One of the inherent, implied values of purchasing a franchise location for a new restaurant owner is receiving a marketing system that is functional.

Franchisees don’t purchase a location because they want to develop a marketing strategy from scratch. They assume a lot of the marketing bugs have been worked out by the chain.

Most franchise organizations find themselves managing three marketing silos:

A National Campaign (Branding, Etc)

Co-ops which form intentionally or otherwise

Local Store Marketing

The challenge for the franchisor is to successfully integrate those three silos. Successful organizations orchestrate those three silos and organizations that struggle find that those three silos operate independently and have no idea what the other is doing.

I can tell you first hand, that many franchisees are left to their own devices when it comes to Local Store Marketing. The co-ops do their own thing and corporate has it’s own ideas with regard to National branding and advertising.

The problem, as I see it is that the right hand doesn’t know exactly what the left is doing. Marketing messages can actually go in opposite directions within the same company!

My advice to corporate- isolate what is working in these three silos, eliminate the waste, and then coordinate and orchestrate all three so they are moving in the right direction.

From time to time I have a few people comment that we should have more specific tactics listed on our site. Well to be honest, we have clients that pay us to come up with specific tactics that I don’t feel comfortable always posting. Also, some tactics are more germane to one restaurant brand over others.

But, having said that…

Here’s a simple tactic that you can use for any church, with whom you have made a connection. (Remember, you MUST make connections to be able to use our LSM tactics!)

The deal is- any and all church members who produce a church bulletin will receive 10 or 15% off their meal immediately, under these conditions..

They must give you the bulletin (you use it to track, just like a coupon, have your server staple your receipt to it),
They must use it within one week (or two) of the date of the bulletin (expiration date- just like a coupon),
And, alcohol cannot be discounted.

Have faith! It will work.

PS: If your establishment serves alcohol, be respectful and careful of religions that do not advocate alcohol.

If you are like most restaurants, the majority of your employees are between the ages of 17 and 22. Most probably, they could each put you in touch with, or are personally a part of, fundraising opportunities for your restaurant.

Here’s an idea- Hold a staff meeting. Pass out flyers that explain your proposal…..

You will give a 2.5% bonus for any fundraiser, paid directly in cash, to the employee who offers you the lead on the fundraiser. Make it clear to your employees that they are not selling the idea, they are only finding out who makes the decision and handing out a prepared flyer that explains our fundraising night program and instructs the decision maker to call you for details and scheduling.

So, if you have a fundraising day for the High School band and you bring in 2,000 dollars, your employee would receive a cool $50.00 in cash, just for the lead. This leaves you plenty of margin to donate 10-15% to the organzation.

30 employees = 30 salespeople.

Nobody ever said you have to do this stuff alone.

Here’s a good start:

http://twitter.trafficvault.com

I have no affiliation to this, other than to say I entered my email and have found it useful.

Just wanted to pass it along!