Managing local grand opening events can be a challenge when you operate in a distributed marketing model. As a corporate marketer you want to support the success of the new location and ensure brand consistency. At the same time, you want to enable your local team the flexibility to create an event that resonates with their local market.
We’ve supported many clients’ local grand opening events. From franchisors facilitating new franchise openings to banks launching newly acquired local branches, here are some guidelines based on our experience:
COMMUNICATION
Local advertisements, flyers and postcards are common communication vehicles for promoting grand opening events. Corporate templates can be created for these materials that lock down key messages, logos, colors and other elements to ensure brand consistency. At the same time, you can provide image options to enable local teams to customize the piece to resonate with their local audience. Specific location information, grand opening dates and hours can also be specified at the local level.
When sending postcards, you can simplify the process for the local team by giving them ability to obtain mailing lists for their surrounding area. If your business has broad appeal, Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) offered by the post office is a cost effective method to deliver your mailer to every home in the area specified. If your business caters to a select demographic, enable your local team to purchase targeted lists.
SELECTABLE ON-SITE ITEMS
Sometimes there are local restrictions on what materials a particular site can display. If you provide a pre-made grand opening kit that includes a banner or a yard sign, for example, those materials will go to waste if they are not permitted at that location. Instead, try offering a range of materials so the local team can order the pieces they can actually use.
PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS
Consumers love giveaways at grand opening events. Provide your local team with a selection of branded items so they can apply their knowledge of the local market and choose the items that will make the biggest impact.
BUDGET MANAGEMENT
Whether you provide corporate funding for grand opening events or you require a certain level of spend by your local team, it’s can be a big time saver to manage the dollars in the same system that is being used to manage and order the marketing materials. As materials are ordered, the event budget automatically decrements by the amount spent.
Successful grand opening events are critical to launching sales at a new location. In a distributed marketing model, ensuring brand consistency while still enabling local customization of the event can be daunting. Marketing resource management systems can simplify the execution of the components described above: from the creation, customization and ordering of materials to budget management. In addition, by managing the event though a system, you can track data on which campaign elements truly drive success and use that knowledge to guide future launches. By simplifying the mechanics of the event execution and using data to continuously improve future events, you can make your grand openings truly “grand.”
