Marketing advice
Eliminate design charges
How a web-to-print system can make ordering flyers and leaflets easier for franchise networks
Franchising is all about ‘the formula'. Successful franchisors work hard to establish proven methods and marketing campaigns that can be applied across their network on a franchisee-by-franchisee basis.
Because of ‘the formula', promotional flyers and leaflets for an individual franchisee only require basic adaptation; address, telephone number, price point or the like. However, the personalisation has traditionally required the services of a graphic designer and incurred the associated expense.
Step forward Printing.com with it's new BrandDemand system. Aside from being an established franchisor, Printing.com's new BrandDemand system provides a way for other franchise chains to eliminate graphic design charges via an online, private intranet site.
Printing.com's chief executive Tony Rafferty explains: "It's unusual for a graphic designer to charge less than £30 for anything. If a franchisee orders print five times per year, the wasted expenditure is circa £150."
Tony, previously a director of the British Franchise Association (bfa), suggests that across a network of, say, 50 franchisees the wasted expenditure could exceed £7,000 per annum.
Setting up the BrandDemand system is simple for the franchisor. The rinting.com team takes the established design for flyers and leaflets and turns them into online templates. Individual franchisees can then sign-in via a password protected gateway and edit the template in a standard web browser. The editing process is simple and does not require any special skills.
The system is also useful for business cards and letterheads. A new feature, ‘Active Updates', automatically adds the address and telephone number for a given franchisee, eliminating ‘typos' and making light work of ‘new franchisee starter packs'.
Whilst Printing.com offers a full creative service, the architecture of the system allows graphic design from any agency to be included.
The set-up of the BrandDemand system is free to established franchisors. The system also offers an ‘open format', allowing printed items from suppliers other than printing.com to be included. It can also be used for press ads.
The franchisor stays in control by predetermining the system ‘rules' that establish which elements are editable and what remains fixed. The system also allows the franchisor to review the orders prior to printing - a particularly useful function for new franchisees.
Since its launch earlier this year, more than 20 BrandDemand systems have been set up with bfa members.
One of the system's early adopters is Revive! Auto Innovations, which introduced the system to its network of 80-plus franchisees at their annual conference earlier this year. Mark Llewellyn, managing director of Revive!, says: "Introducing the BrandDemand system was about getting better brand alignment across our network and finding one more way for our franchisees to save money."
