Episode 5: Meet Marketing Consultant, Drue Townsend

Host and CEO Alex Porter interviews Drue Townsend, an esteemed marketing consultant with a wealth of experience in marketing, advertising and franchising. Drue, who has launched the marketing consulting firm The Outside View Consulting, provides solutions-oriented insights into where brands should focus marketing efforts in 2022 and beyond.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• Eliminating silos and establishing one true source of data for your brand.
• Moving beyond the COVID-era focus on operational efficiency to a focus on data and data privacy.
• What marketers can do to use data to impact performance.
• Why it's always a good time to be in franchising.

Learn more about Location3, the digital marketing agency for franchise brands.

Transcript

Alex Porter: 0:09

Welcome to the digital Shop Talk Podcast. I'm one of your co host Alex Porter. Excited to be here to talk all things marketing and franchise with you today we've got an esteemed guest with us, Drew Townsend. Drew, how are ya?

Drue Townsend: 0:26

I'm doing well, thank you, Alex.

Alex Porter: 0:29

It's great to talk with you again. Drew, you've got an awesome history and background in both of these worlds. So can you tell me when did you first get involved in franchising? I guess it doesn't have to be how many years ago? How did you get first involved in the franchise world?

Drue Townsend: 0:50

I got out of college and I started working for an ad agency and a couple of our clients were small franchisors and I left there and went to work for some manufacturers and kind of came back to franchising through the agency world and then directly with that franchisor. Gotcha.

Alex Porter: 1:09

So tell me in those early days at the ad agency, what were what was the main kind of the projects that we were working on there,

Drue Townsend: 1:16

gosh, we were doing things like television ads, we were doing direct mail, trusted, tried all true Yellow Pages, trying to make sure that franchisors were doing the umbrella marketing. And then franchisees had the tools that they needed to execute locally. Well, yeah,

Alex Porter: 1:36

so fast forward a few years, and it's still it's, the more things change, the more things stay the same, a little bit,

Drue Townsend: 1:41

that is so true, there's so many things that are happening in the world today. So I mean, you just have to read the news or, you know, run a marketing department or business or even just be a consumer, and you can just see all these forces that are merging on each of them, there's always been things that you can't control, obviously, and in marketing, but we have so many of them now, you know, with labor with all the great resignation and great recession, and everybody wanting to work life balance and work from home and just, you know, that whole labor thing really changes and impacts service, right, and impacts consistency. And you've got data and all the all the rules around data privacy and what people expect. And that affects targeting and tracking and what the all the different channels are providing, right. And costs are increasing. So you've got prices that are changing so many things, right. And then you mix in the whole on demand world where people want things, you know, shipped yesterday and streaming when they want to. And it's just it's a lot for marketers to take in, I think.

Alex Porter: 2:47

Yeah, I mean, it's it's like, you could have a separate conversation or strategy around each one of these forces that are impacting our marketing plans, across everything that we do right now. I'm curious. So the data piece is one that is a very hot topic, I'm sure that you won't be terribly surprised that when we speak to various people in the franchise world, the data is somewhat ill defined in terms of who owns it, where it is, how its structured, how its shared, I see it as a really big threat in the in the franchise space, just with the lack of kind of confidence around the data and the ownership. Can you tell me a little bit about just in your experience with data in the marketing world, you know, we kind of talked, you mentioned umbrella versus local how those two pieces tie together. It's it's such a unique challenge in the franchise space, but talks a little bit about how the data world right now is impacting marketing in general, and what brands need to kind of do or think about it.

Drue Townsend: 3:55

So many of the brands that I've had experience with have either data silos or their data, they're not really collecting a lot of data or not good data, there's not one source of truth. You know, franchisees have some data, corporate has some data, sometimes a franchisor, will have data to be able to do email blasts, and things like that. But just the idea that there is so much data, it's siloed. And it's really important to be able to get to the data to make good decisions. And then I think on top of that, you know, Facebook, Google all the different channels that people are typically advertising and are cutting back on the data that they're providing, which makes it even harder to make decisions. Right.

Alex Porter: 4:37

Yeah, I think that's an interesting point, like who actually does own the data in the franchise world? Because they have is I I'm assuming that each brand probably within their agreement, has that disclosed? Yes. Do they have to shoot do they have to share the real revenue I'm assuming that has to be done because they're often build off of it, but just the aggregation of that data in a meaningful way, as a marketer, because if you look at each one of those local programs by itself, you can get some information from it. But when you aggregate, you know, 500 local campaigns together, now, you're really got a lot of data at your fingertips from a marketing kind of optimization standpoint. So how do you break through that silo? What do you, you know, what have you seen work? Or what would your recommendation be to, to marketers to get a grasp on that data?

Drue Townsend: 5:27

I think there needs to be, you know, one source of truth, one database that's controlled by a very small number of people, the IT department, or the legal department, or whatever that is, that has the ability to have data pushed out and, and pulled in at whatever protection level they have. But I think the key is having trying to get to a place where you have one source of data, and then being able to run reports on it, you know, not just having the IT guys or the executive team or whoever run reports, but you've got to be able to have that data access accessible. Yeah, at least an aggregate to a lot more people on the teams to be able to try to make the decisions, whether it's marketing or operations or, you know, franchise development. Yeah. And that's challenging, you know, that last year, last two years, really, I think it's been all about building operational efficiencies for brands, you know, trying to make sure that they had curbside, that they had, they have curbside or that they had ecommerce, it had to be about the operations, right. But hopefully, as 2022 and 23, as we put more back into those more often, it'll be easier to start spending money on, again, on data and marketing, and really trying to not just fix the BandAid, you know, with the pandemic, but really get back to trying to market with, with good tools. And with good information.

Alex Porter: 6:47

I feel like they almost have to write it's not a it's not a nice to have now, there's going to be I think, kind of legal implications around it. If they don't, if they can't kind of validate that the they're using the data proper, properly, and just really inefficient. If if it if they don't leverage the data there, there's a huge potential for a lot of a lot of wasted spend.

Drue Townsend: 7:11

And and also governance and legalities. Right, because you have policies that are likely going to become laws on how to gather data, who has access to data, we know what their requirements for disclosing and protecting that are. And I think customers to expect you to protect their data, they don't want to give up even voluntarily, much more than they have to write an email address a phone number that makes that kind of things just as long as they're getting value from that. But then you get into the whole thing where you've got credit cards, and yeah, you know, a lot more information, then it gets really more important to protect that data.

Alex Porter: 7:49

Yeah, I saw a pretty funny meme the other day or something that was like trying to go to a website these days is you go, you have to accept all the cookies, then you have to do the thing. And then they'll give you a pop up, because they want to get your email for first party data. And then if you do that, then they get you back. So it's like a nine step process to do anything on a website right now. It's become like overwhelming. tumors.

Drue Townsend: 8:14

Yes, the same thing with an app too, right? You have to download at Peda password, credit credit card, all I want to do is order some food.

Alex Porter: 8:23

We're like creating more and more friction. That's why I love like anything that I can just do with with my Google Pay button or you know, anything with Amazon. It's just okay, I can do this with like, literally my fingerprint. Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. So, so with his data with all the things happening, what are some ideas for for marketers to kind of make sense of or how do you what do you focus on? Like, what could what should marketers do, that they actually can have an impact of?

Drue Townsend: 8:52

I think they really need to figure out what their important metrics are to them, you know, is it visitors to your website? Is that number of clicks on your different ads? Is it sales? Is it registrations? Is it you know, what are those things that really matter? And find ways to collect data around those and also to store that data? There's so much out there that I don't even know just think about when you need to do a Google search and something comes up the next day that you didn't even know existed in the world, but suddenly you're like, hey, I could use that. Right? Some of that some of that data is great. But I think for marketers, it's, it's knowing what you really need or what you really want from the data. What are you trying to measure and why and then just making sure that it's actionable, so that you know because there is so much data, when you think about your email marketing program, your search your you know, all the different components of your marketing that don't typically roll up into one easy to use database and companies, but there's so much out there so, you know, if you really if you figure out what you really need to know and find ways to work around it. It's a lot to me. It's a lot more a better use of time and it's a better use of information.

Alex Porter: 10:05

Alright, so tell me Give me some predictions. It's still prediction season. So predictions for franchising over the next year. There's so much swirling out there in the franchising world, from the government side to labor issues to, you know, this data thing we just talked about, what what would give me some predictions over the next 12 months.

Drue Townsend: 10:27

I think that one of them is that we talked a little bit about the operation efficiencies were the kind of the big theme the last two years, I think it has to go back to customer experience and to making it simple to do business with brands franchisors, I'll give you one little sob story we, I was in an out of town, and I was with a bunch of people and we wanted to order some fast food at a place that I don't normally go. So I download the app, put the password, put the credit card, do the whole thing. And I check off and I'm going to pick it up inside the location. I drive there, I get in, I get out there's two doors for both lot. But there's cars there. So I get in the drive thru, get to the window and say is that's where I get my mobile order. Anyway, fast forward, now I've been in line by the time I get to the window, you know, six or seven months have passed, and I'm not happy. And they give me the food is one little bag. And I have I know I have six orders. So we go through this progression of more and more, you know worse the rest for the rest. Finally, the manager comes to the window. And, you know, I'm kind of happy. And I say you know what, you should change your app to say that you're not open inside because I did this and chose open inside. And now my food is 10 minutes colder than if I had just driven through. And as I drove away, I was like, that was kind of mean, but but but it made me realize, you know, that's just one example of where a franchisor can really help a franchisee by having giving them the right digital tools. Because if that manager franchisee Jim, wherever he was, had been able to say, we're not open inside today, he went on to tell me that he didn't have enough people to open inside, which is why he wasn't open inside. But you know, he couldn't change the app. Right? But how could he have done that, you know, it would have been a better experience for me, for him for his team, all of that. So I think one of the things that franchisors really need that. And that's not easy. I also know that you know, and now when you've got hundreds of locations and people and tools, just the cost to build it, the cost to implement it and the cost of training. It's it's not necessarily all easy, but just giving them tools so that they can present themselves well in a digital world and run their business in a digital way. From a marketing standpoint. I think that is hopefully prediction is a good things that can happen.

Alex Porter: 12:34

Some consistency. Yeah. Yeah. Consistency is of experience for sure. Yeah. positioning, you mentioned the app scenario, because I was I was in a similar situation where it was a obviously I know this, but the average person will know this. I know that the location was a corporate own location for one of our clients. And I tried to order an app and it just didn't even exist in the app. So I was like, okay, so this is just a franchise app. So what a weird experience is, for me, as a consumer, I'm standing in front of this location, and I literally can't order but ever with no understanding of why. Right,

Drue Townsend: 13:12

right. So yeah,

Alex Porter: 13:13

super bizarre.

Drue Townsend: 13:15

I think another franchise prediction will be that there will be more small town focus, it seems like from a franchise sales standpoint, anyway. Okay. Franchise sales. Yeah, I think a lot of people are thinking, this will be a great year, sell a lot of franchises. I think that there's also the chance that people are gonna say, I have this great job, I can live in Oregon, and I work a toy and I'm making a ton of money and I get to, I don't have to wear, you know, run dry cleaning or whatever. So I think that that'll still be a challenge somewhat this year, especially with the way the just again, all the other market forces are impacting, but, but I think small towns provide a huge opportunity from a marketing standpoint, because you can own them, you know, if you are the only location or one of a couple locations of that type of business or, you know, franchise, then you can really get involved in the community, you can own the digital portion of obviously, of that market area. Yeah, I just think that a lot of big towns, small towns, I mean, a lot of big towns, a lot of companies have sold or sold out and those, you know, really terrific markets from a franchise sale standpoint, particularly older brands. But small markets can still provide and people are moving to small markets, right? If you have a job and you're able to work from home or work from anywhere, you you might have moved to someplace small so you might

Alex Porter: 14:36

Yeah, people are the great. It's interesting, kind of touched on a lot of things already to the resignation, the opportunity what's out there. It's the I think the most recent report is that last year the franchise sales overalls was was pretty it didn't go down but it certainly went down in some sectors but went way up and other ones so there was overall it was there was growth, but it was definitely sector dependent. Do you I'd only only have a little bit of time left, would you? Is now a good time to be in franchising is it is it? Would you start a franchise right now, if you were given the opportunity?

Drue Townsend: 15:13

You know, I think it's always a good time to be in franchising because it is a concept you're, you're buying into a concept that ideally is proven. It's got systems, it's got a brand name. It's got operating support, marketing support. So I think franchising in general, it's probably always a good time to get into a franchise just because you have the assistance of getting your business started. And then ongoing support.

Alex Porter: 15:38

Yeah, that takes a lot of the pain out of it. Mm hmm. And assuming that it's a, you know, a product or a service or a pizza that people like it should do well. Mm hmm. I think cost right.

Drue Townsend: 15:51

Yeah. Yeah.

Alex Porter: 15:52

Alright, so we're wrapping up here. What about predictions for the Dallas Cowboys next year? I

Drue Townsend: 15:57

think the Dallas Cowboys need to get rid of their owner.

Alex Porter: 16:02

I don't think that's I don't think that's possible.

Drue Townsend: 16:06

I agree. It's probably not possible. But who do you have for the Superbowl?

Alex Porter: 16:09

Um, you know, I've been wrong all year, so I'm gonna go with Stafford just that would be nice. The Rams? Yeah, that'd be a nice story for him. Yeah.

Drue Townsend: 16:19

I'm kind of leaning towards Cincinnati. It's kind of the Gonzaga Cinderella basketball years ago. Yeah,

Alex Porter: 16:25

hopefully this episode releases before the Superbowl. So Drew, if people want to find you these days, at LinkedIn, the

Drue Townsend: 16:32

best spot, LinkedIn will be the best spot. Alright, it's Drew

Alex Porter: 16:35

Dr. UE, for all of you that might be wanting to connect with Drew to learn more about her experience in franchising, franchise marketing. And you're still What are you doing these days,

Drue Townsend: 16:47

I have an LLC, that's called the outside view consulting, and I am helping brands kind of have an outside perspective. Sometimes you get so caught up in the day to day that you get too emotional or you miss some things. And I just think it's nice to have an outside view. So I'm trying to help brands that need a little help do that.

Alex Porter: 17:05

And is that in the franchising space or any any? It's

Drue Townsend: 17:08

actually it's actually in franchising and also in just business in general, kind of small to medium sized businesses. But my heart is always, you know, in franchising, so,

Alex Porter: 17:17

well, I've had the opportunity to work with Drew for a few, many years at this point. And, yeah, if anybody needs some perspective on franchising in general, or marketing and franchise marketing, I would trust drew over just about anyone out there. So thank you so much for your time on our podcast, and I hope to see you in person soon.

Drue Townsend: 17:41

I know thanks. It was a it was fun being on it. And I would love to see you one of these days as well.

Alex Porter: 17:46

Maybe at a dirt trucks concert. Yeah. All right. Thanks very much.

Drue Townsend: 17:53

Thanks, Alex.