WELCOME TO THE FRONTLINE SUMMER 2013 Our latest issue of Frontline Thinking continues the conversation on all that is local. From the challenges faced by St John Ambulance in the charity sector, to the daily war raging on our high streets over coffee. The conversation is wide open so have a read and let us know what you think? We are Acuity. Independent Creative Agency and Frontline Marketeers, we help the likes of Citroën, Peugeot, Continental Tyres, St John Ambulance and UK Insurance sell more through their franchise network or sales outlets. We deliver brand consistency at a local level, while creating intelligent campaigns precisely tuned to increase sales, and keep customers coming back for more. We make things happen. We don’t hang about either. We’re faff-free, quick, and we don’t ever compromise on creativity. The way we work with clients is a bit different too. There’s no ‘us and them.’ Instead, it’s more of a continuous loop – which works brilliantly. Ask Citroën, they’ve been relying on us for 14 years.

1. ISSUE TWO

2. OVERVIEW:
WHAT IS
FRONTLINE
MARKETING?
EXPERT ADVICE:
WORKING WITH
YOUR PROSPECTS
FRANCHISE FOCUS:
COFFEE WARS

3. FRONTLINE THINKING / ISSUE TWO
OVERVIEW / 3
FRONTLINE FOCUS:
INTERVIEW WITH
RICHARD EVENS
DEALER FOCUS:
LOCAL WEBSITES
INNOVATIONS IN
FRONTLINE MARKETING:
MARKETING TOOLKITS
TODAY
FRONTLINE FOCUS:
INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD EVENS
ST JOHN AMBULANCE,
COMMERCIAL MARKETING DIRECTOR
PAGE 10

4. OVERVIEW:

5. With most big brands there’s still a real
disconnect between national and local
marketing. The former looks for ways
to establish brand equity, whereas the
latter is far more concerned with hitting
targets – and getting the bonuses.
We use ‘Frontline’ to describe your
franchise network or sales outlets
– inevitably parts of your business with
their own unique set of challenges.
They’re also areas that, more often
than not, are focused on ways to
increase sales and customer retention.
IS FRONTLINE
MARKETING?
FRONTLINE THINKING / ISSUE TWO
WHAT IS FRONTLINE MARKETING? / 5

6. EXPERT ADVICE:
Working on the Frontline is the most exciting and gratifying part
of the transactional process for almost any product or service,
but especially the big ticket items.
With those, every sale seems like a battle won and the spoils
are often plentiful. And that’s a pretty good analogy, because
if we WERE going into battle then I think we might pay a fair
bit of attention to sizing up the enemy and working on a plan
of attack (and defence!).
It’s amazing that so little planning and genuinely strategic
thinking goes on so close to the actual selling part of the
cycle. Customers often find themselves buying IN SPITE of
the inadequate or inappropriate deck of comms they have
been dealt on the Frontline – at local level (and even at the
point of sale). They buy because colossal sums have been
spent globally or nationally to literally hammer the brand
to the front of their mind.
Give ‘em a break!
Words of wisdom
This issue’s expert is Rob Clements,
who heads up Acuity’s local marketing team.

7. Imagine how impressive sales could be if the local marketing
was as smart as the national, and we mean smart in every sense.
Global, national and even regional marketing has to have, to
varying degrees, a more generic message. These messages
are even delivered in a fairly generic fashion...TV, Press, Web,
DM, blah, blah, blah...it’s no surprise, they’re talking to Joe
Public. But on the Frontline, you’re talking to real people, many
of whom you already know, and those that you don’t...well you
can GET to know them. This closer, more intimate relationship
is what gives local retailers, franchisees, dealers and their like
a real advantage. And the ones that do it well will take all the
business away from those that don’t.
So, take very great care of your prospects, make them feel that
they are important to you. Here’s a few tips that we’ve seen
work really well:
• Don’t ALWAYS try selling them something, try telling them
something instead, like you would a friend. They don’t spend
every single day in ‘buy mode’ so don’t treat them as if they
do. This might mean a regular magazine or e-­letter, or, on
your website’s home page a story or item that makes your
business feel relevant to the local community.
• Segment your database or even better, add tags, even for
obvious details like gender or age bracket. This way you
can genuinely TARGET your communications and not waste
money (or annoy the hell out of people!).
• Follow-up any comms with...more comms. If you send a
letter or an email, follow up with a phone call. It’s not
annoying, it’s engaging and relationship building.
• Grow your prospect database organically. It’s amazing how
few businesses ask for referrals from happy customers,
and they love to recommend. Think how many customer
touchpoints there are in a year in your business.
• It isn’t always about the price. Yeah, shocking isn’t it? A lot
of people want to be coaxed through an important purchase
decision, by somebody they trust. They know it can be had
for £XXX, and they’re pretty sure it’s not THIS WEEK ONLY,
believe me.
The really interesting thing is to do what we at Acuity do for a
living: put yourself in their shoes and then look at the marketing
comms you were ABOUT to send out to see if it’s properly
targeted AND relevant. If it is, and you have a follow-up plan in
place, go ahead and send it. Enjoy it – and good selling!
FRONTLINE THINKING / ISSUE TWO
EXPERT ADVICE / 7

8. FRANCHISE FOCUS:
COFFEE WARS
DOES THE BRAND ‘ROAR’ KILL THE LOCAL ‘WHISPER’?
In each issue we put our heads together and think about how large
UK franchises could be doing things better with some blue sky thinking.
This time, it’s the coffee chains.

9. Nowhere is the Frontline more vividly cavorted on
than in the High St coffee bars. Who’s the daddy?
And, does anybody really care? What subtleties do
these gigantic players deploy to attract the Yummy
Mummies after the school drop-­off, after all if they
have a ‘swift one’ every day they’ll be spending
north of £600 each, every year. On coffee. Who’d
have thought?
So, the rewards are sizeable if you can engender
some brand loyalty. Unfortunately, this is a tough
stunt to pull off in our most fickle of societies. And
it seems that HQ doesn’t trust, or want to trust, the
individuals that operate on the Frontline to do their
bidding for them in this respect either.
Is LOCAL over-­rated?
A number of aspects might contribute to converting
patrons into advocates -­price, style, decor...
sometimes the actual taste of the coffee gets a
belated mention in the surveys. Whichever it is, it’s
the absolute consistency with which it is delivered
that seems to be the key here. Not a bean out of
place. Everything exactly as you expect it to be. The
brand doesn’t need any local ‘colour’ to make it
successful, it seems. Advocates rely on these peak
levels of consistency to support their position.
The lip service the brands pay to ‘local’ include
branded merchandise (with your own town name
on), community boards and local youth projects...
but all these come across as anything BUT local as
they are all organised and operated back at HQ.
FRONTLINE THINKING / ISSUE TWO
FRANCHISE FOCUS / 9
Is LOCAL under-­rated?
Perhaps we should re-­phrase that...What
really makes a business work? Of course, we
understand the big brands’ logic in their ivory
towers. As one of our interviewees said, so
accurately, “They don’t seem to be doing too
badly!” But can it continue, ad infinitum?
Perhaps not. Hundreds of local outlets need
thousands of local staff. And these people really are
local...they are working in their own communities.
(The big brands should remember that when they
are opening a new bar and meeting resistance from
the natives, it might just make a difference to the
welcome they receive if they ‘promote’ this LOCAL
aspect!) But you can’t expect bright young people to
toe the party line forever, without feeling they can
contribute to the appeal of their offering. Unless you
actually WANT to become McDonalds, the epitome
of faceless globalisation.
It’s our opinion that HQ needs to put in place a
process and structure that allows the locals to
add value to the generic offering, otherwise
there’s just no flavour.
Conclusion? It’s an interesting conundrum for us.
We are huge fans of Frontline Marketing and we
think that there is a local solution for all global
brands. The Coffee Wars are something we will
watch with interest. Perhaps there is a place at
the table for some genuinely LOCAL players...
the independents!

10. What is the role of the commercial arm of SJA?
St John Ambulance advocates that first aid can be the
difference between a life lost and a life saved. With up to
140,000 people dying every year from causes where first aid
could have been the difference, the charity delivers first aid to
the public at over 50,000 events and trains first aid in schools,
to members of the public and employees in the workplace
to prevent needless deaths. Our workplace training and
medical supplies products and services help businesses to
ensure their work environment is safe and the income from
these activities are ploughed back into charitable initiatives.
WITH RICHARD EVENS
COMMERCIAL MARKETING DIRECTOR,
ST JOHN AMBULANCE
What challenges would you say are unique to the charity
sector compared to other purely commercial organisations?
In the charity sector brand strength is critical in getting
the charity’s message across and winning support towards
achieving the charitable mission. The charity brand index
places St John Ambulance in the top 10 of charity brands
with a high degree of recognition and trust. But, a unique
challenge in the context of marketing commercial services to
provide sustainable finance is leveraging a charity brand for
commercial purposes. This requires careful messaging and
use of channels so that the marketing messages are on brand,
appropriate to the commercial product or service and effective.
The risk is that if done incorrectly, it can confuse through
mixed messages or even damage the brand.
FRONTLINE FOCUS:

11. How many training centres do you have
across the country?
As well as training at client premises, we
run a schedule of over 20,000 courses at
230 centres which are published on our
website and in our marketing materials.
St John Ambulance is an organisation
which is dedicated to serving local
communities. This is a factor we have
carried through to our commercial
services since it is just as important
to make regular training available in a
convenient location for businesses.
How do you manage the differing
agendas of a large national brand
with local grass roots advocates?
Like many large charities, over the
last decade we have recognised the
importance of investing in brand
development. We have moved to a much
more coherent set of brand messages
and consolidated visual identity across
multi-channels and service offerings.
Overall this brings benefits but it does
take away some local flexibility, so getting
the message right for the target audience
takes some care and refining the balance
remains work in progress.
What systems do you have in place to
assist with these challenges?
Within the commercial operation the
marketing structure is centralised with
some of the team located in London and
others working from regional offices
alongside colleagues in the business
units. With multiple markets, channels,
and campaigns executed via a distributed
team, the marketing planning function is
critical to stay on message, on target and
on budget. Through this process my team
are able to evaluate results and learn
from our experiences.
How do you work with Acuity?
We are working with Acuity to promote
training centres where we believe there
is potential for growth; some are newly
launched and others well established.
The promotion is tightly targeted to
the area around the centre, and we
particularly wanted to introduce a
local relevance to our messaging.
What differentiates Acuity from
other agencies?
We were looking for an agency that could
work with a national brand to provide
compelling, creative content aimed at
businesses in local markets to drive
customer enquiries and online bookings.
Acuity’s approach was to focus on
end-to-end targeting, enquiry generation
and the conversion process, while
balancing national brand messages
and corporate identity design frame
to create relevant local content.
What are some of the biggest trends
in charity marketing right now?
The most recent published data from the
Charities Aid Foundation shows donations
fell 20% to £9.3bn in 2011/12. In this
environment the trend has been towards
more aggressive marketing through all
channels. The drive to maintain return
on investment (ROI) is set against the
risk of long term damage to the brand.
Complaints about doorstep methods in
particular increased by 93% suggesting
that the short term ROI imperative is
creating a longer term problem for
the sector.
FRONTLINE THINKING / ISSUE TWO
FRONTLINE FOCUS / 11

12. DEALER FOCUS:
LOCAL WEBSITES
When the big organisations put their websites together,
specially the franchisors and companies with multiple
outlets, they really go to town. And as the www arena
enters its third decade the levels of engagement,
interactivity, relevance and navigation are significantly
more sophisticated than ever before. Aren’t they?
A BRILLIANT CHANNEL OR A VAUXHALL MAIN SITE. Very
comprehensive navigation options,
clear message, strong branding...
VAUXHALL DEALER SITE. It just
feels like the main site, I don’t get any
sense of local, or any relevance to me.
SUBWAY’S MAIN SITE, very enticing
and engaging. Lots of offers. Feels
exciting. I’m hungry! Click-through to
SUBWAY’S LOCAL OUTLET. OK, so
I can see where it is, and it’s open
at lunchtime (wow). But how about
today’s specials...or online offers for
this store? I’m less hungry.

13. FRONTLINE THINKING / ISSUE TWO
DEALER FOCUS / 13
FASTSIGNS MAIN SITE presents quite a generic series
of messages to help you choose to use their outlets.
FASTSIGNS DEALER SITE. This is a bit more like it
and not just because it uses the name of my town
prominently -­it shows the actual shop and staff so
I have a real sense of ‘local’. Additionally, this home
page prompts me to request a quote or send a file.
We think at best the answer is only
‘sometimes’, which, given the astronomical
budgets often set aside for creating the
right online presence is disappointing.
Why only sometimes? Because usually,
when you click through from the delicious
main site to the local outlets’ site the
come down is almost a crime.
This local site is almost certainly going to
be the final destination on my purchasing
journey, why let me down now? I’ve done
all the research and I’m desperately
seeking reassurance, I want to know that
I can do business with these people.
What I don’t want is a slightly cheaper-
looking, clunkier version of the
proprietary site. What I do want is to see
some personality and some added value.
This is a chance for the local business
to close the sale, give me ALL or at least
SOME of these things, for example:
• An online quote
• Stock level check
• Local delivery info
• A live chat facility to answer my questions
• An online appointment or booking function
• Click and collect
• A call back request
All of this should be in addition to the usual
opening hours, map and contact details.
And it should be against a backdrop of
relevant, local information and news so
that I can form an opinion about my local
store, not the generic brand.
How about a photo of the store manager
on the home page, with a happy
customer who has recently bought his
fifth thingy-ma-­jig in ten years from
the same place. There’s reassurance
for you! And what about some links to
thingy-ma-jigs that are ONLY available
at this store, or have been adapted to the
local market? Maybe some news and
photos of the local kids’ soccer teams
that you sponsor.
All of this makes the store look like my
local store and makes me feel like a valued
customer. After all, that’s what I am.
And, it doesn’t have to cost the earth.
We can provide all of this with a
templated system that has full content
management, with as much or as little
editable space as you want.

14. INNOVATIONS IN
FRONTLINE MARKETING:
The operations team at Acuity
has over six years’ experience
in the development of online
marketing toolkit systems.
Designed specifically for larger
businesses or franchises that
have a number of outlets needing
to localise global marketing
materials, they generally boast
extraordinary ROI stats.
They allow franchises and dealers
to plan and create press ads, web
banners, direct marketing, POS
display material and on-­demand
literature using templates and
resources supplied by us. They can
even plan their spend by product,
channel or campaign. The benefits
are significant.

15. EVERYTHING’S MEASURABLE
You’ll be able to accurately measure marketing
investment against marketing effort. You’ll
see what works and what doesn’t. Plus the
weekly reporting on franchise or dealership
engagement creates a continual loop of feedback
and action that’s worth its weight in gold.
EVERYTHING’S MORE EFFICIENT
Users can personalise, localise and update the
templates as much as they like. Press ads can be
re-­sized to the correct specs and sent directly to
publications, and emails are created as HTML files
and sent directly to the dealer’s database. It all
saves hundreds of thousands of production hours
– and eye-­wateringly large amounts of money.
EVERYTHING’S CONSISTENT
Users can tailor the templates as much as they
like, but we’ve made sure that brand consistency
is always adhered to and local messages tie-­in
with national campaigns. That means everyone’s
budgets – local and national – go that much further.
FRONTLINE THINKING / ISSUE TWO
INNOVATIONS IN FRONTLINE MARKETING / 15
EVERYTHING’S FUTURE-­PROOF
The system already handles a wide range of offline
and digital marketing materials – with showroom
TV and Facebook adverts just around the corner.
It’s also possible to have a module that will
generate prospect data from a brief that the user
inputs and can be set to run on any permutation of
volume, cost, location and profile. This data can be
instantly used in e-campaigns or for DM.
EVERYTHING’S LEGAL
We can set up templates to automatically
populate ads and other comms with the relevant
legal and financial fly-copy so that all users are
advertising within the law.
EVERYTHING’S EASY
Not all outlets or dealers are as marketing-
savvy as each other. Our systems are intuitive
and easy to navigate, and they allow for as much
marketing planning liaison between branch and
HQ as you want.

16. T 01923 244 241
F 01923 232 751
E INFO@WEAREACUITY.COM
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