Local Marketing Automation Continues to Build Momentum

BOISE, ID – Balihoo, the premier provider of Local Marketing Automation technology and services to national brands with local marketing needs, continues to gain traction with national brands representing a diverse range of industries. During the first quarter of 2010, Balihoo solidified multiple partnerships with leading national brands that have local marketing needs – representing everything from dog care to delicatessens, home fixtures to auto maintenance.

Now leveraging the Balihoo platform to empower thousands of franchisees and resellers are national brands including Specialized Bicycles, Kohler Co., ProTect Painters, Oil Can Henry’s, Mattress Firm, Dogtopia, Gandolfo’s, Granite Transformations, TSS Photography and Verlo.

“Our new partners understand the power and influence of targeted local marketing and believe in Balihoo’s ability to help drive demand – and ROI,” said Pete Gombert, Balihoo’s CEO. “Our local marketing automation solution will empower the franchisees and resellers for each of these leading brands to deliver effective and customized marketing campaigns that resonate with their local customers.”

Gombert continued, “This flood of well-respected organizations, along with Balihoo’s acknowledgement by Gartner as a ‘Cool Vendor’ in the marketing landscape, is a clear indication that Local Marketing Automation is becoming a key strategic differentiator for many national brands.”

Clients that have recently partnered with Balihoo include:

Specialized Bicycles

Specialized Bicycles was founded in 1974 by riders for riders. Headquartered in Morgan Hill, California, with global distribution, the company focuses on making everyone’s time on a bike better by delivering functional and technically advanced equipment that provides a performance benefit. In their quest to provide a superior dealer experience through their exclusive IBD channel, Specialized is utilizing Balihoo to ensure alignment of local dealer marketing to the national Tour De France promotional launch.

Kohler Co.

Kohler Co. is one of America’s oldest and largest privately-held companies and is a global leader in the manufacture of kitchen and bath products, engines and power systems, furniture and decorative tile, and hospitality and real estate including world championship golf resorts in Kohler, Wisconsin, and St Andrews, Scotland.

ProTect Painters

ProTect Painters is a member of Service Brands International, a privately held, multi-concept franchise system with worldwide headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. ProTect Painters has become one of the largest painting companies because they have the experience to handle all painting needs, both exterior and interior. ProTect Painters is using Balihoo to provide a completely outsourced local marketing solution to their franchisees nationwide.

Oil Can Henry’s

Oil Can Henry’s makes vehicle maintenance quick, convenient – and even a little fun at their service centers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington. They selected Balihoo to ensure their franchise system is marketing and communicating in a common voice by putting a local marketing automation platform in place that will consolidate all local marketing activities.

Mattress Firm

Mattress Firm is one of the nation’s leading specialty mattress retailers, offering a broad selection of both traditional and specialty mattresses from leading manufacturers, including Tempur-Pedic, Sealy, Simmons, Stearns & Foster, Sleep to Live and Serta. Founded in 1986, Mattress Firm’s purpose is to improve lives one night at a time. While Mattress Firm had been utilizing a traditional ad builder system for several years, they called upon Balihoo to develop a comprehensive Local Marketing Automation platform capable of enabling their franchisees with the ability to easily execute local marketing efforts.

Dogtopia

Dogtopia has a clear mission to be the premier provider of the highest quality dog care in the United States, and continues to experience promising growth driven by quality service and leadership. Balihoo and Dogtopia share a passion for making the franchisee successful and are working hard to provide the marketing tools and planning needed to execute and grow in the local marketplace. Solid media planning, customizable creative and excellent support services are being utilized to make every promotion and campaign “paw-rific.”

Gandolfo’s New York Delicatessen

Dan Pool discovered Gandolfo’s New York Delicatessen in Salt Lake City, Utah. It took one bite into a Gandolfo’s sandwich for Pool to invest and ultimately become owner and CEO. Founded in 1989 by New York native Craig Gandolph, Gandolfo’s New York delicatessen is the nation’s only “authentic” franchised delicatessen. Gandolfo’s has spent the last twenty years spreading the love of authentic New York delis across the country by providing the freshest deli meats and vegetables on top of its selection of homemade breads. Balihoo has developed an end-to-end email marketing platform that offers Gandolfo’s franchisees with everything they need to quickly and easily communicate with their local customers in a manner that it is 100% in concert with the national brand.

Granite Transformations

With U.S. offices based in Miramar, Fla., Granite Transformations, a division of Trend USA, has facilities and showrooms around the world offering new and exciting alternatives to traditional countertops, backsplashes, floors and more. They have teamed with Balihoo to provide franchise owners with an integrated marketing platform that gives them creative flexibility, email functionality, media planning services and cost savings through economies of scale. Granite Transformations was looking for an easy-to-use and cost-efficient solution for their franchisees and Balihoo delivered.

TSS Photography

TSS Photography has been the leader in youth sports, school and event photography for over 25 years. They specialize in team picture days, sports photography, school photography, special events and tournament photos. They plan to utilize Balihoo technology to maximize promotional campaigns, retention programs and lead communication. Customizable creative templates paired with customer management systems will allow them to accomplish these goals. With additional services and tools, Balihoo offers their franchise owners the resources they need both currently and with future growth.

Verlo

Headquartered in Fort Atkinson, Wis., Verlo Mattress Factory Stores is the nation’s largest Craftsman-Direct® mattress retailer. Offering the only franchise opportunity in the $8 billion-a-year sleep specialty industry, Verlo Mattress Factory Stores was selected as one of the 100 companies to be featured in the 2009 (3rd) Edition of Bond’s Top 100 franchises, competing with over 3,000 active North American franchise systems. Balihoo has supplied Verlo with a consolidated marketing solution that will dramatically improve system-wide visibility into overall marketing spend.

For more information on how Balihoo can help companies translate national strategies into local execution, download Balihoo’s Local Marketing Automation Whitepaper or Integrated Co-op Marketing Whitepaper. Also available is Balihoo’s newest whitepaper, Fixing the Biggest Problem in Co-op Advertising.

About Balihoo

Balihoo is the premier provider of Local Marketing Automation technology and services to national brands with local marketing needs. Balihoo brings enterprise-class marketing to the local level and gives national brands full visibility into all local marketing activities and results.