Akikio

A: I have some good news to share today on the marketing front, my franchise friends. Recently I was meeting my wife and daughters for a movie at one of those new upscale, outdoor . . . what's the word? Mall isn't quite right, but it was one of those cool, new, open-air centers with shops, movies, cobblestone streets, outdoor cafes - you get the idea. Plaza maybe.

Anyway, I had a little time to kill before they got there, so I was waiting at Starbucks when I happened to glance a few doors down and saw something called The PR Store. I walked in and was fairly amazed at what I found. Brightly lit, beautiful, retail and professional, calling itself your marketing superstore, the PR store was a franchisee's dream: A place to go and have created websites, logos, brochures, brands, trade show exhibits, postcards even. Superstore indeed!

I chatted with the store's manager, Maya Braddock, and she explained to me that the PR Store is a franchised chain of almost 40 stores across the country dedicated to being a one-stop-shop for all the marketing, advertising and branding any small business may need. What a great idea.

As I have come to learn, like many people associated with the PR Store, Maya has a strong background in advertising, specifically with ad agencies. But if you know anything about agencies, you also know they are meant for big business with ad budgets of $50,000 and up. In fact, it is precisely because ad agencies are geared towards big businesses that the PR Store came into being.

After speaking with Maya (and the dynamic owner of the store, Fee Stubblefield), I was fortunate enough to speak with the CEO of the PR Store, Dan Fragen. Dan explained that the originators of the business, Kathy and Mike Butler, also came from an agency background but wanted to create something that catered specifically to small business owners. To do so, they knew they needed a novel business model. Their new business had to be:

• Retail: In fact, like the store I went to, most PR Stores are smartly and strategically located near a Starbucks. The one I went to gets about 25 new customers a month simply from drop-in traffic.
• Affordable: The prices the PR Store charges are very competitive.
• Drop In: Any small business owner can walk into a PR Store, get a free hour consultation, have their needs and budget analyzed, and get an idea about what their options are. It could be as little as a logo on a keychain or as much as a producing a television spot, buying the time, and tracking the results.
• Objective: Whereas an ad rep for a TV or radio station, or newspaper or magazine for instance, has a vested interested in you advertising there, your PR Store rep has a vested interested in your small business getting the biggest bang for your buck.

So the PR Store is unique in many ways, and here is one more: All of the creative work is centralized in the home office in Charlotte, North Carolina - all of the writing, artwork, graphics - everything. What that means is that even though each individual PR Store can be run like the small business it is, there is an economy of scale making the products affordable, as well as a skill set and level of expertise that might not otherwise be available in a small shop.

All in all, what I found at the PR Store was a welcome addition to your franchise tool chest - an affordable, professional, useful, tool that should make your life easier and more successful. And no expensive learning curve required.

About Steve Strauss

Steven D. Strauss is one of the world's leading experts on entrepreneurship. A lawyer, author, and public speaker, his latest book is The Big Idea: How Business Innovators Get Great Ideas to Market. Steve's columns regularly appear on USA Today.com, Workz.com, Bizland.com, and Staples.com, among others. You can sign up today for his free newsletter, "Small Business Success Secrets!" at his business web site - www.MrAllBiz.com.