Consumers have their favorite franchises because they like the brand consistency among products or services. Yet differentiation in franchise marketing can play a crucial role in increasing your brand awareness while helping individual franchise locations shine. Here’s how to develop content that resonates with satisfied customers while expanding to other local audiences.
Differentiation Boosts Local SEO
As you may know, differentiated marketing refers to tailoring messages to different segments of a target market while being consistent within the overall brand identity. It’s different from mass marketing, which distributes one message to all audiences. While a nationwide franchise might have a particular slogan or aesthetic, market research might identify other potential customers within a target audience demographic, allowing franchise owners to explore this niche appeal.
Imagine a fitness franchise that has a location near a hospital complex or a university, for instance. Differentiated marketing for this franchise might highlight its late-night hours, safety and cleanliness, appealing to health care workers with erratic schedules, or discounted memberships for college students. Another franchise in a neighborhood with young families might talk up its free onsite childcare.
While the marketing campaigns might differ for these audiences, the overall marketing strategy would still be aligned with the brand image.
Diverse Franchise Marketing Strategies
Diversity is a major factor when it comes to almost every brand. That’s no different in franchise marketing, even though this involves more nuance in considering the overall brand as well as each franchisee’s specific market.
A franchise marketing expert can specify your email marketing, digital marketing and social media marketing efforts to reach new audiences and enhance customer loyalty based on the pain points and other specifics of any group you wish to target.
A fast-food chain might offer a BOGO hamburger promotion or other budget conscious options to franchise locations in a college town, while highlighting “kids eat free” days in more family-heavy areas.
Upcycled clothing franchises such as Plato’s Closet and Style Encore both advertise buying drives for coats and boots in the fall. While local franchises in a warmer climate such as Florida will buy different coats than stores in the Northeast, differentiated marketing – showing models wearing coats that aren’t too heavy, for instance – still supports the brand’s commitment to sustainable clothing.
Social media posts provide a prime opportunity to expand into new territories and demographics, branching off from the brand story to highlight local success stories and events through search engine optimization. A restaurant franchise devoting a percentage of sales during certain hours to raise money for a nearby school or hosting a car show for aficionados increases brand visibility, social engagement and foot traffic.
Differentiation in franchise marketing also can help a brand grow overall. If your restaurant franchise incorporates regional flavors or local ingredients, that speaks to its community engagement and builds brand loyalty. Likewise, a franchise known for its green initiatives can appeal to customer values and minimize its ecological footprint by offering, say, free or reduced-price refills to those who purchase a tumbler from the franchise.
Effective marketing isn’t intimidated by the diversity but leverages it to appeal to a variety of local audiences. Talk with a marketing expert today about how differentiation can make a lasting impression and enhance brand visibility in your franchise marketing efforts.
