D1 Training reaped both the benefits and struggles of a rapidly growing franchise. With 25+ locations around the country, they struggled to keep eyes on every piece of marketing collateral that went out. See how Marq helped them lock down their brand while still staying “hands off” with their franchisees.
Previously playing fullback for Peyton Manning, Will Bartholomew founded D1 Training as a boutique fitness franchise focused on training athletes from the scholastic level all the way up to professional athletes.
Mike Abramson, President of D1, says “I love that you can lock a form or an image — whether you lock content, location, font size, etc. — so that franchisees still have the freedom to play without straying outside the brand guidelines.
Franchisees simply get their login, all the templates are preloaded into the system, they can select one, localize it, and they’re done. All without having to go to the corporate design team for help.
With 25+ locations around the country, D1 Training started to experience the same issue many growing franchises face: brand consistency.
Lacking in design experience but eager to get marketing materials out, franchisees were creating flyers and posters all on their own. They’d even resort to hiring third party designers wholly unfamiliar with D1’s brand standards.
Madelyn Reynolds, Communications Officer, said: “We were letting franchisees use whatever tool they wanted to create materials and we had no control over what they were pushing out.” With no design system set in place, D1’s fonts, colors, and even the logo itself weren’t staying consistent — which takes a toll on any brand.
Mike Abramson, President of D1 Training, was strolling the aisles of the International Franchise Association exhibit hall when he stumbled across the Marq booth. The ability to implement a system-wide brand templating tool peaked his interest.
“I saw that Marq would allow us to design marketing materials, lock down the brand, make sure the brand standard is followed, then simply share it out for franchisees to update for their community. While some design tools we had been using were great for making ‘cool images’, Marq was the best and only platform we thought made sense to use system wide.”
Madelyn was on board too. She set up a webinar to showcase the new platform to all of D1’s franchisees, resulting in the highest attending webinar in D1 history. Feedback from the franchisees was positive. Madelyn said, “Our franchisees have been looking for something like this. When you’re a franchisee, you’re not necessarily a designer or marketer, so sometimes it’s intimidating for them to start this business. They’ve been waiting for a solution like Marq.”
Once Marq was implemented, Madelyn started using the product for both external and internal purposes. Event flyers, email campaigns, Facebook headers, class schedules — the list goes on. Her team created a library of templates, locked down the D1 branded elements, and let franchisees use their own creativity to fill in the rest.
From colors and logos to even the positioning of text, D1 was able to protect their brand image without taking away the creative freedom of their franchisees.
“I can log in to Marq, edit an image quickly, export it, and put it into an email. I don’t have to sit there and fiddle with it. It’s just easy to use.” — Madelyn Reynolds, Communications Officer
D1 franchisees can create and print marketing materials as soon as they need them. Instead of having to do emails back and forth with the corporate team, they can take care of their needs as they come up
