Driving Franchise Growth 

Strategic Insights Power Five Years of Franchise Expansion

The Challenge

Kumon was faced with the task of achieving aggressive growth goals within a five-year time frame. They sought the assistance of Curious Jane to address the challenge of securing a substantial volume of high-quality leads to meet these goals.

The Results

9,500
leads in year one
150+
signed agreements in year one
70%
increase in impressions and clicks to the website
44%
increase in paid lead volume
40%
decrease is cost per lead
10%
increase in click rate

Our comprehensive strategy for Kumon has yielded impressive results, enabling us to effectively reach and engage with the persona. We homed our creative content, optimized our paid media presence and built a strong reputation through PR efforts. By maintaining a consistent and compelling brand narrative, we captured the attention of our target audience, resulting in higher quality, ready-to-convert leads. As we move forward, our commitment to innovation and excellence remains steadfast, ensuring Kumon’s continued success in making a positive impact on children’s lives and communities.

Approach & Insight

After a thorough analysis of 1,600 franchisees, we found a common thread: passion. Kumon Instructors’ primary motive is to help the children in their communities succeed in math and reading. These instructors have experienced the Kumon Method firsthand and understand what a difference it can make for a child. Most instructors were either students themselves, had a child in Kumon or knew someone who used Kumon. We wanted to leverage their knowledge of and trust in the brand as we presented the opportunity for a fulfilling career.

In addition to its dedicated customer base, Kumon boasted a well-established history of success. With over six decades of implementing the Kumon Method, more than 26,000 centers worldwide and consistently ranking as a leading franchisor for over 20 years, Kumon has the experience and resources needed to increase their sales pipeline.

Parents Make Great Owners

Strategy & Execution

After establishing a tailored persona for Kumon, we were able to determine what paid media platforms she uses, her key values, and what type of messaging and creative could resonate with her the most. While our approach for Kumon encompassed a wide variety of services, our primary emphasis revolved around creative content, paid media strategies and public relations efforts.

Creative Content

Our research unveiled a common trend among competitor brands and other franchisors in the children’s education industry – their design elements all bore striking similarities. This not only made it difficult to distinguish one brand from another but also led some to appear more as consumer-focused ads rather than franchise development. We saw this as an opportunity to redefine Kumon’s creative approach. Our aim was not only to convey sophistication and underscore the gravity of the opportunity but also to distinguish ourselves from the competition.

To achieve this, we implemented quarterly refreshes, meticulously analyzing elements such as color schemes, models, fonts, CTAs (Calls to Action), headlines and post copy to identify what generated the highest click-through rates. These refreshes served a dual purpose – they prevented Kumon’s persona from growing weary of seeing the same advertisements while ensuring that Kumon remained at the forefront of its audience’s mind.

As our competitors started to emulate our approach, we viewed it as a flattering acknowledgment of our success, but it also motivated us to continually innovate and devise fresh ideas to maintain our distinct position in the market. By observing a 10% rise in the click rates of our ads, we obtained confirmation that the content we were producing had become more compelling.

Paid Media

The first step was to establish Kumon’s brand presence on paid media platforms; this allows the brand to stay credible and at the top of people’s minds. Through the content presented on the platforms, we wanted to convey Kumon’s key messages:

  • Kumon is the No. 1 education franchise in North America.
  • The persistent education gap means more families need supplemental education and tutoring services than ever before.
  • Kumon is a low-cost franchise opportunity whose proven program and strong reputation allow instructors to build a profitable business that makes a difference in the lives of children and in communities.
  • Teachers who are passionate about education but tired of the bureaucracy in schools are well equipped to become Kumon Instructors, and Kumon will train them on the aspects of business ownership that they don’t already know.

We meticulously tracked leads at every stage of the sales funnel to assess the effectiveness of various creative elements, messaging, platforms and campaign types to identify which combination produced overall the highest volume of qualified leads. Through testing and optimizations, we refined our strategy to find the best balance that caters to the preferences of the persona and the needs of Kumon.

Public Relations

Investing in a franchise is a significant decision that demands careful consideration. While we recognized the credibility of the Kumon business, our challenge was effectively conveying this to individuals who were just getting acquainted with the brand. To bridge this gap, we embarked on an extensive PR campaign to ensure that as Kumon’s persona conducted research, she could establish a stronger connection with the Kumon brand and develop a sense of trust in it.

Our PR team worked closely with Kumon to develop click-worthy content year-round. Through strong relationships with well-known publishers, we were able to get the Kumon brand on established media platforms such as Entrepreneur, FranchiseWire and MSNMoney.

By being able to control the narrative through PR efforts, Kumon was able to shape their own reputation, highlighting the mission they are on to help change the lives of children and positively impact communities. By creating a buzz and maintaining a consistent presence, Kumon established a strong awareness in the minds of their target audience. This resulted in higher quality and more buy-ready leads.

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