I’m often asked about tactics which can fit into a marketing strategy, so this month’s tips focus on a few different ideas that can be done alongside your existing 2008 campaign.

Often the temptation is to focus all efforts on recruitment when in fact, your existing franchisee network is capable of much more than you think.

Franchisees at Exhibitions
Taking a franchisee to an exhibition with you gives two very clear messages to prospective franchisees. That you are happy for prospects to chat with an existing franchisee and that you have happy franchisees. So much time is spent on the lead up to an exhibition in the preparation of the stand, signing off final artwork and sorting last minute freebies to tempt prospects onto your stand. The best possible attraction that a franchisor can have on their stand is a real life franchisee (even if they wear a t-shirt saying “I’m a Franchisee”) the message will be strong, clear and powerful. So make sure you take a franchisee with you and get them talking to the visitors

Franchisee recruitment questions
Franchisees are the best possible advocate for your brand and franchise package. It has been proven that when prospects are given a chance to talk to or visit and existing franchisee, they ask better questions and therefore find out at an earlier stage if the franchise is for them. After all, the franchisee is doing the job that they hope to do. They will have many questions and will want to find out what it is like in their shoes. This may require some training and agreement from a particular franchisee and is well worth the effort.

Marketing collateral
Use your chosen franchisees on marketing materials, within press releases and on your website. People like to see people and their testimonials will aid your franchise success for the future. All franchisees should be encouraged to report on positive feedback, gain comments from their own customers and to take photos where possible. You never know when this material might come in handy saving time and money when a promotional opportunity requires such materials. However, be choosey on which materials you use as they must meet your brand standards and give the right message.

Research for future development
Your existing franchisees can offer valuable insights into the future development of the franchise package. A system for capturing their feedback on everything from initial training to newly launched products is essential for continual improvement to maintain a competitive advantage in the future.

Useful Tips
1. Try to build a bank of franchisee case studies which ideally cover several key market areas. Such market areas can include women in franchising or couples in franchising. This allows you to have marketing collateral at your disposal to target specific market segments.
2. Always take a franchisee when you attend events and exhibitions to recruit new franchisees
3. Ideally have a franchisee that is available for serious prospects to talk to.
4. Encourage a marketing focus within your network and reward your franchisees for offering customer case studies that you, as the franchisor, can use.

The India trip 5 – 18th January 2008 was organised by Fair Trade UK based retail company Shared Earth as a buying trip and to gain images of the manufacturing process to use in their marketing materials. Sarah Dyer and Chris Cook from Coconut Creatives accompanied the group to undertake interviews and gain images for press opportunities.

During the trip the Shared Earth team visited many different suppliers in Delhi, Agra, Saharanpur and Kolkatta. These suppliers are working with hundreds of Indian producers to offer fairly traded products world-wide.

The Shared Earth and Coconut Creatives team were taken to a slum, orphanage, villages, cities and funded schools travelling right across India to discover the real positive impact that Fair Trade is making on the workers and their family’s lives.

What we discovered…
Fair Trade projects have been set up by the Indian suppliers throughout India to give back to the community. Details of many of these projects can be found on www.sharedearthnewsandmedia.co.uk. A sample can be found below:
1. A school slum which provides funded education for 60 children from 400 families living in Delhi

2. A funded orphanage which cares for and educates former child workers, child prostitutes and abandoned children from the Delhi region

3. An E-Academy to teach children necessary computer skills in Kolkatta
4. A self sufficient project for deaf and dumb adults giving them a fair chance to work making handicrafts which are sold internationally
5. Many, many workshops that provide consistent employment, fair wages, pensions, healthcare schemes and safer working conditions for master craftsmen and workers throughout India

Vicki Cunningham editor of Franchisor News recently invited Sarah Dyer, Marketing Specialist from Coconut Creatives Ltd to write a regular marketing feature within the Franchisor News magazine.

“I’m thrilled to be writing for the magazine,” says Sarah. “There are so many elements to marketing and franchised businesses can generate so much benefit from employing just a few of the tools that I will be explaining through the features.”

The magazine is full of franchisor examples and news from the industry. Vicki has ensured that the tone is light and the text large so that it is an easy yet informative read.

Watch out for the next quarterly addition which goes to print later this month and is available from the beginning of December.  For more information about the magazine go to www.franchisornews.co.uk

Morrisons supermarkets are now proud stockists of Bridport based Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes in a move to support local quality producers.

Coconut Creatives client, Richard Bowditch from Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes, was approached by Morrisons a few months ago and now customers can find these freshly hand prepared cakes in Morrisons stores throughout the Wessex region.

“As a local producer, we are delighted to be able to share our cakes with a wider audience and the feedback has been fabulous,” says Jessica Bowditch, who was the original inspiration for Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes.

Coconut Creatives has been working towards preparing the marketing and in-house systems to allow for a greater demand such as the new Morrison’s contract. The implementation of a customer relationship management system for Richard and his staff to use has made a big difference to the speed of the operation. Coconut Creatives came up with the idea after a gruelling internal audit.

The marketing stance for Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes has always focused on being local. Hand prepared at Manor Farm near Bridport using local ingredients wherever possible, Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes has been using traditional recipes and techniques for three generations. If your mouth is watering at the thought of a five inch high chocolate sponge cake, pop to your local Morrisons and pick one up for the whole family to share.

For more information about Jessica’s Farmhouse Cakes go to www.jessicasfarmhousecakes.co.uk

Every day, on the radio, in newspapers and on television, we’re being extolled to go green, reduce carbon emissions, eat more healthy food and use fair-trade suppliers – in fact, just live a better lifestyle. GreenerLiving magazine is there to help make sense of all the conflicting advice, by giving balanced information on each subject, allowing readers to make the right choices for themselves.

More than 30,000 copies are distributed free every two months through supermarkets and point of sale promotions and readers can subscribe and receive a personal copy delivered to their door.

Working with Dorset-based Coconut Creatives marketing house, Greener Living magazine will soon be launching the GreenerLiving Club, a loyalty scheme giving members access to discounts from a wide range of companies offering ‘greener’ products and services, as well as a regular e-newsletter packed with even more club promotions and information on greener solutions.

“We’re really excited about launching the GreenerLiving Club,” said Sarah, Partner of Coconut Creatives. “We’ve been working with Peter Batt, GreenerLiving’s editor for a few months now and the magazine has been really well received so far. We have big plans to for its continued success over the coming months.”

To coincide with the club launch later this year, GreenerLiving is also launching a special corporate Partners and Affiliates programme. With a number of options, ranging from a simple business listing to a high-profile case study, and coupled with website and e-newsletter banner advertising, the programme will offer businesses the opportunity to promote their ‘green’ products and services to consumers who really want to buy.

For more information about GreenerLiving Magazine or to download a back copy go to www.greenerliving.tv

After operating a successful central London office a mile from London Bridge, Coconut Creatives decided to move to the tranquil and creative location of Charlton Musgrove, a village just off the A303 past Stone Henge.

The reason for the move came about after a surge of clients in the South of England!

However, since the move the Coconuts have been traveling back to London at least once a week to work with London based businesses which use their marketing services on a regular basis.

Chris Livett, owner of Thames Luxury Charters and Waterman to the Her Majesty the Queen requested for Christopher Cook to work on several projects this year. “At the moment, I feel like I have the best of both worlds, I spend a day or so a week in London and the rest of the time in Somerset,” remarks Chris Cook, Coconut Creatives Partner.

As mentioned in a previous feature, one of Coconut Creatives main objectives is to help owner managed businesses reach their goals. “Moving out of London has always been a consideration as I grew up in the countryside. I know I am very lucky to be able to help so many businesses work towards their own goals and it is a bonus that it has brought me closer to my own,” says Sarah Dyer, founder of Coconut Creatives Ltd.

So whether you are aiming for a hotel on the moon or a cocktail on a Friday night, “aim high,” say the Coconuts, “you never know when you’ll get an opportunity to move closer to where you really want to be.”

Although since the move back in June, Coconut Creatives has attracted several new clients in the Yorkshire region, so we wonder where they might be located in the future…

Since graduating from Bournemouth University in 2005, Tariq Ebrahim has had big plans to redefine the online dating market with a brand new concept; theICEBREAKER.

Launched on the 1st December 2006, with national newspaper and radio coverage, the business concept had a great start towards hopeful success.

What makes theICEBREAKER different from other online dating sites is that the real magic doesn’t happen online. Once registered and armed with cards, you could be absolutely anywhere, even stuck in a crowed public place where traditional ‘chat up’ lines just wouldn’t be appropriate.

Tariq explains “You sign up, order your cards and start giving them out. Then, next time you’re at a party, on a train or even at work and you see someone you’d like to get to know better, just give them a card… they go to our website and look at your profile and if they like you, they click to accept the date!”

Tariq also happened to give a card to Sarah Dyer at Coconut Creatives and began a new type of relationship… a professional marketing one.

Since it’s conception, Coconut Creatives has helped www.theicebreaker.co.uk make affiliations with Bournemouth University, Islandoo (owned by the Channel 4) and the BBC to help raise awareness of this unique online dating phenomenon and increase its growing online membership base.

Coconut Creatives found out about this frightening Statistic whilst working with Dorset Company FitKid.

Coconut Creatives is now helping FitKid launch its Franchise in the UK for the first time, to help combat the emerging statistics on UK child obesity. You can find Coconut Creatives and FitKid at the National Franchise Exhibition stand M90 on the 6th and 7th of October 06 in Birmingham.

Fortunately, the government is fully supportive towards FitKid’s business aims, so it couldn’t be a better time for franchisees to get involved.

FitKid had a famous start, as it was previously owned by Rosemary Conley and now has over 14 years experience in running FitKid Clubs, so FitKid has the skills and knowledge to support franchisees in building a successful franchise business.

Coconut Creatives is working closely with Nicky Kay, FitKid’s Development Director (and mother of two!) to help make active play a priority in childhood through the FitKid Franchise offering.

“With a nation of computer games and cable television, children are becoming less and less active. It’s our job to make fitness fun and give the children of tomorrow an essential life skill,” explains Nicky.

For more information about FitKid go to www.fitkid.co.uk

Coconut Creatives seems to be attracting clients with a strong ethical stance. Maybe because they can see we really care about making a difference to their business. The Stocks Inn pub in Furzehill, Dorset was no exception…

However, many recent projects have a very serious undertone and we hope that by helping these companies achieve their goals, we’ll also be supporting and advancing awareness of the issues they are so passionate about.

An identified ’people issue’ today surrounds diet and fitness. This is not just due to lack of physical activity, but the increasing temptation to eat naughty foods! Now, everyone knows how nice chocolate can be, or curry on a Saturday night. But for many people, fast food has become more than an occasional treat, what’s more, its hassle free and cheap.
This in tern has damaged many local producers of good quality, natural foods as many have struggled to stay in business under the shadow of empires like McDonalds and KFC and of course the supermarkets convenience and economies of scale.
Coconut Creatives latest marketing adventure took the shape of turning one down trodden, mass microwave, slash, frozen meal pub into an up market, locally respected establishment providing high quality meals using entirely local produce – supporting all the local little suppliers!

By thinking ‘outside the box’ partnerships and friendships were established with small local producers, to enable a magical transformation for The Stocks Inn to become a classy, caring and sharing type place.

If you want to take advantage of their all day Sunday Carvery you’d better book a fortnight in advance and start queuing at 10am! And I can say for sure that their exotic food night is definitely an eye opener!

Maybe not coconuts but every business owner has an ultimate goal and ours is to escape to a desert island filled with palm trees!

The reason I have started with this analogy is business owners tend to get bogged down in the daily operation of their company and loose sight of what they are actually doing it all for!

Ask yourself; are you suffering from the common things associated with small independent business:

- Keeping up with new technology
- Growing pains as you expand
- HR issues and red tape
- Loosing site of the customer as the market changes (so does customer needs)
- You know what you want to do but just don’t have enough time to do it

The answer can be simpler than you think!

The owners we work with often know what they need to do to generate more profit, many simply need more time! The reason you are doing what you do is because you are good at it. The forward momentum of the operation tends to be left to grow in an ad-hoc way which is not the best way.

We have one core aim which is to offer the small independent businesses a fair and fighting chance at reaching that aim, whether it is a desert island with palm trees or a luxury motor yacht…