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SuperCoups: Spreading Marketing Success
Direct-mail marketer SuperCoups has insured its own success by helping franchisees and small businesses succeed.
Success is contagious - find an underserved market and help your new clients achieve their goals - then their growth drives yours. SuperCoups, a premier direct-mail marketing company, illustrates this principal perfectly. The company has been creating and delivering local coupons by mail since 1982, helping smaller business stretch their advertising budgets and compete with larger ones.
SuperCoups' success was a three-step process; from its small start it grew by finding a niche (direct-mail advertising for small businesses) and serving it better than the competition. As the company grew from its first few franchises in 1984 it was able to realize economies of scale by associating itself with a larger firm, purchasing bigger facilities, and printing in greater quantities. SuperCoups was then able to promote itself more effectively and grow faster. In turn, its franchisees help their small business clients with their advertising; the clients' success assures a future market for the company.
The Growth of SuperCoups
SuperCoups was founded in 1982 and began accepting franchisees in 1984. The company has consistently invested in marketing and mailing software and upgraded equipment and facilities, improving effectiveness and enhancing the breadth of its product offerings. Today, SuperCoups is established in 19 states plus Puerto Rico and continues to grow.
In 1998, SuperCoups was bought by ADVO, Inc., a billion-dollar organization which is the largest private customer of the United States Postal Service. This further expanded the breadth and depth of resources available to SuperCoups. In 2004, SuperCoups moved to a 62,000 square foot facility. With this expanded capacity, SuperCoups has been able to grow its mailing base to nearly 65 million envelopes each year and has the capacity to deliver even more.
The Franchisee Experience
After being in business two years, SuperCoups began taking on franchisees. This was the first step on the way to becoming a franchise-based business. Their home-based business model makes sense: since SuperCoups' customer base is small local businesses, the effort is essentially a grassroots enterprise, perfectly suited to a franchise approach.
SuperCoups has designed a comprehensive support program for its franchisees. New franchisees start with a week of home-office training, after which a SuperCoups trainer will spend up to two weeks at the new franchise location, helping to formulate a plan of action. Beyond this start-up training, SuperCoups offers an annual National Conference, special meetings, monthly conference calls, and Web demonstrations.
SuperCoups' Small Business Customers: Key to the Economy
Individually, local businesses may be small, but collectively they are a powerful economic force. Small businesses create more new jobs than large ones, and in total represent a $12 billion market.
One of the challenges small businesses face is competing with larger ones with greater resources. Very few small businesses could afford to have a first-class, direct mail operation in-house. The SuperCoups concept allows small businesses to minimize this expense by purchasing SuperCoups' expertise, software, demographic data, and fulfillment capability. The individual small businesses even get to leverage brand recognition, as their coupons will arrive in a distinctive SuperCoups envelope.
Creating a Win/Win
This marketing muscle can give a small business the boost that it needs, without adding substantially to overhead costs. That's why the concept works. SuperCoups has succeeded because its franchisees and its small business customers have succeeded. SuperCoups is proof positive that success is contagious--and you can catch it yourself.
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