Franchise Update Magazine Issue II, 2013 | Page 38
Grow Market Lead
CMO
roundtable:
“How can marketing
help increase the brand’s speed
of communication, response,
and growth?”
Sara Costello
Senior Director, Marketing
Sylvan Learning
In the world of a franchisee, things are always moving at the
speed of light, yet
sometimes even the
most crucial activities—like following
up with customer leads from a website—can fall by the wayside. Or, expectations from the customer standpoint
change. Who doesn’t expect an almost
immediate reply when they send an
email or submit a request for more information? With the bar set for high
and fast (and getting higher and faster),
we have to stop and look around for
solutions; not things to slow down our
customer, but ways that we can respond
quickly and effectively without staying
glued to our machines 24/7.
In our organization, when it comes to
outreach to potential customers on our
website, we have embraced the “faster
is better” mantra. Within appropriate
business hours, we partner with a team
that receives our leads in real-time and
reaches out to them. This systematic
solution allows us to “right apply” our
resources: resource-constrained franchisees and center teams use the solution to get them in contact with the
most interested customers right away,
without spending their precious time
phoning everyone over and over, or
losing track of who they have and have
not been able to call or reach.
Another solution that helps our center teams keep in touch with customers
in a high-quality, consistent way is the
automatic follow-up they can trigger using their CRM tool, which is integrated
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with an enterprise-wide campaigning
solution. Center teams have great conversations with customers, and know
that once they enter data in the CRM,
their customer is going to quickly get
the communication they need to feel
informed and connected. Again, people
can focus on people, and are supported
by smart, technology-enabled solutions.
The net result has been an increase
in the conversion of web leads into paying customers and brand advocates. It’s
enabled learning center teams to do what
they do best: serve more students and
families in their communities. We’ve
taken the speedy road to the win, using
technology, integration, and people for
their best purposes.
Paul M. Macaluso
Chief Marketing Officer
Moe’s Southwest Grill
One of the most exciting and satisfying
parts of marketing is
the ability to unlock
and activate on a consumer need. To see
business results jump
because of a smart and well-designed
campaign is truly exhilarating. Innovative and high-functioning marketing
departments can not only help, but
should lead the brand’s speed of communication, response, and growth.
First and foremost, the marketing
department should be the champion
of the consumer within a brand. Other
departments will champion operations
or financial results, but it is marketing’s
role to be constantly thinking of the consumer, of ways to increase the brand’s
relevance with them and continue to
meet their evolving needs.
One of the best ways to increase the
brand’s speed of response is through
social media. Because we emphasize
being transparent and responsive, and
staff our resources accordingly, we
have been able to quickly and meaningfully engage with our customers.
One example that immediately comes
to mind is Taco Stacks, one of our new
product launches.
We launched Taco Stacks in August
2011, as a four-month LTO. Quickly
following the end of the promotion,
some of our customers started a petition on Facebook to “Bring Back the
Stacks.” These were real fans who fell in
love with Taco Stacks and were trying
to get fellow customers’ support—and
our attention—to bring them back.
Within 48 hours, we connected with
our internal and franchisee constituencies and decided to give these fans a target. If they reached 100,000 “likes” on
their Facebook petition, we would bring
back the Stacks. We ended up relaunching the Taco Stacks in October 2012 as
a permanent menu item, and we even
gave those fans credit in our messaging.
In terms of being proactive in this
area, the marketing department should
be deeply connected to insights on its
target consumer and competitive set.
Our department is constantly sharing
industry articles, insight reports, and
taking advantage of training seminars
provided by our larger business partners.
I also take the marketing department
out for lunch once a month at a competitor’s location. The entire department
is required to follow up by answering
three questions: 1) What do you think
the brand was really great at? 2) What
do you think they intentionally decided
to be bad at? 3) Are there any