Continuing my series of monthly highlighted IMC campaigns, this month I’d like to turn our attention to Meineke, or more specifically one Midwest Meineke (Meineke of Burnsville) that put IMC to work with the help of Bluewater.
What makes this particular situation so interesting is that at the same time the Burnsville Meineke was opening, three other locations were opening in the same general area. What this allows us to analyze is how well this particular Meineke performed compared to the other locations, which did not employ IMC to the same degree.
Bluewater are franchise marketing experts, so they have tremendous experience using IMC to help franchise owners succeed. To promote the grand opening of Meineke of Burnsville, they used a combination of direct mail, social media, advertising through banners and Facebook ads and PR (media outreach) to form the foundation of a robust IMC plan. They also had people on the ground managing events and generating word of mouth for this particular Meineke location.
The end result? The owner reported his Meineke store opened with a bang. Revenue at grand opening was 30% higher than projected, and this store had almost 20% more dollars per invoice than the 3 other new stores in the area. In other words, Meineke of Burnsville was selling more to each customer than the others. When all the various IMC channels were actively working together, his invoices per day spiked 130%. Today, the store is still outperforming the others, generating 30% more invoices. So the impact of IMC extended far beyond the grand opening and continues to have a positive effect on business.
Bluewater was also smart to help the owner track the performance of various channels to determine which was most effective, so going forward, he’d know where to focus his efforts. They discovered, for example, that Facebook ads on desktop were not performing nearly as well as Facebook ads on mobile devices. This sort of information allows ad campaigns to be optimized, and keeping track of metrics is key to continued success of any good IMC strategy. Nothing in marketing should be set in stone, unless it’s working consistently and impressively.
Of course, you could argue that Meineke of Burnsville had a geographic or demographic edge over the others, however, Meineke is a smart company. They’re not likely to place stores in areas that are doomed to underperform. I imagine it’s safe to say all four locations were in great places. Meineke of Burnsville simply took his marketing to the next level with an impressive IMC campaign that propelled his business to success right out of the gate.
Learn more about this particular campaign: Bluewater’s Meineke case study.
