Part of the article featured in the national magazine Making Money…

Many business owners are worrying about their brand and company’s reputation as more businesses take on board a corporate social responsibility strategy or policy for more ethical trading. This is beginning to affect the sensitivity and attitudes of todays empowered consumers.

With the rise in digital media, such as blogs and forums, consumers are publicly discussing every aspect of your business, their experiences with your brand – both good and bad, as well as highlighting the differences between your offering and that of your competitors. How does this affect franchising when you are dependent on an entire network to be consistent? Control can be hard.

So what can you do to ensure your business isn’t just keeping up, but leading the industry? How can you make more money? The answer comes through marketing communications…

· Build solid foundations
· Define strong brand values
· Build relationships with all stakeholders
· Communicate all of the above (listen as well)

The importance of brand values
Developing and maintaining a reputation in a competitive market can be tricky. Yet the best companies do this through consistent communication both within the business (through their network of staff and affiliates) and externally (by communicating with their suppliers, customers and prospective customers).

All businesses need a common goal and an aim, this is just like driving from Portsmouth to London, you need to know which roads to take, where to get petrol and how long it is going to take you to get there. If everyone is focused on a common goal, you are much more likely to achieve it.

Becoming recognised in your industry for doing something well and doing it consistently is vital in building a great brand, this where brand values come in.

Sarah comments “these values tell the world that you are the best, you are trustworthy and you are definitely worth the money. If you can then stand by your values over the long term, you might just achieve more than you can imagine.”

For more information about this subject contact Coconut Creatives on 01963 31030 or email tellmemore@coconutcreatives.co.uk

Coconut Creatives launched a franchise recruitment campaign for Murcia Villas last month and within the first 48 hours they had received over 40 enquiries for their franchise package.

The campaign started with a series of online messages and later continued into national press opportunities with a write up in the Daily Mail in early May 2008.

Information about the Murcia Villas franchise can be found at www.murciavillas.com along with details about the business and how it all started several years ago.

“This franchise package suits individuals that want to improve their lifestyle and live in a warmer climate,” explains Sarah Dyer, founder of Coconut Creatives and Murcia Villas account handler. “I worked closely with Hugh and Fiona, owners of Murcia Villas to understand their business and the type of person that would be interested in this opportunity.”

With the first franchisees now operational, a second signed up and several other hot prospects booked to fly out to Spain for a tour of the possible franchise zones, the future of the business is very optimistic.  Initially, Sarah set realistic objectives for 2008 with Hugh and Fiona. “Having a solid and achievable set of objectives for any project is absolutely essential. The objectives act as mile stones to show how successful the project has been,” adds Sarah.

Coconut Creatives work with a range of owner managed businesses on a variety of projects to help achieve specific objectives. Visit www.coconutcreatives.co.uk to review some recent case studies and to find out what other clients think about the Coconut team.

Hugh and Fiona James outside their Murcia Villas office in Spain

Coconut Creatives was delighted to attend the Greats Awards with client, Shared Earth in London on 22nd May.

The Greats Awards set out to recognise not only the top independent and multiple gift retailers regionally and nationally but highlight many of the finest retailers in the UK and Shared Earth were short listed for the Best Multiple Retailer Award 2008.

“I am extremely pleased to be nominated as one of the 5 finalists for the Best Multiple Retailer Gifts category. I see this as recognition not just for Shared Earth, but for our staff and producers in over 30 countries,” comments Jeremy Piercy, founder of Shared Earth.

Shared Earth provided over 300 reusable jute bags to hold the goodies offered to each attendee on the evening to help spread the word about reusable bags. Coconut Creatives work with Shared Earth on a number of products including supporting the Daily Mail’s recent Banish the Bag campaign which aims to banish the use of plastic bags within the retail environment.

As well as being the UK’s largest independent retailer of non-food Fair Trade products, Shared Earth offer the best selection of recycled products, including bags made from crisp packets in bangladesh, toy cars made from tin cans in Madagascar, office stationery from computer boards in the UK, wall hangings from old saris in India and jewellery from recycled glass in Chile. With sales both on and offline via wholesale and retail channels, their marketing needs to have an integrated and targeted approach. Coconut Creatives has recently assisted in the set up of their second website www.sharedearthnewsandmedia.co.uk to deal with the large number of press enquiries and stories that have been generated through the PR campaign. All types of customers and business affiliates can now go to this website and find content relevant to them.

Late last year, Shared Earth also launched the first Fair Trade franchise in the UK which is capable of doubling the sales of independent non-food Fair Trade products sold nationally. This is an exciting development which has opened up the industry with a wealth of new opportunities for many individuals who wish to work for themselves in a fairly traded retail environment. Coconut Creatives continues to work with Shared Earth on a number of projects including franchise recruitment and PR. Watch out for their latest story featured in the Mail on Sunday on the 8th June.

Jeremy Piercy and Tammy Hullis proudly display two of their reusable jute bags at the Greats Awards on 22nd May 08.