Top 25 Franchise Marketing Leaders: Colin Berry — Vice President of Brand Development, Childrens Lighthouse Franchise Company

Name: Colin Berry
Role: Vice President of Brand Development
Brand: Children’s Lighthouse
Brand Website: https://childrenslighthousefranchise.com/ 

For Colin Berry, vice president of brand development for Childrens Lighthouse Franchise Company, success is less about metrics and more about the growth and people those measurements represent. After discovering his passion for franchising in the restaurant space, Berry quickly began to realize how fulfilling franchise marketing can be. While corporate-only roles are focused on metrics, he says, franchise marketing roles are about “moving people.”

Now, as he supports franchise owners throughout the Children’s Lighthouse system, Berry focuses on results over theory, clear guidance over “fluff” and strategically leveraging technology to streamline the less exciting facets of the marketing process while maintaining the human element.

Q&A With Colin Berry, Vice President of Brand Development, Childrens Lighthouse Franchise Company

1851 Franchise: How did you find your way to franchising and franchise marketing?

Colin Berry: Fresh out of college, I started working for TGI Fridays in corporate marketing. So, franchising at the time, in restaurants, was really becoming bigger and bigger and bigger, and they went through a big process of refranchising a lot of their corporately owned locations. I was a big part of that, especially on the marketing side, and I really just sort of fell in love with franchise marketing. 

The biggest thing here is I love helping people realize their potential. I think a lot of people in this industry, especially for emerging brands and medium-sized brands, don't come with a great understanding of what franchising is. And I just love helping people through that process.

Not just with the marketing side of things but everything. And helping them succeed and turn their dreams into reality.

1851: What makes franchise marketing uniquely challenging (and rewarding) compared to corporate-only marketing?

Berry: Corporate marketing is like driving one car while franchise marketing is like driving a hundred — and trying not to crash into each other and and managing a lot of different things at the same time.

I think another big difference is that franchisees want results. They don't want all the fluff. They don't want all the theories. There’s a management aspect to that. 

But I think the reward is bigger, too. When you hear a franchisee tell you that a campaign that you helped them start helped them reach their sales goals or their enrollment goals — or maybe it's a hiring thing. In corporate, I think you move metrics, while, in franchise marketing, you move people.

1851: What is the single most powerful lever a marketing team can pull to directly impact franchisees’ profitability at the unit level?

Berry: Local demand generation is the key — and making it simple to understand. Franchisees ultimately want to make money; they want to eliminate friction.

So having the right targeting, the right messaging, the right channels and, I would say, a plug-and-play system that they can actually follow is a must. Fancy strategies are great, but if a franchise owner (or whoever is managing marketing at the unit-level) cannot execute it, it's not going to matter. I think the biggest lever is taking all that complex stuff off of their plate so they can focus on executing a plan, and then ultimately focus on operations.

1851: What is an untapped marketing opportunity you see for franchise brands?

Berry: I think franchise brands massively underutilize community partnerships — not sponsorships, but actual partnerships. And what I mean by that is a lot of folks don't want to take the time or the effort to go into locations and have conversations, hand out business cards, get to know them or create cross marketing opportunities. The reality is that marketing is not hard. It just takes a lot of work. And the real goal, I think, is consistent, high-trust local relationships with schools, rec leagues, churches, pediatricians offices and other small businesses.

1851: What is one marketing fad or buzzword that you believe will actually deliver real results in the coming year?

Berry: I think most people would just default to AI, but I think I think there's a spin on that, right?

It's not just, “Look at my new tool, my new platform that's making things easier by incorporating AI.” I think the real value in AI is automating the unsexy parts of marketing. So, follow-up messages, lead routing, creating dashboards, varying out your content based upon locations and being able to personalize content at scale. I think a lot of people in this industry right now are scared that AI is replacing marketers and that couldn't be further from the truth. AI is going to replace marketers that don't understand how to utilize AI in their day-to-day.

1851: What’s your boldest franchise marketing take? 

Berry: I think, in five years, that your traditional local marketing agency is going to be dead because brands and owners are going to adopt the AI tools that we have right now, and they're going to understand how to automate their own stuff, how to create their own CRM systems and how to create their own workflows. They're going to have better data, and I think brands are going to begin to understand this as well, and they're going to create their own proprietary tools that are going to replicate and take away a lot of what these local vendors are utilizing. 

Want to learn more about how 1851 helps franchisors grow their franchises with confidence? Visit www.1851growthclub.com and see what we can do for you.