Franchise Update Magazine Issue II, 2013 | Page 34

Grow Market Lead

By Kerry Pipes

Consumer Marketing
Conference!

2013 conference chair highlights unique opportunities

W

endy Odell Magus is in the
driver’s seat, a position
she relishes—and excels
at. With more than two
decades in marketing, she understands
both the consumer and franchise sides
of marketing and communication. This
background has come in handy for her
this year as she steers Franchise Update’s 3rd annual Franchise Consumer
Marketing Conference as its 2013 chair.
The event takes place this June 25–26 at
the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead in Atlanta.
Magus was selected for her proven
understanding of strategic marketing
planning and implementation, honed on
the job at brands like Sylvan and now
Kiddie Academy, where she has
been since 2008 and serves as
vice president of marketing.
Her goal as conference chair
is to ensure that the CEOs,
presidents, and marketing
executives who attend take
home “actionable initiatives,”
as well as create new, meaningful relationships with other
marketing professionals and
suppliers who will be there.
“This conference is unique,
as it’s the only one of its kind
that offers opportunities to
have informative conversations
and network with franchise
marketing professionals on a
personal level,” she says. With
more than 200 top marketing
and branding executives expected this June, attendance
is expected to double from its
record-setting levels of 2012.
We sat down with Magus
to find out where things are
headed, and what attendees
can expect this year.
This is the third Consumer Franchise Mar-

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Franchiseupdate Iss u e II, 2 0 1 3

With more than
200 top marketing
and branding
executives
expected this June,
attendance is
expected to double
from its recordsetting levels of
2012.

keting Conference. What does
this conference offer attendees
that has made it the must-attend
event for franchise marketers?

This conference is very different from
any other. The quality of the attendees
is unique. These are senior-level executives who are all focused on the same
challenges and opportunities. As we
are entering the third year, what really
makes it wonderful is the relationships
I’ve been able to develop with other
franchise marketing executives from
the previous two conferences. That is
the real beauty of going back year after
year. When we’re 10 years down the
road, I’ll have a network of 200 close
marketing friends who I can
call and ask how they solve
a particular problem, or to
find out who they use for a
particular service.
What is unique about
consumer marketing
in franchising?

What’s unique about the
franchise space is that we
have two layers of customers: the franchisees and the
end-consumer. Some of the
conference content is about
how to market to that first
layer, the franchisee, and how
to get buy-in and drive adoption of the really important
programs that will grow their
business. It’s about overcoming obstacles to implementation. And some of the content
is about effective, efficient,
and emerging ways to reach
the end-user, the consumer.
With all of these constituents,
as franchisors we’re trying
to drive adoption and brand
engagement. This is what is
common across all concepts,