Suburban Lodges MAPs Plan For Franchisees

ATLANTA— Suburban Franchise Systems has launched its Marketing Assistance Program (MAP) to provid local marketing support to its franchisees. The program features a comprehensive property-level sales and marketing evaluation and the companys new sales and marketing planner. “The MAP program brings customized marketing support to a whole new level,” said Jeff Huepper, franchise marketing manager “Not only are we providing a comprehensive manual to assist with local sales and marketing, we are evaluating every aspect of each propertys efforts, making specific recommendations for improvement, and even helping to implement these suggestions if needed.” Brand president Dan Berman said, “Franchisees are very excited about this program because it provides them with a concrete way to rate the sales and marketing efforts at the hotel level. It also gives them the resources they need to improve them.” The initiative supplements current marketing programs such as national and regional sales, telemarketing and Web marketing. The sales and marketing evaluation is designed to measure how effectively available marketing resources are being used. The evaluations cover market research, action plans, sales activities, advertising, public relations and customer service. Service managers will conduct the evaluations and make specific recommendations and corporate marketing staff will provide extra support to those properties that need it. The sales and marketing planner contains the information needed to plan and implement a local marketing plan from start to finish and offers a new graphics standards CD and corresponding manual to help hotels to create professional-looking property-specific advertising materials at their local printer.