Beginning his career in television media before moving to a digital marketing agency, Jim Farinacci now serves as the Vice President of Marketing for Fresh Coat.
He brings with him a wide variety of experiences that he leverages on behalf of the Fresh Coat franchise owners to grow their businesses.
First running the camera for ESPN and ABC Sports, covering IndyCar, NFL, MLB, and college sports programs, Jim then moved on to a Fox affiliate station in Cincinnati for 10 years. Deciding that he wanted additional experience outside of media marketing, he joined a digital agency for three years to widen his knowledge to other industries.
When asked what drew him to Fresh Coat, he says, “I liked the idea of being with one brand and getting to know it inside and out and really embed myself in it.” Jim says that even he was surprised as to how much his varied experiences played a role in helping him support Fresh Coat franchise owners from the very beginning. From helping a franchise owner understand the ins and outs of television marketing to experience with brand and website management, Jim has been able to utilize his professional experience to support franchise owners as they work to grow their business.
One of the biggest benefits of franchise ownership, he says, is that owners do not have to do a lot on their own in order to start a successful franchise.
There’s no need, he says, “to worry about branding, developing creative assets, or learning about everything on your own.” As a franchisor, Fresh Coat has a system in place to help owners establish their business and is so confident in that system that it offers franchise owners the opportunity to earn their franchise fee back through the Winner’s Circle program.
Specifically, Jim notes, there is a lot of marketing support provided to franchise owners, including content creation, design of flyers and direct mail pieces, and the creation of a wide variety of additional types of marketing materials. In addition, the Fresh Coat team can manage postings and updates on the franchise owners’ social media platforms and search engine business pages, like Google My Business. “All the things they should be doing, but don’t necessarily have the time for, especially new owners,” he explains.
The marketing support continues for established owners, as well, allowing them to put their attention elsewhere in a way that will help them to grow their business. And Jim and his team are always looking to provide new ways to support the Fresh Coat franchise owners. They recently added a reputation management tool to their offerings so that franchise owners don’t have to worry about managing individual review sites on their own.
There also is a brand new operations software for Fresh Coat franchise owners that has been custom-designed to help them be more successful. Along with helping owners more efficiently and effectively manage their business, the new software also comes with a lot of marketing support embedded in it.
It has the ability to integrate with the website, automate email communication, and gives the owners access to information and analytics that they didn’t have before. This, he says, “will help franchise owners make smart, data-driven decisions for their business.”
Jim understands that concerns about marketing and the ability to hire painters are the two things that concern potential Fresh Coat franchise owners the most. Beyond that, he says, they are usually pretty comfortable with the business model. Although Jim is not involved in the sales process, if a potential owner is particularly interested in hearing more about the marketing support available, he is available to answer those questions.
He also makes a point to visit franchise owners, both new and established, and he says his message “right off the bat is that marketing and advertising at Fresh Coat is a combined effort.” As the franchisor, Fresh Coat offers a lot of marketing, but there are a lot of opportunities for franchise owners to customize the marketing to their own market and their own business. “Not everything works in every market,” Jim notes. So Fresh Coat, he says, “gives them the chance to do things that make sense for their brand in their market, and we help.”
As part of the Strategic Franchising umbrella, the Fresh Coat team is able to help coordinate collaboration among franchise owners from different brands. Particularly valuable is the relationship that exists between Fresh Coat owners and TruBlue Total House Care franchise owners. Because there is a lot of overlap between the two service offerings, it is not uncommon for local franchise owners to share opportunities and even office space.
The collaborative relationship among Strategic Franchising brands is also helpful to Jim and his fellow brand marketing leaders. There is a monthly marketing meeting that brings them all together to “talk shop” and share opportunities, knowledge, and opportunities. “It is,” Jim says, “a way for all of us to collaborate to elevate the marketing we are doing for individual brands.”