Tom Feltenstein

Are you aware that 93% of local store marketing dollars are wasted on ineffective or poorly executed programs with little or no ROI? This dire situation, which has wreaked havoc with franchisees all over North America, has haunted me for a decade.  I finally came up with the solution! And at the International Franchise Association’s national convention on February 7, 2010, I rolled out my innovative plan for franchisees called Precision Marketing. Here it is…I want to take 2% of the franchisee marketing budget, allocate it to a national fund that is spent proportionally back every month in all the franchisee locations.

After merging local and national-fund marketing dollars, we create a 12-month marketing plan that includes a tightly integrated approach of promotions, incentives and tactics customized to each franchisee’s operation.  Through the pooling of all marketing dollars, franchisees get to see a huge economy of these promotions.  This enables franchisees to have programs working on their behalf that they could never do themselves; now these programs are done for everyone!

The real eye-opener for franchisees is when they see that the dollars they send into the franchisor are now being proportionally sent back to their location. For example if the franchisee makes average unit sales of 700K, if your fund becomes a total of 4%, that is $28,000 spent effectively back in their own store!

This is a bold move for a franchise to take, but I’m confident that implementing this system will allow franchisees to provide better service, increase sales, and enjoy the freedom to really focus on what’s important, without having to worry so much about marketing.

I’ve put more information about my Precision Marketing on my website, so click here if you want to read more plus get the five most powerful reasons franchisees are getting on board with this system. Post a comment if you have any more questions or call my office at 561-6501-1315.

The Most Potent Strategy for Businesses of All Sizes

A popular misconception exists that because neighborhood marketing is a community-based strategy, it’s most effective with small businesses, and that bigger companies ought to stick to mass media campaigns. To the contrary, big box stores will also gain the competitive advantage by deploying neighborhood marketing strategies, as will non-retail businesses such as maid services, lawn care, pest control, etc.  The truth is, any mass-market media campaign won’t work without a complementary neighborhood marketing campaign. It actually doesn’t matter if you’re a multi-billion dollar company or a corner grocery store – the same principles apply.  In fact, these days more and more big-name companies like Starbucks, The Cheesecake Factory, Virgin Group, and Harley Davidson rely on neighborhood marketing strategies rather than mass media campaigns  Mass

A Revolutionary Concept as Old as the Corner Grocery Store
The revolutionary concept of Neighborhood Marketing is as old as the 19^th Century corner grocery store, whose owners knew their customers’ names, addresses, and birthday.  From the corner grocer to the big box superstore, what distinguishes neighborhood marketers from their competitors is the fact that they care about the people who live and work in their communities.  As a result, they deliver superb service, provide a product line that’s sensitive to their customer’s needs and desires, and generate an ever-growing following of intensely loyal patrons.   Not until you’ve maximized all of your opportunities within your own four walls, should you even give mass marketing a passing thought.  For the past 40 years, we’ve been teaching thousands of businesses that it’s all local, and that everything sells.  Neighborhood Marketing begins inside your four walls, from your employees, to the real estate located within 10-minute drive or walk from your place of business.  And it’s your most powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal, no matter how big or small you are.