…but the website Consumer Affairs says it has received dozens of complaints in the past week from viewers annoyed by the ad.

The ads promote the fact that JCP will no longer be tied to its overbearing amount of coupons.  And this was not just in the TV commercials, but online as well. According to the NY Times,

Posters and images on the Facebook page urge shoppers to say “No!” to coupons and other gimmicks. The campaign will inform consumers that Penney plans to hold a dozen sales each year; last year, Mr. Johnson said at a news conference, there were 590 promotions. The average customer visited Penney four times a year in 2011, he added, “so the customer ignored us 99 percent of the time.”

As of today the new brand starts and the promotions will end. Will JCP get the rest of the strategy right?

First there is the new logo, which clearly reflects the American flag. My guess is they may have their fourth new logo in four years coming in 2013.

Then there is the new pricing strategy. Everything is always 40% off (or something like that). This will make it easy for competitors to undercut prices, but if their customer service is great and the “experience” is good, will you pay for to get it from JCP? Businessweek calls it a risky strategy that has failed for many other brands.

There is also a new catalog. OK, I have to admit – I LOVE the new catalog. The cover and internal pages are impactful and beautiful. Hopefully the quality will remain high after the first few months. The February edition is a wonderful inaugural version.

I interviewed a sales associate at a local store and she said the new return policy (they will take anything back whenever) and higher-end products (coming soon) will make JCPenney more like Nordstroms. I’m not convinced of that, they have a long way to climb to be another Nordstroms, but all improvements are good.

Today we should start seeing Ellen DeGeneres promoting the NEW JCP. Hopefully she will not be screaming at you.

What do you think about the branding changes as JCP? Will YOU be more motivated to shop there? Do you believe the new brand will promote increased sales?  Tell us about it here.

There are countless blogs that provide franchisees and perspective franchisees all the nitty gritty details about franchising. We chose to ignore most of those. We read blogs that help franchisors and their corporate staff who support the franchise system. The following blogs fall within that framework.

Our Favorite Blogs For Franchisors

1. The New York Times: You’re The Boss Blog

This blog is fantastic for all sorts of great information on running a business. They also throw in franchise-specific blogs. Many of the postings are real-life examples, not just theoretical, which makes this our favorite business blog.

2. The Entrepreneur Blog

We love it because you can search for blogs on marketing, franchising, technology, money, etc. Well written and a great publication to boot.

3. Inc’s Franchise Section

Stories in the Inc franchise section are about franchising success, franchise growth and business ideas. It is a great news source and case study section for franchise executives. (Cheers to our friends Ron Lynch of the Tilted Kilt and Shelly Sun of BrightStar for making Inc’s 2012 top Franchises!)

4. Open Forum: American Express

All business executives should keep an eye on this blog. The contributors of Open Forum stay on the pulse of business trends and national news that impacts business.

5.  Duct Tape Marketing

This blog provides great insight into small business marketing. Good for the franchisor leadership and marketing teams for helping their franchisees keep on top of marketing themselves within their communities.

6. The Business Owner Blog

A Franchise system dedicated to growing businesses, The Alternative Board publishes a blog focused on just that – business growth. Franchisors in all areas care about growth and can learn tips from The Business Owner Blog.

7. The Franchise King

Against our original specifications, this next blog is NOT oriented to franchisors, The Franchise King is written for potential franchisees. He provides insight to people looking to own a franchise as well as helping them determine if they are cut out for franchising. Many of his tips can be helpful to franchisors in determining how your franchise system looks to potential buyers. He also points out some grave mistakes made by franchisees – issues that franchisors can use as teachable moments for their system. Because of his significantly high readership, franchisors need to know what he is saying because their prospects franchisees will know.

Finally – don’t forget to subscribe to The Side Note Blog to get your ongoing updates for integrated marketing, advertising and PR for franchise systems.

Did we miss one of your favorite blogs for the franchising industry? Be sure to tell us about it here!

A representative for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints explained that the ads are not scripted; feature no fake stories and no wardrobe. The featured people are real people talking about their real lives.

In this video pro surfer Joy Monahan says, “I’m a woman’s long board champion and I’m a Mormon.”

The Killers band member Brandon Flowers has one of the most recent ads. His video expresses his love for music, family and his faith.

The Mormon Church is using this advertising campaign to attempt to tear down boundaries and stereotypes regarding the Mormon. The ads are supported by the website mormon.org, where you can find profiles of more than 30,000 Mormons worldwide and chat live with representatives from the church. The website has the church’s basic beliefs and answers frequently asked questions such as their beliefs about Jesus Christ, why they don’t drink alcohol or caffeine and what they believe about the Bible.

While the campaign is well developed and paints a picture of Mormons as the basic friendly next-door neighbor, the timing of the advertising campaign cannot go unnoted.

The Mormon Church has been getting a lot of attention lately thanks to Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman Jr. (who?), both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Unfortunately, a June Gallup poll showed that 22 percent of Americans would not vote for a Mormon candidate. This was once the sentiment about Catholics and African Americans as well, but our country continues to evolve.  While the Church does not endorse any party or candidate, the timing of the ads will most be a decision based on trying to sway general opinions and eliminate fears about voting for a Mormon.

The Mormon Church has made this public statement on various occasions before major elections: “Principles compatible with the gospel are found in the platforms of all major political parties. While the Church does not endorse political candidates, platforms, or parties, members are urged to be full participants in political, governmental, and community affairs.”

Ads will run until February, just after the Republican primaries have started in earnest.

Could the Mormon church have found a way around limits on political campaign contributions in order to gain political support for church members? Do you believe the campaign is effective in changing perceptions?

In the past several years, Quick Serve Restaurants (QSR) have starting implementing healthier menus to reach a larger demographic of customers.  This new craze has helped many restaurants increase sales and use new marketing and advertising campaigns to draw in a previously untapped audience of healthier consumers.

The Burger King franchise recently (finally) decided to jump on the healthy trend.  Burger King, the home of the Whooper, is attempting to re-brand the system by adding a fresher approach in their fast-food menu which began with the success of the new Whopper Bars.  The Whopper Bar is a concept designed to create a more “gourmet” atmosphere for “Whopper Connoisseurs.”  With an open kitchen concept and the “create your own Whopper” menu, Burger King was aiming to reach new markets and satisfy new types of customers.  Due to the success of the Whopper bars, Burger Kings is dethroning the King mascot in favor of a fresher approach to advertising that reflects the new menu.

Freshness and healthy meals are some of the most important categories that are increasingly emphasized in the fast food world.  Competitors of Burger King began this new approach a while ago. McDonalds’s started the trend with healthy alternatives such as oatmeal, sliced apples, and salads. Subway also launched its new avocado topping and even the Cheesecake Factory has their new skinnyliciouse menu (can you use the words skinny and cheesecake in the same sentence???). Guacamole, oatmeal, and other healthy foods have proven to be very appealing to mothers and health-enthusiasts, which could be an untapped for Burger King.

Below is Burger King’s new TV spot. Its refreshing in so many ways, most notably because its not a Peeping Tom wearing a crown.

Burger King might be a little late catching up with the new changing food trends, however this new strategy will most likely prove to bring a wider consumer market into the historically  successful Burger King franchise system. According to an AdAge article, a survey by YouGov’s BrandIndex among people who had visited fast-food restaurants in the hamburger category in the last month — the same time that Burger King launched the campaign for the California Whopper — their perception of Burger King had gone from a 24.2 before the ad aired to a 34.3 just two days after the launch of the spot. (YouGov BrandIndex’s scores range from -100 to 100 and are compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive.)

Have you seen other industry trends that companies should jump in to increase market share & revenue? Tell us about it here or visit our Facebook page.

What follows is a list of our top take-aways from the conference.

1. Franchising succeeds because of the ability to replicate a brand experience in a measurable way, but health care is a service-oriented industry. This juxtaposition is what makes franchising in health care a challenge, but also means great success for those who can consistency in the delivery of health care services.
2. Second only to food, health and wellness is the fastest growing franchise sector. While this means competition is coming, the market is far from saturated and there is great opportunity to create brand awareness and become an industry leader with a replicable service model.
3. The growth of franchise models will, without a doubt, have a significant impact on the delivery of health care services in the U.S.
4. Primary health care practices that may be losing money can become profitable through the shared services in a franchise system. As the acceptance grows, physicians are likely to turn to these business opportunities to provide their services.
5. The perception of franchised medical services is evolving as communities embrace the cost effectiveness and delivery efficiency of franchise systems.
6. Layering the legal issues of franchising on top of the legal issues of health care can create management nightmares if the programs and services of both the franchisor and franchisee are not established properly before the sale of the first franchise.

Do you have great take-ways from the conference we missed? Share them here.

Minneapolis, MN.

If you missed the inaugural conference, do not worry. The second Franchising in Health Care Conference is preliminarily scheduled for Fall 2012 in Denver, Colo. If you are interested in receiving additional information, please let us know or visit the office blog at http://www.franchisinghealthcare.com

There are three basic concepts to consider when reaching out to potential franchisees.

1. Understand Your Target Audience

Conducting research to identify your target franchisee demographic is extremely important. Much like people, each franchise business is unique and benefits from being lead by certain types of individuals. For example, if the franchise business is a bait and tackle shop, the ideal demographic will not be married women with infant children living in metropolitan areas. Researching age, gender, location, and even religious affiliation will help to maximize advertising and public relations efforts to reach the appropriate target demographic. There are plenty of free or low cost online tools to help you research your target audience.

2.  Identify the Competition.

From an outsider’s prospective, Subway and Quiznos may seem to be the similar in the sense that they provide made to order deli style sandwiches. However, the franchisors know these two brands are incredibly different and the franchisees also see the differences. As a franchisor, identifying the competition, knowing your distinguishing factors and building on what makes your business unique is crucial to selling franchises. Clearly understanding what your business does well and what makes it special or different will insure that potential franchisees understand why your franchise model is (or is not) a fit for them and their personal goals.

3.  Build a Positive Brand Identity

When selling a franchise, you are selling a name, a brand reputation and a system for success. How potential owners view the franchise brand and reputations will make or break a deal. With this in mind, creating a positive brand identity connection will help your franchise system stand out amongst competitors. Working to build and maintain a brand identity that is professional and trustworthy will attract a higher number of potential investors. Every detail of the brand matters and protecting the brand at all levels is critical.

As individuals research business opportunities they will select a franchise that fits their needs, is in an industry with future growth potential, has a proven business model and a brand they can trust.

If you need assistance on learning more about how to best reach your target market, share with us on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow @Weise_Ideas on Twitter.

Social media is changing the tactics of the scientific health community and how they discover and track the spread of disease. These tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare are now used in coordination with traditional methods of tracking to produce faster results. In monitoring social networks by region, widespread illness can be detected quickly and this knowledge could potentially prevent a pandemic.

According to a recent article by the New York Times, “A growing cadre of epidemiologists sees social media as a boon. Future hunts for pathogens may rely as heavily on Twitter streams and odd clusters of search queries as on blood tests and personal histories.”

In recent years, these scientists have studied patterns of illness through online searches and have identified regional spikes illnesses like the flu. Thanks to social media, they have made predictions a week or more in advance of those scientists who strictly consult traditional forms of disease tracking.

The use of unconventional data sources continues to increase. It can be predicted that more tools and applications will emerge to help in this research. One such tool is already in use. HealthMap is “An ambitious website and mobile application that constantly trolls the Internet for emerging outbreaks of the flu or a new respiratory illness.” HealthMap is an outstanding breakthrough for the medical community.  “Researchers recently used HealthMap to illustrate on a world map the location of new cases of E. coli infections as they were identified, following a massive illness outbreak that was eventually linked to German sprouts.”

Contagious diseases spread extremely easily and quickly within society, social networking tools allow for disease surveillance to be just as instantaneous.

To share with us your thoughts on how social media is transforming epistemology or other socially based research efforts, contact us on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow @Weise_Ideas on Twitter.

According to an article originally posted in the Denver Business Journal entitled “Urgent care franchises gaining acceptance,” companies such as Maryland-based Doctors Express, have seen great growth based on a productive business model for both the franchisees and the patients. In the article Chris Prior, medical director at Doctors Express in Centennial Colorado states, “declining number of primary care physicians has made it harder for a parent to get their child in to see their family doctor when illness arises, making new urgent-care locations more accessible.”

A health care franchise has the ability to positively impact the community it serves by reducing the cost of health care expenses and improving overall community wellness. Franchising within the health arena is advantageous because it allows for increased buying power of equipment, supplies and technology solutions. For example, when a new treatment becomes available, the franchisor can a directly share information with the medical professionals (within the franchise system) to detail implementation. This buying power will also mean franchisees in a system can purchase new technology at a bulk rate – something stand-alone practitioners will not be able to do. The knowledge-share and buying power will effectively and quickly spread a high standard of treatment options across a system and throughout communities.

The following are our top 10 reasons to franchise great health care concepts:

1. Multiple locations with cost-effective services improve/increase patient access to care.
2. Replicating systems throughout the franchise such as advertising programs, patient acquisition plans and technology infrastructure, reduces costs.
3. Franchisees have access to buying power for costly medical equipment and supplies.
4. The franchise system provides more sophisticated business management and allows medical professionals to focus on practicing medicine.
5. The ability to purchase and implementation of technology speeds up, increases and improves the business.
6. Services can better coordinate for an individual patient.
7. The larger system can monitor best practices, which allows for better patient outcomes and more positive customer experiences.
8. Franchising allows for faster scalability of a great concept.
9. A franchise system is better for raising capital when overall system improvements are needed.
10. Effective franchising may bend the cost curve of health care within communities, thereby improving the overall health and wellness of a community.

Have an additional top reason to franchise in the health care space? Please feel free to post your ideas in the comments; we would appreciate hearing from you. Be sure to follow us online @Weise_Ideas orFacebook: Weise Communications

I would like to express great thanks to Kevin Hein for helping with this post. Kevin Hein is a partner at Faegre & Benson. He is a corporate lawyer with a special emphasis on representing companies using franchising as a method of distributing their products or services.

It is also a lot of fun.

I lieu of a traditional conference recap, I have a video blog with insights from some of the Academy members. A big shout out thanks to Ashton Gilliard, our account coordinator, for her unbiased review of the footage available and her fine editing skills of my less than stellar videography skills.

Counselor’s Academy Peeps: See you next year in New Orleans!

Augmented reality is the combination of real world and computer generated data that functions to enhance current perceptions of reality. Virtual reality uses technology to transform real world surroundings into a simulated environment that is bursting with information. The technology allows the surrounding real world to be digitally manipulated and enhanced.

For example, Valpak  recently announced its new augmented reality coupons. With a phone application called Junaio, users are able to interact and view the world around them in a new way. By simply typing in a key word, entering a distance parameter or holding up an enabled smartphone, users are presented with virtual information and coupons redeemable at surrounding establishments.  The information presented is in real time and allows users to intermingle and examine the world around them. Although the Valpak application only offers information pertaining to businesses with relevant specials or coupons, the future of augmented reality is immense.

The life changing technology offered by augmented reality will continue to evolve the way users and advertisers interact with consumers. With facial and object recognition, AR allows users to screen their surroundings with more than just the naked eye. Imagine a world where users can hold up smartphones and suddenly know the names or marital status of every stranger surrounding them on the street or the detailed information pertaining to logos and storefronts within the vicinity. This application will act as an advanced screening tool that will transform not only how users perceive their surroundings but also how they make decisions based on information provided.

As LG and Wikitude prepare for the release of the new Wikitude 3D Augmented Reality Browser (which will be available later this summer), advertisers should be prepared to interact with potential customers in a whole new light.

With this technology, every terrain presents a new possibility of connecting with users. For example with object recognition, a logo is now much more than just a symbol to promote a brand. Logos will be virtually screened and will allow users to know pertinent information pertaining to specials or close-by locations.  Augmented reality has the possibility to turn every street, building, sign, vehicle and environment into sources for information, promotions and advertisements. The possibilities will be endless.

How do you feel augmented reality will impact the lives of users and/or advertisers? Share with us on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow @Weise_Ideas on Twitter.