The new site features an improved design and added navigation features to allow customers to quickly and easily find their way to different pages within the site. Featured on every page is the Oxi Fresh locator, which allows users to enter their zip code and instantly find the nearest Oxi Fresh carpet cleaning franchise, along with current local specials and contact information.

“A lot of time and research went into our site redesign in order to provide the best possible user experience for our customers,” said Jonathan Barnett MBA, President of Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning ®. “Not only is finding local Oxi Fresh carpet cleaning services now faster and easier than ever before, but we think our customers will really love the new wow factor of our site.”

Improved navigation on the site includes new drop down menus to allow visitors to find any page in any category easier. In addition, an added navigation box on the left side of every page lets the user know where they are on the site at all times so users can quickly jump from page to page.

In the future, the Oxi Fresh website will offer online scheduling so customers can make carpet cleaning appointments online without ever using the phone. Currently visitors to the site can find the phone number for the nearest Oxi Fresh carpet cleaning franchise online or call 877-OXIFRESH to be connected to an Oxi Fresh in their area.

The new Oxi Fresh site not only helps customers, but helps Oxi Fresh franchisees as well with the power of online marketing. With a low cost of ownership, easy operation and low overhead, and tested and proven marketing programs, Oxi Fresh franchisees can experience outstanding growth very quickly.

Oxi Fresh currently has over 180 locations in the U.S. and offers protected territories of up to 110,000 households. For additional information or to view the new website, visit www.OxiFresh.com.

About Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning®

Oxi Fresh was established in 2006 and currently has over 100 units in the United States. Using innovative products and technology, Oxi Fresh franchisees are able to offer oxygen powered cleaning which cleans all the way down to the bottom of the carpet pile, transforming the carpet right before a customer’s eyes. Oxi Fresh is committed to being an environmentally friendly business by using efficient and low energy solutions. The non-toxic carpet cleaning agents are applied with a low moisture process and are safe for children and pets.

The Huffington Post reported that the casting call was promoted on Craig’s List with the following message:

This is a call for girls 18-30 years old to submit videos of themselves eating a Carls Jr. or Hardee’s burger. Be sure to introduce yourself, tell us where you (or the girl) is from, and state your favorite Carl’s Jr. or Hardee’s burger before eating.[...]
The winner will have the chance to appear in an upcoming Carl’s Jr. or Hardee’s marketing campaign, a $1,000 cash prize and an all-expense paid trip for you and a friend to Las Vegas.

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The essay contest, entitled “Maid Brigade Veterans Franchise Giveaway,” offers to waive the $14,500 franchise for up to 100 vets who want to sign on as franchisees, and will award one turn-key franchise package – all expenses paid – to the Grand Prize Winner.

Lisa Sperling (770-736-3573) is the PR contact for the program, which is being promoted via a dedicated website, Twitter campaign and publicity initiative.  Press releases follow:

Maid Brigade Announcement

Maid Brigade Contest Application

Maid Brigade Panel of Judges

Maid Brigade Salutes Veterans with $1.5 Million Franchise Giveaway
Contest Will Offer New Careers to 100+ Military Veterans

(June 29, 2009) — They’ve earned their medals in the U.S. Armed Forces. Now veterans can prove
their mettle in the business world with the Maid Brigade Veterans Franchise Giveaway, a program that will
award more than $1.5 million in business ownership opportunities to 100+ veterans, creating more than 1,000 jobs nationwide.

The contest comes at a time when America’s economy is down, but patriotism is high. Maid Brigade, the
award-winning residential cleaning service and longtime supporter of the military, is acting on both fronts by offering new careers to veterans, a group it considers worthy, qualified, and proven as franchise owners.
Currently, 10 percent of Maid Brigade owners are veterans; others in the network come from a range of careers.

The contest will launch on Independence Day, July 4, and conclude on Veterans Day, November 11, 2009.
To apply for the giveaway, veterans must visit www.maidbrigadegiveaway.com to complete the form and to
submit a short essay by September 30 on how their military responsibilities would translate to successful Maid Brigade franchise ownership.

Maid Brigade will waive its $14,500 Select Market Franchise fee for as many as 100 qualified veteran applicants. Additionally, one grand prize winner will receive a new Maid Brigade franchise operation at zero cost —a total value of $45,000, which includes waived franchise fees, working capital, training, and
equipment. Second and third place winners will receive similar packages valued at $27,500 and $17,500, respectively. A Maid Brigade Select Market Franchise is designed for smaller geographical regions. Owners manage all business aspects of an operation and oversee a staff of employees who clean homes following Maid Brigade’s certified Green Cleaning system.

Maid Brigade’s four-member panel of judges consists of U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Michael H. Miller; Ted Daywalt, military veteran and President of VetJobs, the leading military-related job board on the Internet and endorsed by The Veterans of Foreign Wars, Vietnam Veterans of America, the Naval Reserve Association and the Veterans of Modern Warfare; decorated U.S. military veteran and Maid Brigade franchise owner Ray Toombs; and Maid Brigade Chairman and Founder Don Hay.

“Military veterans have done so much for our country,” said Hay of the Maid Brigade franchise network.
“This year on Veterans Day, we want to show them our appreciation by giving them their own business, a new career, and comfortable lifestyle.” Unlike a typical military career and some other franchises, Maid Brigade franchise ownership is a Monday to Friday business with daytime hours, no nights, and no weekends. It allows time home with one’s family and an opportunity for business growth and a high ROI. Maid Brigade, a recession-resistant business, has weathered previous recessions of the 1980s, 1990s and post-9/11, without a drop in same store sales.

Franchise businesses consider veterans to be excellent franchise owners. They’re disciplined self-starters,
they embrace teamwork and know how to follow a proven path to success. Maid Brigade’s technology-driven business systems, highly standardized cleaning processes, and ongoing corporate support make its organization an especially good fit for veterans.

Hay and his wife, Maid Brigade Vice President of Franchise Recruitment and self-proclaimed “Navy Brat” Cathy Hay, have always believed in a vigorous commitment to the U.S. military. For years, Maid Brigade has partnered with the non-profit Operation Homefront to provide military families in crisis with free housecleaning services; it has also consistently offered veterans discounted franchising fees and larger territories.

Maid Brigade is a longtime member of VetFran, the Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative, created by the International Franchise Association and supported by the Center for Veterans Enterprise.
One of the contest judges, Army and Navy veteran Ray Toombs, and his wife bought their Maid Brigade
operation in Ohio in 2003. “The military was a big part of my life, and it meant a lot to be recognized for my
service by Maid Brigade and VetFran,” Toombs said. Since they launched their business, the Toombs’
franchise has experienced 15 to 20 percent growth per year. Other couples also own Maid Brigade operations; system-wide the network comprise 17 percent couples, 48 percent men, and 35 percent women as owners.

While Maid Brigade has a long and rich history of supporting veterans, a new bill, the Help Veterans Own
Franchises Act (HR 2672), has recently been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to encourage
other franchise businesses to offer discounts for veterans interested in buying a franchise.

Veteran applications are due by September 30, 2009. Detailed Veterans Franchise Giveaway rules are
available at www.maidbrigadegiveaway.com. Veteran applications are due by September 30, 2009.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Maid Brigade is a global residential cleaning service with more than 420 locations in the United States and Canada. Established in 1979, it has grown its market share every year since its inception, with system-wide sales over $70 million in 2008. Unique to Maid Brigade is its Green Clean Certified® cleaning system, the only house cleaning system that uses green cleaning solutions certified by Green Seal State of the art technology, training and ongoing support also set apart the franchiser, which helped it earn several franchising accolades, including rankings in and magazines and awards from Franchise Research Institute, The Franchise Ratings Guide, and FranNet.

For more information, visit www.maidbrigade.com or call 800-722-6243.

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graphic:  Maid Brigade

According to this post on Ad Age:

Carl’s Jr. tapped YouTube’s No. 2-most-subscribed channel, from a comedy group called Nigahiga, to push its new portobello-mushroom burger — and it has paid off, in 3.3 million views last week, according to Visible Measures data compiled for the weekly Viral Video Chart. And this is no subtle, where’s-the-brand sponsorship. The (burgerless?) burger is in just about every frame, and when it’s not, they’re talking about it.

The Carl’s Jr. performance was good enough to best two basketball-themed videos that have been on the chart during much of the NBA playoffs…

Are you taking advantage of the franchise marketing power of social media? What are you waiting for?

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On our recent post Ben & Jerry’s Busts on Haagen-Dazs. Again., I wrote of the long-standing tradition of Ben & Jerry’s taking its super-premium ice cream rival to task every chance it gets.

And I also noted the irony (and the deftness) with which the Unilever-owned Ben & Jerry’s continues to play the honest hippy up against the snotty corporate rival Häagen-Dazs.

In response to Ben & Jerry’s bashing Häagen-Dazs for reducing its container size by 2 oz., the Dazs sent us this coolly composed response:

You may have seen a recent message from Ben & Jerry’s calling out our decision to downsize our Häagen-Dazs cartons.

While the reality is that size sometimes matters, we continue to believe that quality matters more.

Our ice cream is created with only a few select, simple, all-natural ingredients.

That is why we searched six years for the perfect variety of strawberry for our Häagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream and why we paid four times more over the last two years for the raspberries that make it into our Häagen-Dazs raspberry sorbet.

And we wouldn’t think of soaking the raisins for our Häagen-Dazs rum raisin ice cream even a minute less than the 60,480 minutes (42 days, actually) that they currently luxuriate in their rum baths.

Why not? Because then it just wouldn’t be Häagen-Dazs. Call us obsessive. But we’re that serious about our ice cream. We hope you’ll continue to make it your ice cream.

Thank you for giving us a chance to respond.

These guys are like two actors in a play, each playing their own role.  You gotta wonder if they get together and choreograph this stuff.

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Busting on snobby-gourmet branded competitor Haagen-Dazs is more than a tradition for hippy-gourmet branded Ben & Jerry’s.

It’s part of Ben & Jerry’s heritage.

In fact, Ben & Jerry’s might still be muddling along as a regional brand if reps from Haagen-Dazs (owned by Pillsbury at the time) hadn’t tried to force retailers to drop the little-known brand.

Ben & Jerry’s fought back with a grassroots PR Campaign (What’s the Doughboy Afraid Of?) that thrust the little ice cream brand into the national spotlight… and soon national distribution.

Then who can forget the Ben & Jerry’s ad that poked fun at the phoniness of their competitors’ contrived names (Haagen-Dazs was just concocted to sound Scandinavian)

There ain’t no Häagen, there ain’t no Dazs,
There ain’t no Frusen, there ain’t no Glädj
There ain’t nobody named Steve at Steve’s,
But there’s two real guys at Ben & Jerry’s.

Back in January, 2009, Haagen-Dazs announced that it was downsizing its package size:

To offset increasing costs, we did not consider reducing the quality of our ingredients or the care we take in making your ice cream, sorbet, and frozen yogurt. We opted instead to slightly reduce some of our carton sizes.

Beginning late January 2009, all Häagen-Dazs branded 16 fl. oz. cartons will change to 14 fl. oz. In March 2009, all Häagen-Dazs branded 32 fl. oz. cartons will change to 28 fl. oz.

This was a difficult decision. But we hope you’ll agree that our promise to never sacrifice the quality of our ice cream—what we put in as well as what we leave out—is what the Häagen-Dazs brand is all about.

I just received a Ben & Jerry’s “Chunkmail” email newsletter with the subject line:  “A pint is still a pint!” that featured the graphic above along with this message:

One of our competitors (think funny sounding European name) recently announced they will be downsizing their pints from 16 to 14 ounces to cover increased ingredient & manufacturing costs and help improve their bottom line. At Ben & Jerry’s we think downsizing pints is downright wrong. We understand that in today’s hard economic times businesses are feeling the pinch. We also understand that many of you are also feeling the same, & think now more than ever you deserve your full pint of ice cream.
We are even more committed today to lead with our values through the quality of our ingredients & how we source them to make the best ice cream possible. So, while our competitor may be experiencing a bit of shrinkage, rest assured that your Ben & Jerry’s will still be standing tall in the freezer. Enjoy!

Good to see Ben & Jerry’s stand by its heritage.  Just because there ain’t no Ben at Ben & Jerry’s… just because Jerry’s now a figurehead and the  hippy ownership is actually the multinational conglomerate Unilever… is no reason to end a fine tradition.

It just goes to show you, if you use cool cows in your ads, you can get away with anything.

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Graphics:  Ben & Jerry’s

Technorati Tags: Ben & Jerry’s,Haagen-Dazs,email marketing,advertising,packaging

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Scroll down to leave comments, well wishes, prayers or admonitions.

Feel free to leave thoughts, prayers, and comments below.

Denny’s was once the chain restaurant king of breakfast, ’til McDonald’s came along and stole the crown.  Today, 1550 unit Denny’s  doesn’t even rank in the top 5 in the $83 billion breakfast market (McDonald’s, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Burger King, and IHOP).

To make matters worse, franchise unit sales were down 7.2% last quarter – a time when its value positioning should be giving it a boost.

So Denny’s hatched a bold plan to get some attention. 

On Tuesday, February 3, they gave away a Grand Slam breakfast to anyone who showed up at all but two of its 1,550 restaurants nationwide. (The Grand Slam includes two eggs, two strips of bacon, two sausages and two pancakes and normally sells for $5.99.)

According to an article in USA Today, Denny’s invested about $5 million on the entire promotion, including food costs, labor costs and airing a :30 commercial on Sunday’s Super Bowl.

"We’re re-acquainting America with Denny’s," says CEO Nelson Marchioli. "We’ve never been thanked this much — and folks are saying they’ll come back."

The gambit earned Denny’s something that money alone can’t buy: positive public relations, and lots of it. By Denny’s estimates, it got $50 million in free news coverage, almost all of it positive. No injuries — or police issues — were reported at any locations, say Denny’s officials.

Marchioli implied that they made up quite a bit of their costs on high-margin beverages not included in the Grand Slam giveaway.  "…he concedes: If you factor in the profits from all of Tuesday’s drink orders — which are far more profitable than food orders — ‘we’ll do better than break even.’  And, yes, he just may do it again."