We’re about to deliver our new franchise website: www.GreatClipsfranchise.com

“It’s been a labor of love for six months, and we expect to go LIVE! within days,” says Rob Goggins, our vice president of franchise development who conceived the idea for the new site.

New features include:

• a 360-degree virtual tour of a new salon,

• an easy-to-use map clearly showing available territories,

• updated franchise owner videos and testimonials,

• our latest Great Clips TV commercials,

• a more comprehensive “Frequently Asked Questions” section,

• and quick access for qualified prospects to the Great Clips online educational center.

“Check back with us no later than August 15, for the new site. You’ll find the navigation to be much more user-friendly; the content refreshingly conversational; the graphics smartly colorful; and, the site will be pleasantly approachable and accessible,” promises Rob. “If we can’t greet you personally with a genuine smile and an outstretched hand, you’ll find our new website to be as warm and inviting as any member of our Great Clips family.”

Interview with Josh Grove

Editor’s note: We asked, “What are you looking for?” in the way of content. One reader responded, “Hearing from other staff who are working directly with franchisees to get a sense for the type of people that support your franchise network.” We hear you, so with this posting we begin a series of interviews with Great Clips pros who are on the front lines supporting our franchise owners.

Great Clips Marketing Manager Josh Grove sees the forest from the trees

My connection to the owners is as a marketing manager responsible for developing their local marketing communications calendars—plans that include everything from broadcast media to couponing. I also gather competitive information and support their Grand Opening programs.

Our biggest challenge is keeping an eye on the big picture, particularly when everyone seems focused on the recession. Hair doesn’t stop growing because the economy is receding. Whatever we do today has to fit within a larger, long-term plan to win customers and to beat our competitors.

Great Clips’ owners benefit in several ways: I’m in the field meeting with owners to make sure they get the best possible marketing support in the industry. And, whatever we do locally has to complement our national campaigns (e.g., NASCAR sponsorships, NFL TV, etc.) ensuring that we invest smarter and our dollars go further.

In a nutshell we’re the customer-driving arm of the business. Our objective is to increase customer counts, and for the owners that means growing sales and profits.

Saplings in the Grove; My wife and I have a 15-month old daughter with another child on the way. If we could harness the vitality of little kids, we wouldn’t have an energy crisis.

Josh time; right now I’m working toward an MBA degree and hope to graduate in a year, so ‘time’ is a precious commodity. When I can grab moments, I enjoy watching, playing and coaching baseball. I also like playing in the dirt; that is tending to my garden.

Thank you, Josh, we can see you’ll be a great role model for your children.

Great Clips Teams with the NFL to Score Points with Male Customers

With men representing 70% of our customers, the marketing playbook has several tabs devoted to sports, with the first two labeled NASCAR and pro football.

In 1998, Great Clips motored into NASCAR. This year we’ll sponsor cars in both NASCAR and ARCA—Automobile Racing Club of America—to get more mileage out of our investment, and we’ll compete in a handful of Camping World Truck Series races.

But the news is we’re about to kick-off a $2 million, two-year promotion with NFL football that includes banner ads on NFL-owned NFL.com and broadcast advertising on the NFL Network.

The NFL Network is available in 50 million households across the U.S. and Canada, and NFL.com, with more than 11 million unique hits a month, is the league portal and the key site for Fantasy Football.

Our game plan includes promoting a Game-Day Sweepstakes during October on our turf—in our 2700 North American salons. “With Great Clips having a 70% male customer base, we couldn’t have a better partner than the NFL to surpass our billion dollar revenue goal,” said Terri Miller, vice president of marketing for Great Clips, Inc. “We’ll huddle with NFL executives and examine other assets to share. We may even come full circle and include a NASCAR tie-in. Great Clips and the NFL, we make a special team.”

We just opened our 65th North American training center

A successful franchise system expands much the same way a military operation advances—on the shoulders of its supply lines. At Great Clips, we recently opened two training centers, one in Toronto (# 64) and another in Boston (# 65). In both cases, our objective was not to saturate the market with owners first, so we could afford to install the training center. No, instead we built the training center after just a few salons were open in each market (and in Boston, after just one salon was open). This local support and training affords our owners the best opportunity to succeed in the market. Too often franchisors, in their haste to open units, will forego logistics and infrastructure for short-term revenues. They’ll open stores randomly rather than strategically, sacrificing economies of scale, marketing leverage, and accessibility to training and support resources.

Our 65 state-of-the-art training centers support our approximately 30,000 stylists in nearly 2,800 salons across 140 markets. In all our centers, an on-site salon operations specialist instructs stylists in the latest techniques and customer-service protocols, as well guiding managers in their day-to-day salon operations. The centers are also available for owner meetings, vendor presentations, and regional conferences.

We have several more training center openings planned this year including a high-profile facility we’ve earmarked for Washington, D.C. Our nation’s capital is another underserved market where demand for our value-priced, no appointment necessary service is monumental.

Great Clips is growing; growing prudently for our system and the right way for our franchise owners.

The July/August issue of Franchise Entrepreneur has us covered

Franchise Entrepreneur magazine, Canada’s premiere franchise publication, features Great Clips salon owner, John Kellett, on the cover and offers more coverage about our newest True North franchisee on page 27 [click here].

It makes sense that FE picked John to grace their banner position: He’s a hugely successful computer software executive, and the type of savvy businessman and entrepreneur that franchisors are clamoring to attract.

Like many of our franchise owners, John was drawn to Great Clips because we gave him the opportunity to keep his day job, own an equity business, manage it from a home office, and implement a 3-5 year transition strategy from software VIP to business owner/CEO. John recently opened his first salon in Toronto and plans to open two more in the next three months.

Of our 2700 North American salons, we have 60 in Canada. Canada is wide-open territory for us, but we don’t feel like pioneers. We now have 68 training centers throughout the U.S. and Canada, including our new 1,350-square foot training facility that we recently opened outside of Toronto in Vaughan, Ontario. We also have experienced personnel in the field, and dedicated professionals at our home office committed to the success of our franchise owners.

Franchise Entrepreneur, we salute your cover choice for the July/August edition.