Franchise marketing conference

Franchise Marketing Conference

Ensure your marketing messages reach the right destination

The third annual Franchise Marketing Conference takes place on 11 September 2008 in Birmingham. Following the success of last year’s event, Editor and Conference Manager Alison Church provides an insight on the programme for 2008

It’s amazing how quickly time passes; it only seems a month or so since the Franchise Marketing Conference last September, and already we’re busy forming the programme for 2008.

This year will see the third Franchise Marketing Conference, which takes place in the run up to The National Franchise Exhibition, and offers franchisors an exclusive and essential briefing on some of the key and most challenging aspects of marketing a franchise.

Last year’s event was a sell-out (so we’ve upgraded rooms at the Hyatt to allow for the extra demand) and covered topics such as PR, web marketing, branding, managing franchisees’ marketing, and global expansion with case studies from franchises such as ChipsAway, Gymboree and BB’s Coffee & Muffins.

This year’s focus

One of the things I am often asked is how franchisors can find more high quality franchisees, and how they can spread their messages into a wider field. Therefore, this is one of the key focuses the conference programme will take this year.

A key method that can aid finding more high quality franchisees is a better understanding and utilisation of PR; particularly in light of recent economic developments and the so-called ‘credit crunch’, franchisors have a great opportunity to communicate the benefits of starting a business with the security of an existing brand. In fact, this is something Brody Sweeney highlights in this issue’s exclusive interview, that franchisors can really popularise the success stories of franchising for people more than they do.

Other topics will include: branding; targeting and market segmentation for franchisee recruitment; communicating effectively through different types of media and with different target markets; effective marketing planning; and understanding the franchisee research and decision process.

This year, we are also adding a series of 30-minute one-to-one marketing consultancy clinics, run by Coconut Creatives. These will take place throughout the day, and will enable any franchisor to gain individual and personal marketing advice and feedback from the experts.

The full conference programme will be available in early July, at www.franchiseinfo.co.uk/fmc - or to ensure you receive the programme as soon as it is available, you can email us on fmc@vmgl.com.

Comments from 2007 delegates:

•    “Very good value for money, interesting, and lots of friendly useful contacts. I would highly recommend”
•    “Useful and insightful presentations putting marketing into useful franchising situations”
•    “Very well organised with very relevant guest speakers”
•    “Good venue, professional speakers, good networking”
•    “Informative and interesting, a great networking opportunity and chance to meet members of Venture”
•    “Excellent facilities, well thought out programme”
•    “Very useful day, good choice of subjects”
•    “Accommodation and meals were superb”