delivery that is not at the store or restaurant, such as: TV and radio ads; billboards; off-premise signage, such as bus stops; direct mail and email; text messaging; free-standing inserts (FSIs); and door hangers. On-premise media includes: window clings, menu boards, pole signs, roof banners, marquis signs, register toppers, counter mats, table-tents, flyers, brochures, bag stuffers, and any other means of displaying a message in-store.

Any of these media options can be used for national promotions (i.e. the same message everywhere), but not all are effective or practical for Local Marketing. Consider first and foremost your desired level of segmentation. For example, TV and radio ad campaigns developed for a specific market might be feasible for very large cities, but unlikely to be considered for a single store. Any of the on-premise media and some of the off-premise options like direct mail are effective for highly targeted messaging, but be sure you have the right building blocks in place to execute them:

  • Location profile data
  • A means to manage and leverage the data
  • Messaging and graphic strategy designed for Local Marketing
  • Print and fulfillment process that is capable of delivering individualized messages in the desired media form quickly and efficiently

If you don’t have all of these in place, you might want to investigate your options.

Matching the right media to the targeted audience and message can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of the campaign. For example, a table-tent might be an effective way of promoting return visits to a QSR, but is unlikely to have much effect on the size of the order of customers walking into a store. The more media options you have that are “local marketing enabled” the more likely you can deploy successful Local Marketing campaigns. Finding partners with the widest range of capabilities in an integrated delivery system can go a long way towards meeting this need.

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Local Marketing – Messaging

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By: Doug Fergusson
November 17, 2009 | No Comments

Consider this: One of our customers changed all of the signage and brochures from English to Spanish-only at selected stores that were located in areas with a large Hispanic population. The change worked as those stores are now among the best performing in the nation. The lesson here is that Local Marketing works if – and only if – the messaging is relevant to the audience.

So how do you make your Local Marketing messaging relevant? I’d begin with Segmentation. In other words, what do you know about the consumers who visit each location? Is there a concentration of one or more ethnic groups? Are there certain age groups that frequent your store or restaurant? Is English a second language to a large number of your customers, and if so, what is their primary language? Are there different groups visiting at different times, such as professionals in the morning or soccer moms at lunch?

Once you collect data about current or potential customers, you can use it to build your Local Marketing campaigns. For example, if you have a large number of Hispanic customers, you may want to have Spanish or bi-lingual signs for a given location. You also may want to promote different products that meet customer preferences, such as ice tea in the south. Alternately, you might want to promote speedy service to busy professionals.

Messaging can be as involved as you would like. It can be one-dimensional, meaning that you speak to just one customer attribute (i.e. customers 18-25) or it can be multi-dimensional (i.e. professionals who are Hispanic). The specific attributes that you target and the level of complexity can change over time; I strongly recommend starting simple and evolving as you gain experience. However, make sure the technology platform that you are building upon is capable of handling more complex messaging.

The process of mapping location and customer attributes to messages can be time consuming. But once the rules are set, the ongoing effort drops significantly. Furthermore, linking data sources, such as POS databases, into the messaging process allows marketing strategies like localized pricing strategies to be implemented without significant management support. Speaking from my direct experience, the technology needed to deliver store-specific signage is surprisingly efficient and effective once it is set up.

Good luck with your Local Marketing efforts. If you’d like to share a success story or ask a question, please email me at dfergusson@synqsolutions.com and I’d be happy to share it on this blog.

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Welcome to Executing Innovation

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By: Doug Fergusson
July 10, 2009 | No Comments

Welcome to Executing Innovation, the Synq Solutions blog. This feature will be used to share ideas, answer questions and provide information about innovation in our industry. Look for updates on industry trends like cost reduction, localization and shifting marketing media. We’ll also address business problems, as well as specific uses of technology to drive solutions for your company. If you have a specific question or topic that you’d like to know more about, please email us at blog@synqsolutions.com, and we’ll try to address it in our next blog post.

We hope you will find this blog to be a valuable tool in your quest to stay informed about our industry. Our company is founded on technological innovation, and we strive to bring the latest ideas to you so that your company can save time and money on the execution of your marketing campaigns. Before you leave our site today, please visit the Synq Advantage, which explains how we use innovation in our QSR and retail solutions, as well as in the production of our training materials. We also will continue to publish new case studies and white papers. Please bookmark this blog and check back soon for our new series on Local Marketing, which we’ll begin posting next week. This series will explore the various meanings of “local marketing” and all of the issues that stand in the way of real business results.

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