Overview of the Business Franchising in Australia Why do People Choose Franchising? What Support do I Get?
The Athlete’s Foot provides support to our franchisees in each area of the business. Some of the key areas include:
Location is critical in any retail business, but how do you know if a location is right? The Athlete’s Foot understands retail property and 35 years of experience provides a strong guide as to what works for our business and what doesn’t. We understand shopping centres and have access to the data they produce which is invaluable in assessing a site. The advantage of a network the size of ours is we can find reasonable existing store comparisons to most areas as part of the assessment process. The Athlete’s Foot holds the head lease in all of our stores, which gives us greater negotiating power and also confirms to you and the landlord our commitment to the site. We then operate a license agreement with you that mirrors the head lease. Ultimately there are three key factors in determining location – the right retail precinct (town, shopping centre or strip area), the right location within that precinct and the right rent. The Athlete’s Foot has always been cautious in approaching potential sites and this methodology is key to our success.
Part of the benefit of joining The Athlete’s Foot is that customers know and trust our brand. As such being recognisable to customers is critical and therefore maintaining the key design elements and look and feel that exists within all our stores is the starting point for any new store design. From there, the local issues and size and shape of each individual store are taken into account as the final design for the store is developed. We will project manage the entire process and liaise with our architects, council, the centre or landlord and builders, all the while ensuring the you are involved and part of the process. Importantly, we go through a competitive tender process for each project to ensure you are paying the best price possible and will discuss the various tenders and the associated builder with you before any final decisions are made and contractors appointed.
Every The Athlete’s Foot franchisee (regardless of store) receives the supplier discounts and trading terms that are provided to The Athlete’s Foot by our supplier partners. It is also important to note that we believe one of the strengths of a franchise group is understanding your local market and catering for their needs. As such, as a franchisee you have considerable flexibility and autonomy in the range you carry and in making the final decisions around brands and products, thought naturally we provide plenty of support and guidance in this critical area of the business. There is an expectation that each store carries the nationally advertised styles, these styles are selected based on a number of factors including, brand and product strength, supplier contribution, and consumer behavior to name a few. Buying is a mixture of both art and science – using your knowledge of your market, history from your store and the rest of the group and the collective experience and knowledge of fellow franchisees as well as head office merchandise team to choose the right products and then planning and budgeting to ensure that your product levels match your mix of business and the sales that the store will do. Through your induction the broad fundamentals and processes of buying will be covered, however the best way to understand what and how much to buy will be through experience, on the floor, through conferences and through your wins. You will never get it 100% right, but The Athlete’s Foot is here to help prevent some of the elementary mistakes through our knowledge, experience and the history we have through the network of stores and to work closely with you to ensure you avoid the major pitfalls. Being the market leader gives The Athlete’s Foot significant head start in dealing with our supplier partners in a number of ways, which include:
Having the right staff and ensuring they are well trained is critical for any business. Knowledge, training and development are at the core to delivering The Athlete’s Foot brand commitment. This being the case The Athlete’s Foot continues to invest in training to ensure that it is both comprehensive and user friendly. From fitting shoes and serving our customers to the technology of footwear, basic anatomy and function of the foot and lower leg, it is all covered. The Athlete’s Foot training platform consists of three accreditations, Fit Technician; Fit Specialist and Master Fit Technician. We aim to create a learning culture where access and completion of training programs is habitual and automatic. Our focus is on continual improvement and ongoing learning via pre and post course work, face-to-face training, individual workbooks, role plays/scenarios, videos & online learning. Regular training is the cornerstone of any successful retail store. Without trained, knowledgeable staff to service all our customers, we can’t expect the store to perform to its potential and our training platform will ensure that both you and your staff are quickly on the path to joining our band of ‘Master Fit Technicians’.
It is often said that it’s the detail in retail that counts. Having an exciting and stimulating environment for our customers is fundamental to our success – a clean, tidy and well maintained store reflects pride in your team, pride in your store, and pride in The Athlete’s Foot brand. Shoe product is displayed in one direction, product/category flow is flexible, and can be altered to suit local demographics or promotional periods. The store design and layout in addition to calling out our ‘fit’ message provides consistency across the group, as do in-store graphics, uniforms, badges, and head-office provided Marketing material. This material follows a pre-arranged calendar mapped out for you, and covers your windows, stands and other opportunities inside the store. Colourful and attention grabbing campaigns call out key brands and the latest developments in shoe technology, and are updated on average every three weeks.
The Athlete’s Foot enjoys a high level of public awareness through its long term commitment to a comprehensive Marketing program that ensures regular and effective advertising across key mediums. A constant national TV presence on both free-to-air and subscription channels across all markets ensures that when people are in the market for quality technical footwear, The Athlete’s Foot are talking to them. Our advertising creative is carefully designed to feature our unique “Fit” message, as our highly trained staff explains the features and benefits of the best quality technical footwear, as only they can. The constant TV presence is backed up with extensive magazine advertising across specialist sport, health & fitness publications as well as mainstream magazine titles. The creative for each publication is tailored to the readership, enabling a more targeted approach to issues relevant to the lifestyle of the reader. Driving local store business is a primary focus for The Athlete’s Foot, engaging in extensive advertising and promotion to the local community around each store. There is no question that there is a direct correlation between the level of local marketing a store undertakes and the long term health of the store’s business. Franchisees who engage regularly in local advertising whether via press, radio, letterbox, transit, centre/ street signage etc, achieve a high profile within their community and are perceived as successful local businesses. The Athlete’s Foot franchisees regularly participate in local community activity of both sporting and social nature to maintain a high profile interacting with their customers outside the store environment. In addition to having access to branded marquees, mobile Fitprint units and premium items that delivers “theatre” to the out of store activities. The Athlete’s Foot franchisees have the benefit of a Marketing team with staff dedicated to assisting franchisees produce cost effective local marketing material, with an extensive library of produced material to make the task quick and simple to organize. As a result, across the country the local The Athlete’s Foot store is well known not just in the local shopping centre, but in sports & social clubs, gyms, schools, retirement villages, hospitals & medical centres, by Podiatrists, Sports Physiotherapists and Chiropractors. The Athlete’s Foot’s comprehensive Local Marketing program is about raising awareness and driving business from all areas of the local community. One of the clear points of difference between The Athlete’s Foot and its competitors is this dedication to Local Marketing and makes us clearly the leader in this field. Recognizing the importance of aligning with the market leader, brands like Asics, Brooks, New Balance, Nike, Adidas etc are eager to partner. The Athlete’s Foot As the recognized “Fit Experts” these brands see endorsement by The Athlete’s Foot of their technology as key to maintain credibility within the market. To this end they each invest heavily in partnering with The Athlete’s Foot in advertising and promotion activity throughout the year. The promotional calendar involves a regular rotation of partner brand campaigns focussing on shoe technology and category information. These are featured in window and in-store displays and are funded by suppliers, and provided to the store at no charge. The campaigns are supported with special staff training and incentive programs, in addition to the national advertising commitment. With its long term commitment to Marketing the uniqueness of brand, The Athlete’s Foot has enjoyed unprecedented success amongst national specialist retailers and the disciplines and resources are in place to ensure this continues into the future.
