Why "Custom TV Channels" are a Great Fit for Franchises

In a previous post I put forth the premise that digital signage in many businesses is not thought of as a "TV Channel", but a variation of a presentation or web page.

My experience shows this can be especially relevant for franchise environments.

It is generally agreed one of the major business innovations that drove the growth of the US economy has been the franchise model. 

It has allowed for franchisors to expand faster by sharing the bulk of scaling with franchisees, while providing for local ownership and keeping more $'s in the community.

The most recognized franchises are in fast food and retail (McDonald's, Ace Hardware), but their successful processes have been tweaked and implemented in other business arrangements:

• Auto Groups and their dealerships

• Dental Support Organizations (DSOs) and their dentist customers

• Rental Community Management and their lessor companies

• ...even Broadcast TV and local affiliates

Of course, no franchise setup has been perfect. 

The best franchises adapt to changes in customer preferences, business conditions, and technology so the franchisee continues to see value.

One of these change areas is the franchisor addressing the need for consistent brand messaging to franchisee visitors through digital signage.

I found the majority of the time the digital signage decision is made by the franchisor corporate marketing and IT to make sure this requirement is front and center.

This does meet the branding needs but overlooks a key potential benefit to include relative franchisee localization content. 

Why?

• It is a "below the line" cost/benefit for franchisor marketing and IT to support:

  • Marketing supplies menus, prices and beautiful media of the food to sell the product

  • IT keeps the displays working and programmed

  • No one at the franchisor is in place to support franchisee involvement

•  It is a "below the line" cost/benefit for the franchisee to develop their own content and learn the digital signage system

  • Menus, prices and beautiful media of the food do sell product, but this content does NOT sell the franchisee

  • The franchisee is not a marketer or tech expert, that is why they bought a franchise :-)

  • Even if they wanted to, no support from franchisor is available

What if the system was redesigned to include the capability of franchisor localization in a way that makes a positive cost/benefit for everyone?

The franchises where we see this successfully deployed adopt the concept of "Custom TV Channels".

Consider the major broadcast networks (ie, NBC):

• They supply the programming and ads to local affiliates to be played in designated slots

• They provide the affiliates available slots for their programming and local ads to take on these slots

• The affiliate slots is optional, depending on their cost/benefit

Unified Brand saw how this has worked very well as a "franchise environment", so why not in others?

For every rollout we studied, the franchisee is often in a "take it or leave it":

• Franchisor provides the entire solution with little/no variation

• The system is sometimes optional, sometimes required, usually with incentives to make implementing more attractive

• But it doesn't change the bottom line that it was franchisor driven and managed.

What if all parties relooked at this and had a single support organization to make this successful for all:

• Marketing produces its great content and hands it over for programming across all the franchisee channels

  • Jointly determine optimal content scheduling including day/time parting and localization for regional variations

• IT releases day-to-day operational responsibilities:

  • Working with a tech savvy partner who monitors and troubleshoots the network on its backbone so IT is only needed for Tier-3 support

  • Minimizes the occurrence of the "TV black screen graveyard"

  • Manages the relationship with the digital signage software and/or 3rd-party AV integrator

• Franchisee has a full support organization for content localization:

  • 1-stop-shop for all technical issues and content changes

  • Easy-to-use processes for uploading content

  • Manage their content scheduling to complement the franchisor programming

  • Content production, consultation and recommendations, including what other franchisees are doing

If you find yourself in this situation, whether a franchisor, franchisee or AV integrator, give me a call and let's see where our processes to support "Custom TV Channels" can make your in-store communication more successful.

Now is the Time for Every Business to Have Their Own Custom TV Channels

In this time of various versions of divisiveness in our population, our media outlets are pointed out as among the most egregious at aggravating this situation.

It is okay when a TV channel is being played in a residence or a known and non-changing audience, but often it puts businesses with TV viewing audiences in a difficult situation. 

Which channel is best for their audience?

The answer unfortunately is too often no single channel serves this purpose.

This hit home for our company recently when an auto dealership reached out to us.  They were trying to mediate customers arguing over which cable news network to put on their lounge TV.  They wanted to know could we provide a solution that would entertain their customers.

Of course we could, and did…not only with a channel that would entertain but also inform and make their visit more enjoyable and focused on the auto dealership viewing audience.

With this backdrop, it was encouraging to see a company take public their encountering the “what channel is best” situation (https://www.yahoo.com/gma/gym-chain-bans-cable-news-networks-because-politically-064507175--abc-news-topstories.html). 

Unfortunately, this company’s solution is to remove the most divisive channels, even though the remaining ones could still not be of interest to viewers.

Instead of providing what their viewers want, they decided to eliminate the channels currently causing disagreements.

So what next?  When someone renting an apartment says they don’t want to see anything for home improvement, or someone on a strict diet wants no cooking shows?  The way broadcast/cable TV is going it will soon be impossible to find a channel a business can play that will not offend someone.

Why shouldn’t every business have its own custom built and maintained channels?

The technology and infrastructure is in place to make this possible, whether the company does it themselves or uses a service from a company like ours.

We at Unified Brand have shown that every business can have its own television channel(s).  Every channel is custom-built and maintained for that company’s viewers.  The channels are unique for the day, time and potentially different viewer demographics pertaining to every TV screen.

As this is a new concept for companies to grasp, we recognize it is a first step to recognize broadcast/cable TV is not sufficient.  They are starting to recognize at the base level it is condescending to their visitors and employees.  The more brand aware businesses are seeing what it can mean to provide more meaningful communication.

What became of the Fuller Brush Man?

Hyundai’s recent announcement of the Shopper Assurance program (https://www.hyundainews.com/en-us/releases/2417) created a stir in the dealership world, in part because of the Flexible Test Drive.  This allows for a qualified customer to get a car brought to them at their convenience to conduct the test drive.

The press release described it as the “future of car buying…”

Seems to me they are just taking a page from a 1920’s playbook, where the “Fuller Brush Man” would go door-to-door showing his products to households and making the buying experience much easier.

Over time, the FBM would gain the trust of his customers  by periodically showing up with much needed products, and new products to make their life easier; by bringing the product to the customer to make the buying decision.

How sad for the auto industry  the car customer does not have that level of trust with car sales people, to the point that bringing a car to a customer for a test drive is marketed as such a big deal.  I don’t put the fault of this with the auto sales person, but with the dealership business.

They have built nice dealerships to entice visitors, but the process is too much about making the dealership business easier…not making the car buying easier for the customer.  The idea of letting the customer experience the car "on their turf" should result in dealership visits that are more about the customer experience and less about the dealership process.

I hope this is successful and the trend expands so the customer is more in control of the process and more satisfied with the overall buying experience.

Custom TV Channels in Auto Dealership Lounge brings about Future Revenues

Going into the 2017 calendar year, AutoVisionTV (http://www.autovisiontv.com/) was experiencing a rapid growth trajectory with their custom TV channel solutions at interaction points in automotive dealerships around the United States. However, one unique opportunity came along, changing our focus for the long-term mission of the company.

“We recognized the ability of the dealership management team to communicate to their customers was important to the overall culture and environment in the dealership.  They asked for a way to show the impact of our solution related to their customers” said Will Worosylla, VP and Managing Partner of AutoVisionTV. “We reached out through a partner of ours, Text2Drive (http://www.text2drive.com/), a vendor in a few of our existing stores. We built a campaign of exclusive advertisements on our custom channels which promote new opt-ins for the Text2Drive service, and the results could not have been better!”

“The benefit of controlling screen content has come more into focus this year, as more and more dealerships recognize the asset they have in their television screens. Playing slides that never change does not utilize those assets to their fullest.  Our mission became how do we directly impact dealership operations, and revenues, all while creating an environment in these areas that is entertaining yet informative to the customers who are sitting there?”

With that mission, the AutoVisionTV content management team worked with the Text2Drive team to develop a series of advertisements promoting their service.  These focued on its benefits and provided calls-to-action with promo codes unique to eachspecific benefit and could be acted upon by using the exclusive texting codes shown on the screens. The results were impressive!

“Immediately, each individual dealership saw a spike in new opt-ins to the Text2Drive service. With the data provided by Text2Drive metrics, we were able to demonstrate the opt-in revenue generated exclusively by our TV ads alone would pay for our screens for the next three years! We now have direct measurements not only of the value of our screens to convey dealership messages, but also a measurement of its value to the revenues of our dealership partners who utilize our custom content-managed channels.”

In the case of Hegg’s CJDR in Mesa, AZ, the AutoVisionTV lounge channel generated 31 new opt-ins during its initial two months.  These customers returned sooner and more often resulting in future services generating additional revenue for that store.

"The AutoVisionTV product has shown to be an effective tool in communicating to customers in our dealership”, said Dave Bartlett, Service Director at Hegg’s CJDR. “They create, curate and manage the content for us, which in the case of the Text2Drive product helped us get more customers to opt-in to the service so they become return customers who see additional value in the product and services we offer."

According to Will Worosylla, this is only the beginning of customized in-store communications for the CJDR dealers and their vendors. “We will continue to work with all of our dealership partners on additional ways we can assist in promoting the products and services our clients offer.  Our on-going effort is to provide valuable tools they can use to communicate to their customers and drive additional revenues in their service areas through our custom managed channels”.

AutoVisionTV is a division of Unified Brand Signs, Inc. (http://www.unifiedbrand.com/).  It is razor focused on optimizing auto dealership communication to visitors and employees in their stores.  For more information on AutoVisionTV and custom-managed TV channels at all dealership interaction points, please go to http://www.autovisiontv.com/ or contact Will Worosylla at wworosylla@unifiedbrand.com.

AutoVision TV Announces New Strategic Alliance→

Unified Brand and Third Alert have agreed to a partnership that will allow the Unified Brand digital signage platform, AutoVision TV, to be its in-store communication tool at auto dealerships throughout the country.  This partnership will enable these dealerships to educate, promote and market the Third Alert product on their custom managed television channels in the most time and cost efficient possible way.

“We are excited to take this step to partner with a great company and product like Third Alert and continue in our effort to be the premier digital communication partner to auto dealerships across the country” said Will Worosylla, Vice President of Unified Brand.  “Our custom television channels are designed to assist our auto dealership partners to educate their consumers at various interaction points throughout the stores.  Now with this partnership AutoVision TV will truly be a revenue-impacting marketing service at the various customer interaction points throughout the dealership.”

"Third Alert International is excited to partner with Unified Brand and it's AutoVision TV platform” said Bernie Wahl, Vice President of Sales at Third Alert. “We have finally found a company that is as passionate as we are about providing auto dealerships with a unique product and program!  We have very parallel business philosophies weighing heavily on both the dealership and end consumers' overall experience! We look forward to Unified Brand helping educate our potential customers on the safety benefits of our rear end collision avoidance technology through their custom dealership channels".

The national partnership will commence immediately and will not only offer a potentially life-saving product to the dealerships and their customers but also can provide the dealerships throughout the country with a forward-looking model for interactions in the future.

For more information on adding the Third Alert product and the AutoVision TV custom solution to your dealership, please contact us at info@unifiedbrand.com

ABOUT UNIFIED BRAND

Unified Brand builds custom TV channels for use within business locations as an alternative to cable and over-the-air channels.  From its primary office in Phoenix, Arizona, it produces solutions that serve three (3) primary network segments:  (1) AutoVision TV http://www.autovisiontv.com focuses on providing focused TV Channels within auto dealerships, (2) NetNeighborhood TV http://www.netneighborhoodtv.com/ brings together businesses, advertisers, and customers in a specific geography to present their own messaging and a blend of entertainment content, and (3) Enterprise TV http://www.unifiedbrand.com/enterprise-solutions/ provides customized TV channels in a business’s visitor and employee-only areas with messages and communication specifically developed and managed for the intended audience.

ABOUT THIRD ALERT

Third Alert is an electronic rear-end collision prevention system installed near the existing third brake light on your vehicle. When you step on the brake pedal, Third Alert triggers the third brake light to pulse four times before going solid, alerting the drivers behind you that you are slowing down or stopping.  Third Alert... "We've got your back"  www.thirdalert.com , bernie@thirdalert.com

Joining an Organization Isn't All Bad!

I have never been much of a joiner.  I find most organizations start with good intentions, but too often over time become more for the interest of a few rather than for the general membership.  Unless the group is still in its formation, the chance for it to be of interest and value to me minimizes.

I offer this because Unified Brand recently joined as a member of the Digital Signage Federation http://digitalsignagefederation.org/memberpress/4107053

In the past few years, I viewed the DSF as about the businesses that make products for Digital Signage end customers, but not concerned with their concerns.  The focus seemed to be on policies, standards and getting their companies acquired; all valid activities but of little interest to someone at the end of the business cycle.

This recently changed…and I attribute it to leaders who recognize a group is only as strong as the involvement of the members, not in the accolades of the leaders.

The DSF has started periodic “hangouts” where the best-and-brightest in the industry talk about specific issues and concerns the end users are facing.  It is not anyone carrying a specific agenda or company pushing their product, but rather open information and discussion about the issues.

I offer this because I see the same thing from our Auto Dealership partners with NADA.  This organization has the obligatory convention which is well attended for its meetings, education events and vendor exhibits.  Just as importantly it organizes the “NADA20 Groups” that bring together like minded dealership personnel in an open and sharing environment.  I have heard from many attendees these are where NADA shines as an organization and make among the best time spent as part of a group.

So if you are like me and feel “any organization that would have me is not worth joining”, give a look the next time you are considering the joining of a group as to whether its activities are more for the membership or for the leaders.

If you find any good ones, please share!

Thanks for reading,

Guy

Planning your AutoVision and NetNeighborhood TVs for the NFL!

Tonight it all starts again!  I know with Roethlisberger and Edelman prominent on my fantasy team I will be in front of the TV.

But what about the AutoVisionTV and NetNeighborhood screens within your store?

If your TVs can display external TV channels will you allow it?

After years of witnessing this, if there is not a process in place that all your staff knows for this, I can guarantee you will see a bunch of "Kathy and Hoda" playing on your TVs tomorrow morning (or "Price is Right" on Monday); or worse they will have "No Signal".

We suggest you develop a process and then let everyone on your team know:

• If you have the capability to display external TV channels, on which TVs will they be allowed and to make sure they are returned in the morning.  This includes instructions for how each need to occur.
• If you don't have this capability, let them know this, and some ideas on how to let customers know (who will inevitably ask to watch it).

If you need any help putting this together, please reach out to our team and we will be glad to provide you some templates.

Why shouldn't EVERY business have their own TV channel(s)?

Unified Brand started to help businesses unify their brand (duh!), primarily through the use of digital signage.  The intent was to ensure business visitors would get messaging that reinforced the brand communication experienced via other media, in a more timely and focused manner...based on the business having a visitor onsite, ready to watch the TV.

While this is not revolutionary, what we have discovered is too often digital signage is built and purposed as digital "signs", not as digital "TV's".

We have found the highest effectiveness is when the business positions the visitor as a TV Viewer.  We determine the environment associated with the viewer; where they they be watching, what are their demographics, how long will they watch, is it different from time of day/day of week, etc...just like a "normal" TV channel does.

Then we consult with the business on what messages they want to communicate.

These items converge into our buidling the most effective TV channel possible for that particular TV location (including channel changes over time).

This isn't rocket science, every TV channel on your cable box does this very thing at a mass market level.  They differentiate the viewer based on demographics (ie, ESPN for sports, CNN for news, et al);  but NOT customized for each TV screen location.

We do!  The newest technologies allow for us to do this for a different channel on potentially every TV screen in a business in a cost-effective and heavily user-customizable way.

In an auto dealership the viewers are different factors such as dwell time (5 minutes in the service drive, 15 minutes in F&I, 30 minutes in Showroom, potentially hours in the service lounge); purpose (service specials, new car features, parts specials, vehicle maintenance education, etc.); thus allowing for each to be different, specific, and customizable!

So I wonder, why shouldn't EVERY business have their own TV channels?

Even the Simplest Idea can have Big Benefits

Hitting home runs gets more headlines, but consistent hits wins more games.

In the custom TV world, elaborate videowalls and apps that integrate screens with social media are all the rage, but sometimes the simplest of applications can have the most impact.

One of our most successful AutoVision TV applications is a simple shuttle application we deployed at O’Rielly Chevrolet in Tucson.

The service area at this dealership can have as many as 30 customers getting their vehicles serviced, so managing these customers for when to be ready for the next shuttle is important for both CSI, and also the employee efficiency.

By implementing a simple PC-input app for the shuttle drivers, a message is placed on the crawl area of multiple screens in the Service Bay, Service Advisor area, Café and Service Lounge for when the next shuttle will be leaving:

This is very helpful to the Service Advisors to let customers know exactly when they need to be back in the Service Lounge for the shuttle, minimizing the amount of customer interruptions to ask for this information; more often to someone who doesn’t know and has to take time to find it out.

It has increased the usage of their Corvette Café as customers know how long to enjoy a beverage or food, and allows for more casual strolling by these customers through the showroom to look at the display vehicles without worrying about missing the next ride.

So don’t just think that the swinging for the fences gets the most payback, looking for changes in the smallest places can often have the most impact.