Franchisees See Mobile as the Future for Reaching Local Customers

Consumers today want to feel like they are recognized and known personally by the stores they shop at and by the brands they buy. For national brands, targeting consumers and reaching that personal level can be a challenge. Many brands, however, are beginning to see mobile advertising as an effective avenue to directly reach those individual consumers.

Right now mobile advertising accounts for about 9% of advertising spending for business franchisees or licensees according to BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™. About 68.4% of business franchisees or licensees say they are planning to increase their current level of advertising and promotional spending in the next 12 months. This increase in spending will likely lead to a larger allocation of advertising budgets towards mobile with franchisees and licensees planning to use 42.2% of their future advertising budgets on digital/online advertising (7.1% more than last year).

For those franchisees and licensees who are not yet involved in mobile advertising, it is something they are considering for the future. About 34.3% of those who do not already advertise with mobile said they would invest in mobile search advertising, 34.3% showed an interest in mobile apps, 31.4% showed an interest in text message advertising and 31.4% in mobile deals according to the Local Commerce Monitor.

Many franchisees and licensees are taking advantage of bar codes in store. These bar codes are scanned by consumer’s smartphones with 54.7% of bar codes used being in print and 36.8% being posted somewhere in the store. Check-in information is also utilized with 70.5% of franchisees and licensees saying they actively use the information that is generated when customers check-in to their location, according to the Local Commerce Monitor.

Franchisees and licensees are clearly not ignoring mobile. In fact we expect their spending on mobile advertising to increase. To learn more about how national brands will be using mobile to appeal to the local population their franchisees and licensees cater to, come to BIA/Kelsey’s Leading in Local: The National Impact conference that will be held May 7-9 in Atlanta. Hot topics in national to local realm will be discussed by industry leaders so do not miss this opportunity to learn about and network with the experts.

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