Advertising & Marketing

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The lifeblood of any business is advertising and marketing, and the system supporting Kennedys™ is comprehensive.

First and foremost, all the advertising and marketing is direct-response based. One of the greatest advertising men of modern times, David Ogilvy, who built one of the world’s largest ad agencies (Ogilvy & Mather) was known to criticize his own people, telling them that only the “direct response people” really know what they’re doing. We believe brand identity should not be purchased, but should come about as by-product of direct response. As background, direct-response evolved from “mail-order advertising,” where there is no ambiguity or mystery about results: orders received or coupons redeemed tell the story. The principles and strategies of direct-response are very different from traditional image advertising, and require greater skill and experience to use with maximum effectiveness. What this means to the Kennedy’s™ franchise owner is simple: 0% waste; 100% accountability; solid return on investment.

Second, there is complete offline and online integration. Each Franchisee is supported online via a complete Kennedy’s™ web site with directory of locations, all created and maintained for you. The website also features direct-response methodology; it is not just an information site akin to a brochure; there is visitor contact information capture and fully-automated, multi-step, multi-media follow-up….us doing work for you, converting leads to customers. Also featured: state of the art audio and video presentations at the site.  Online marketing will include email campaigns to the entire national lead base (i.e. visitors to site) use of “new media” such as YouTube, Facebook, etc., as well as banner ads and pay-per-click.

Offline national advertising features print advertising in selected magazines and publicity/public relations, driving traffic to the websites.  For retention, referral stimulation, and marketing of additional goods, services, seasonal promotions, etc., Members receive both offline and online newsletters – again, us doing work for you.  Over time, Members will become involved in a closed online community, and the online marketing will expand to a growing portfolio of products/services presented in online catalog formats, additional businesses, and joint ventures with other select companies . . . and franchise owners will share in these ancillary income streams.

Third, for the franchise owner at the local level, there is comprehensive local advertising and marketing support, for both external and internal marketing. For external, to attract new clientele, Kennedy’s™ has and continually develops and provides new direct-mail campaigns for geographic/demographic, affinity and other target-market lists including innovative, tested, proven birthday, half-birthday…and other seasonal or event-based campaigns; charity tie-in promotion campaigns; and publicity
campaigns…all “turn-key” and ready to use, with full vendor support in place – so you never need to scratch your hand and, as amateur, figure out and create advertising, direct-mail pieces or promotions from scratch, on your own.

For internal, to convert customers to Members, for sale of more products and services, for retention and for referrals, we again provide a complete collection of done-for-you, ready-to-use tools, with full vendor support.  One of the “insider secrets” we know from our own businesses….and that Dan Kennedy has proven in his work with practice marketing in chiropractic, dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, cosmetic surgery and weight loss…is that INTERNAL marketing is even more important and more powerful than external. “Growing from within” by multiplying your best Members through referrals is a process to be strategic about, purposed about, to manage as an active marketing  function – not something to let occur only organically, settling for whatever happens on its own.

There is, of course, a complete, step-by-step SALES SYSTEM, for converting first time customers to Members, including scripts, tools, staff training, and “appointment-no sale” follow-up direct-mail pieces.

Bottom-line: in most businesses, you are “on your own” when it comes to advertising and marketing . . . always reinventing the wheel, often guessing, and usually aware there are people smarter and more experienced at these tasks, but out of reach and unaffordable to you, as one lone small business owner. Being part of a large, growing franchise organization should resolve this weakness and give you access to and support from “the best and the brightest” – but it very, very rarely does. Most franchise companies are, perhaps surprisingly, not marketing oriented and their leaders do not view theirs as marketing businesses. If you ask the CEO of a restaurant chain or company like YUM Brands® (which owns KFC and others) or Wendys® and Arbys®, for example, what business they are in, they’ll answer by saying they are in the restaurant or fast food or food service business. They do not see themselves as in the advertising and marketing business. We do. We are an advertising and marketing “special opps” team devoting our expertise and energy to the marketing of the Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club™. We do not think of ourselves as being in the barber shop business having to do some advertising and marketing; rather we’re in the advertising and marketing business, supporting barber shops. This is more than a semantic difference. It is a profound distinction you should consider about the team you want working for you!  And that is, after all, what your franchisor should be: a team working for you.

Media

The following are excerpts from recent news articles about both Kennedy’s and the grooming industry at-large.These comments offer objective insights about this concept, and its carefully-chosen niche. 

“While some analysts say this isn’t the best time to get into franchising, it’s fine; especially for a franchise that targets such a basic service need as hair care.”

– Nick Bibby,
Franchise Consultant

“[Kennedy’s] shops have been able to gain members thanks to strong word-of-mouth. The business is also recession proof, because hair doesn’t stop growing when the economy is in the tank, and its customers – typically affluent folks like doctors, lawyers and executives – aren’t as affected by the most severe aspects of the economic downturn.”

–Franchise Times

“The monthly membership tends to steady a unit’s ship in the midst of economic turmoil. We have a very loyal clientele and people do need haircuts. Businessmen like the idea of paying a membership.”

–Sandra Norris,
Kennedy’s Franchisee 

“Across the industry, the revenue of hair care brands that franchise has increased 80 percent.”

– Peter Schwarzer,
Director of Research
FRANdata
November 2008

“The clubs have lower overhead and virtually no inventory.”

–Franchise Times

“Men are increasingly likely to spend more money on their looks than they once were. Sales of men’s grooming products and services increased nearly 70 percent between 2002 and 2005. And yet men’s piece of the $59 billion haircutting market remains small and largely fragmented.”                                                   

– AC Nielsen

“Hurn is a seasoned financier and business coach whose company, Mercantile [Commercial Capital], works with numerous franchises. He is also confident in his ability to use the strategies he employed in building a fast-growing financial company in the franchise world” [Mercantile was a member of the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest-growing companies in 2007].

– Franchise Times

“The business is in keeping with Starbucks’ concept of ‘not a coffee shop but a 3rd place;’ in this case , the place for men who want a very different experience than sharing a noisy, smelly, hectic hair salon with men and women. Operations are relatively simple and size small, so the units lend themselves to absentee ownership and management, making these, in my opinion, ideal second businesses for doctors, lawyers, accountants and other professionals, retailers, upscale restaurant owners, and others. This is further assisted by the extent of the ‘done for you’ marketing provided. The investment to open is modest by fixed-location, bricks-and-mortar franchise standards, and more quickly recoverable than in most situations. It is in perfect sync with emergent demographic and psychographic trends – it moving to where the money is moving – mass-affluent and affluent clientele notably including affluent  boomers. Thus, it is a premium price business with superior profit margins affording economic advantage in attracting and retaining members.”                                                   

— Dan Kennedy,
Marketing Guru

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