The Challenge
A retail franchise organization facing a litany of challenges approached initiate-it, in search of answers and in need of solutions. Before partnering with initiate-it, this national retailer had experienced 12 successive quarters of same-store sales’ decline and saw more than 20 stores close in the previous two years. An overwhelmed internal marketing team struggled to yield positive results due to nonexistent co-op marketing support, a lack of a national advertising program, an unsophisticated CRM platform and strategy, and an uncoordinated social media approach, all culminating in declining sales and low brand awareness.
The dire situation facing this client prompted an immediate and strategic approach by initiate-it that was tiered into five concerted efforts.
For an organization that had never enacted a national advertising program before, the road to success was lined with uncertainty and initial challenges, but faith in digital marketing and trust in initiate-it’s ability to follow through on their claims led to an impactful and foundational beginning to a successful relationship.
The Strategy
1: Implement Sophisticated CRM Platform and Program
Once the initial priorities had been established and primary tasks completed, initiate-it turned to revitalizing their client’s customer relationship management platform and created advanced email funnel programs to ensure relevant content was reaching the proper parties and at the right frequency. By partnering with a retail-specific CRM platform, initiate-it tied purchase behavior of over 300,000 consumers to their marketing efforts and achieved as high as 45% open rates, which resulted in 3.44 million dollars of attributed sales over a 12-month period.
2: Clean Up and Maximize Value of Social Media
Another “owned asset” this franchise was under- utilizing was their social media channels. Isolated and disjointed, all franchisee social pages operated independently from one another and lacked cohesion. By restructuring the page organization, increasing short and ‘snackable’ content, utilizing vendor posts, participating in social listening, and using user- generated content, initiate-it provided much higher engagement rates and an 18% increase in followers in the first year of operation.
3: Update Tired and Ineffective Brand Messaging
Through CRM, social media, and other content opportunities, initiate-it cultivated and propagated a new brand thematic founded in conceptual realism and the idea of “Beyond Ordinary, Beyond Fun!,” a sentiment that speaks to the essence of what this brand wants to stand for. By updating this messaging and examining every piece of creative through this “Beyond Fun” prism, initiate-it was able to shift consumer perception and the experience at interacting with their client’s brand. In the first year of operation, messaging promoting coupons drove 21,000 redemptions, resulting in 3 million dollars of in-store brick-and-mortar purchases.
4: Execute First-Ever Co-Op Marketing Program
To supplement the annual marketing budget supplied by franchisee contributions, initiate-it enacted the first-of-its-kind co-op marketing program, with the franchise’s vendor partners. After identifying and presenting to 33 of the most important brands in the industry, initiate-it was able to secure enough funding to supplement the annual marketing budget by 36%.
5: Clean Up and Maximize Value of Social Media
The additional funds from the co-op program and strategic marketing decisions allowed initiate-it to deliver exceptional results during its first large-scale digital media campaign with their new client. During this campaign, initiate-it optimized their effectiveness by:
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- Highlighting specific demographic groups
- Geo-fencing media placement in 25-mile radii around store locations
- Using third-party retail data to improve targeting
- Creating look-alike audiences from the existing consumer database
- Using contextual and behavioral triggers
- Remarketing for non-action
If you’re part of a franchise organization that could benefit from a further discussion of how you can see these same results, contact us today and let’s talk!