The Power of Programs - Franchising Magazine USA

The strength of a franchise hinges on the power of the brand. Brand recognition and loyalty turn customers into brand ambassadors. A successful brand strategy steers the boat. A Clayton Kendall program can be a key element in achieving brand success.

The power of programs is well documented and has proven time and again to be useful to franchise communities. Our branded merchandise programs can help your franchise program scale rapidly, save money, and better manage all promotional items, signage, uniform, and marketing pieces. Relying on one of our programs is the ideal way to ensure brand harmony and consistency, reassuring customers that their experiences across the board will be similar and reliable. It also makes it easier for individual franchisees to execute without having a marketing team or the required breadth to effectively market on their own.

Let’s take a closer look into why programs work and how they can help your franchise market effectively and efficiently.

Convenience

Simplifying the process and making it easy for all of the stores in your franchise to get on board with marketing efforts instantly eliminates many hurdles. When the marketing supply chain is firmly established it becomes convenient. When individual franchisees don’t have to seek out and vette suppliers, select products, provide brand logos and color specifications, and manage different distribution options, the marketing element has a streamlined and seamless quality. This makes it easier for individual stores to order marketing materials, which translates into greater compliance. Even franchisees who don’t understand the value of marketing, have a hard time fighting back when the process becomes a smooth part of their day-to-day operations.

Consistency

Part of what makes a program convenient is also what adds consistency. When the process is streamlined and controlled through a program, you can rely on having products that fit your brand standards and specifications. There’s no worry about Company A and/or Company B coming through with the right color palette, finding goods that fit your standards, and making sure promotions are on-brand. All of those quality elements are controlled and pre-established.

Consistency is a critical component of marketing for franchises. The goal is to reach the market in the same way and create a sense of comfort and familiarity. Customers should feel reassured that if they enjoyed their experience in one of your locations, they’ll get the same experience, quality, and a consistent result from all of the others. This goes a long way toward solidifying brand loyalty.

Control of Product

Having the ability to control all products that represent a brand is a critical component of building a quality reputation. Competition in the franchise world is huge and establishing a brand identity and holding your leadership position with your market is what leads to success. When marketing elements fall short of your quality expectations, you’ve lost control of the product and your franchise reputation can suffer.

Additionally, the supply chain associated with your orders is more manageable when it’s handled by one company and an established program guides purchasing. This eliminates any “surprises” in supply and demand and keeps your promotional schedule on track.

Cost Savings

It’s estimated that as much as 60% of marketing supply chain costs go into ancillary areas like distribution, freight, storage, and obsolescence. Improving the spend and your ROI can be as simple as signing up for a program with Clayton Kendall. Paring down your supplier list pays dividends and increases your purchasing power. There are also smaller transactional costs when fewer vendors are involved.

An incremental benefit of relying on a single provider is that your strength as a purchaser increases, earning greater discounts. This can reach across several channels in your business from marketing to employee uniforms, signage and print promotions to storefront displays. Also, having one system for ordering makes inventory management more efficient. This gives your marketing team an idea of where money is going and what efforts are most effective, allowing you to do some budgetary finetuning on your end.

The Clayton Kendall Program

Setting your franchisees up for success is a win/win across the board and requires a lot of smart planning at the corporate level. One cog in a well-oiled franchise machine is the marketing supply chain.

This is where Clayton Kendall steps in with a customized program. This relieves much of the marketing and outsourcing burden from individual locations and owners, making it easier for them to opt in. Through customized online stores, quality remains consistent across the board, and you control which products represent your brand.

Through a Clayton Kendall website store profiles are created to track each franchisee, allowing for management reports, budgetary controls, order tracking, ad generation, custom orders, image storage, virtual proofing and more. Each online store is unique for the community it serves and can be scaled as your company adds more franchisees. In effect, each location’s web portal allows for creativity within established boundaries, opening the door to successful marketing and effortless promotions.

Moving beyond the website, Clayton Kendall offers many services that would otherwise have to be outsourced at great expense and with multiple vendors. Through our programs you have access to:

Graphic design
Kitting and fulfillment
Merchandising and purchasing
Printing
Manufacturing
Direct customer marketing
Digital marketing

This brings all of the elements in your marketing supply chain services under one umbrella, streamlining operations and maintaining brand compliance through an effortless online channel. Your brand is freed to scale rapidly, exercise control over promotional and marketing items, and resources are available for other avenues, giving your brand a greater reach in the community while solidifying your reputation.

In the long run, we understand that it’s all about ROI. A program with Clayton Kendall puts your investments to work, making the most of marketing efforts through bulk discounts, effective communication, and delivering consistency and quality that accurately reflects your brand. This leads to a lower investment profile and a higher return for the brand overall as well as individual franchisees. Clayton Kendall programs build a stronger ROI from the inside out by adding efficiency and control over the entire marketing supply chain services funnel, creating a more powerful customer-facing brand image.