THE FUTURE Target Audience Persona Recommendations Brand Brief

the future

Target Audience Persona

Age 40 Retired from the U.S. Army Married, 2 Children St. Louis, Missouri

Trevor Richards

HOBBIES

Works out routinely, homebrews his own beer, enjoys grilling out on the weekends, watching sports, having friends over for game nights.

GOALS

Exercises at least three times a week. Finding ways to better himself. Wants to serve a purpose, help men who are younger than him.

FRUSTRATIONS

Trevor was never a sports star but always wanted to be. He still lives in the glory days and tends to live in the past rather than the present. He often reflects on his regrets, rather than his success.

BIO

Family comes first. Trevor played football in high school and got a scholarship to play at TMU but injured his shoulder his junior year. He loves reminiscing with friends about the good old days and wishes he had enjoyed the spotlight when he had it. He joined the military after college didn't work out and found new purpose and drive in protecting his country. Now that he is retired from the military with two young boys and a wife at home, he wants to work in an industry that he is passionate about, sports.

#liveit

Recommendations

SOCIAL MEDIA

To gain a presence on social media, businesses should start first with Facebook. While they have received some rough coverage from the media over the past couple of years, it remains immensely popular: some 69% of US adults use the platform and 74% of this group visit at least once a day. These numbers represent not only a largely engaged audience, but it makes Facebook the essential network for small businesses. While Pro Image Sports currently uses Facebook, they should continue to take advantage its capabilities with paid advertisements, consistent activity, and updated information. That said, a broad theme of content with both images and infographics are the top type of content posted by small businesses on social media. While it can be tempting to over-post and bombard followers with content, it is important to not post content to social media more than once a day, and not fewer than 3 times a week. Remember that social media takes time, in a recent study, IBM reported that they spend 52% of their allotted social media ideation to organic posts, 15% to posts regarding events, and 13% creating posts for paid social advertising. While this may seem like a lot, take time to allocate how much time you have per week to dedicate to your digital audience via social media and divvy that time up based on your product/company’s goals.

WEBSITE DESIGN

A successful homepage should include: • Strong headlines that speak the language of the target audience and immediately address the audience’s pain points. • Clean design that looks professional and trustworthy. • Strong copy that instantly engages the audience. There is a balance between engaging copy and copy that comes across as too “sales-pitchy. • Easy forms that make life on the viewer as easy as possible. They don’t have to know every detail about your company upfront, but they are more likely to request more information if the form is easy to understand. • Eye-catching buttons make call to actions (CTA) quick, accessible, and easy to understand. It is true that a picture says a thousand words. Sequential steps are key when explaining a company's point of difference to its audience. Each step in the process should be clearly defined and easily move the viewer down a linear and logical path that is tailored to your specific look and feel Using principles such as: • Hierarchy of information, the most crucial and important information should go at the top. • Bite-sized content is crucial in keeping viewers from getting overwhelmed.

It should be easy to understand and quick to digest.

• Short & to the point is the mindset to keep when designing a product tour. Your audience is very busy and doesn’t want to spend time trying to skim paragraphs for what they came for. Being mindful of your visitor’s time lets them know you respect them while maintaining a level of professionalism. • A clear call to action (CTA) is again crucial when helping cut down on the time it takes a viewer to find what they are looking for. At the end of a product tour, you want to present a clear CTA button that entices them to take the next steps. Product feature releases bring your audience in on the ever-changing climate of your industry. Not only are you seen as ahead of the curve, but they can feel empowered in that way

FRANCHISE WEBSITE

In regard to Pro Image Sports franchise site, the most valuable content is testimonials and validation tactics. Nothing puts a future franchisee's mind at ease like validation from other people. While it is crucial to have a section of your home page dedicated to testimonials and validation tactics, it’s also helpful to have this sprinkled throughout your website on other pages and in other formats. These formats include: • Quotes are the most straightforward way of doing this. It is proof and credibility straight from your customer’s mouth. Quotes should be highlighted; it isn’t just text on a page. They should be designed in a way that helps them stand out on a page. • Success stories are similar to case studies in that they give viewers an inside look into your process and customer care.

• Video testimonials help break up text and add a personal touch to your testimonials. Viewers are able to see genuine reactions and facial expressions. If a customer is taking the time to film a testimonial, it proves to the viewer that they are genuinely pleased with your company. • Featured testimonial sections can be a great place to keep everything together. This would be a prominent option in the website’s menu bar. • Customer reviews from platforms such as Yelp, Facebook, and Google can be shown on your website using various widgets and plugins. People want to know they are not alone, and they want people who are in a similar field to partner with, bounce ideas off of, share the latest industry trends with, and more. Forums are great places for people to chat, ask questions, and discuss topics related to your service. This allows space for the company and community to bond, communicate, and collaborate, and in turn, build loyalty, provide feedback, and improve your service. Potential franchise owners want to know what a business stands for, what other owners have to say, and an inside look into your process and what makes you, you.

PHOTOGRAPHY TRENDS

Selecting a specific style will help create a cohesive brand for your target audience. Once you have chosen an image style, add it to your brand style guide for references when using images. Select images that connect with your audience and the messaging. Images chosen should help tell a company’s story and should be an essential part of your marketing strategy. If selecting photos of people, the ratio of face to body in an image influences the way the person in the image is perceived, also known as face-ism. For instance, a persons head-shot has a high face-ism ratio and is perceived with personalityrelated attributes like intelligence and ambition. Whereas, a photo with more of the body in the image has a lower face-ism ratio, emphasizing physical characteristics. The lower face-ism images are perceived based on physical attractiveness. If the objective is to initiate thoughtful interpretation or association, use images that are more similar to a head-shot composition. When the object is more focused on ornamental interpretations or associations, use images pulled back, showing more of the subjects' entire body. Another principle is known as exposure. Not exposure as in light coming through the lens of a camera, but instead in regard to how much a viewer is exposed to an image. Using an image repeatedly throughout a brand increases exposure creating a positive perception of a company from the target audience. This enhances company credibility and improves the way people feel about the company. Combining an image with text makes for an even higher likelihood of remembering what one saw. When branding with images, remember to make words and images cohesive with your messaging and brand. Conflicting images and words create clashing views, and recollection decreases dramatically. Using this principle is advantageous when recall and recognition of critical information are casually exposed. The likelihood to remember the information viewed increases drastically.

IN CONCLUSION

As demonstrated in the research and interviews, Pro Image Sports has a great opportunity to streamline their brand platforms into one consistent and cohesive brand. With their recent website redesign and name change, they have the unique advantage to build their brand with foundational best practices, guidelines, and keys to success. Pro Image Sports should provide each of their franchise owners with a brand strategy that is easy to understand and apply. This should include the story behind the Pro Image Sports brand, logo guidelines, color choices, photography and social media best practices, the company's values, point of difference, pillars of success, and recommendations for layout and design. In addition, each franchise should have a brochure that advertises how to become part of the Pro Image Sports family. The best market for potential franchisee's is in the stores themselves, and this is one step toward that communication opportunity. Last, an eCommerce guide will greatly benefit franchise owners. This guide will help owners understand the corporate site, the tools provided, and how to utilize their resources to their fullest potential.

Brand Brief

WHO

For people looking to bring officially licensed sports products to their local communities. Your Brand is: a great option for entrepreneurs looking for a low-risk, growth business with a relatively low investment and royalty requirements. • Over 30-year track record • On-going demand for sports products • Constant service and assistance from the Pro Image Sports corporate office • Store location and leasing assistance

WHAT

Pro Image sports provides a world-class shopping experience (both online and in-store) for a diverse customer base. They provide support to their franchise owners to live out the career they’ve always dreamed of. This support is based on each franchise's needs, the corporate support team, discounts (dollar for dollar), leasing, merchandising, upfront support, and adding value to the franchisee in their endeavors.

WHERE

That's because franchisee's join ownership, working in a multi billion dollar industry they are passionate about. No matter their location, college and professional sports dominate their culture, sports fanaticism is growing by the day, and customers seeking fashion or fan gear find their way to Pro Image Sports stores across the nation.

WHEN

This is a family. When a franchisee takes the step to open an Pro Image Sports retail store that allows them to sell officially licensed products from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA and more, they also get advice, support, and help from the corporate team.

HOW

Pro Image Sports is passionate about working in the sports industry and they want to share their passion with their customers and franchise owners. Passion for the sports industry simply lives within each member of the team. They play them, they live and communication through them, and they help others own their own business in an industry they love. To them, sports are what makes what they do fun and it connects people. The team environment is creative and balanced. Their focus isn't always about money and they value being successful in the climate they are in, rather than pushing to do more or be more. Franchisee's care about their employees and they work with other store owners to help eachother and work as a team united in sports.

thank you