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New England Franchise Association

Ingage Consulting’s Evan Hackel selected for New England Franchise Owners (NEFA) board of directors

Evan Hackel
Evan Hackel of Ingage Consulting

FRAMINGHAM, MA AND WOBURN, MA…The New England Franchise Association (NEFA), the trade organization for franchisors and franchisees in the region, has announced its new board of directors. Among those chosen for the new board include Evan Hackel, founder of Ingage Consulting of Woburn, MA.

“Having been a member of NEFA for several years, I’m thrilled and honored to be appointed to its board of directors,” said Hackel.  We have some impressive individuals on the new board who have experience as franchisors, franchisees and consultants in the industry. I’m looking forward to working with the board and NEFA members to develop programs and events that engage and benefit our Association.”

In addition to Hackel, the new board includes both franchisors and those who serve the franchise community.  Board members include Bruce Wildes, Acadia Business Advisors, LLC, Cumberland, ME; Chuck Lynch, MaidPro, Boston, MA; Donato Dandreo, Compete Now, Boston, MA; Gina Weinstock, G. T. Reilly & Company, Milton, MA; Kevin Dubois, Lapels Dry Cleaning, Hanover, MA; Kim Woods, Franchise Solutions, Portsmouth, NH; Murray Vetstein, Source4, Brockton, MA; Steve Dubin, PR Works, Kingston, MA; and Suzanne Cummings, Cummings Franchise Law, P.C., Stoneham, MA.

“Evan’s a great addition to our board of directors and a great example of the high caliber of members we have in NEFA,” said NEFA President Steve Dubin.

Hackel’s consulting firm, Ingage Consulting, focuses on improving the performance of franchises by enhancing the relationship of individual franchisees and the franchisor. By creating a culture of partnership and common purpose, Ingage Consulting is able to help franchisees and franchisors dramatically improve their performance.

Before founding Ingage Consulting, Hackel was president at CCA Global Partners for 20 years. At CCA, he was responsible for four business divisions with more than 2,000 units, more than $5 billion in sales, and operating in four countries. While at CCA, Mr. Hackel founded its marketing department, national programs department, and its award-winning training department.

About NEFA

New England Franchise Association (NEFA) is the trade organization for franchisors and franchisees in the region, with over 150 members. The mission of NEFA is to bring franchise executives, franchisees and vendors together to share ideas for success.

Franchising more than ever before, has an unprecedented opportunity to make a major positive impact on the future New England economy. In a 2001-05 study conducted by  PriceWaterhouseCoopers on behalf of the International Franchise Association (IFA) found that in New England over 875,000 jobs are a result of franchising, the total output is over 100 Billion dollars a year, and there are over 35,000 franchise establishments in the six New England States.

For more information, please visit the New England Franchise Association via the organization’s website www.NEFranchise.org or email to info@NEFranchise.org.

About Ingage Consulting

Ingage Consulting is a management consulting firm that works with franchisors and franchisees to improve the franchise organization’s culture which in turn increases sales and satisfaction; improves growth and retention and boosts loyalty and profits.

Ingage Consulting provides solutions that drive the cooperation, commitment, passion and loyalty of both franchisors and franchisees.  The company helps solve the problems of franchise organizations by offering services that range from partnership creation and vibrant intranet community creation to trust building, improved communication and strategic planning.  After a thorough assessment, Ingage Consulting devises solutions to a franchise organization’s challenges. These solutions may include the development of methods that maximize collaboration among franchisees/licensees or the development of a clear strategy and execution plan for change which is customized to meet organizational objectives.

Evan Hackel, Ingage founder and management expert has more than two decades of experience in best practices, turnaround strategies and team dynamics.  He is often engaged to analyze franchise businesses, provide recommendations and facilitate strategic planning.  Hackel is a  a member of the National Speakers Association. As a member of the International Franchise Association (IFA), he holds a Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) and is a member of the IFA Supply Forum. Hackel is a member and serves on the board of director os the New England Franchise Association (NEFA).

Ingage Consulting is located at 400 Trade Center, Suite 5900 in Woburn, MA.  For more information, contact (781) 569-5900 or visit the website www.ingage.net.

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Wave2 Launches New Franchise Division

Wave2 logoFranchisors and Franchisees Collaborate Using a Self-Service Portal Automating Marketing and Promotion Processes

DATELINE: WESTBOROUGH, MA

Franchisees in Tampa, Topeka and Tempe are about to launch new locations and need marketing tools to reach new customers, promotional collateral to present professional consistent messages along with digital ad campaigns to hit the ground running.  How do you control promotional activities in multiple locations with a consistent message, image and quality?

Wave2 Media Solutions has launched a new Franchise Division that removes the drama, cost and hassle replacing it with an easy to use self-service white-labelled portal to manage the entire marketing and promotional process.  A customized portal designed with your branding offering your corporately approved designs for both print and digital campaigns that can be accessed and edited by your franchisees.

With an eight year track record of providing similar services for the world’s leading newspapers and corporate clients, Wave2 Media Solutions is poised to take that same technology and turnkey solution to the franchise industry. Wave2’s large install base of newspaper partners will play an important role in this strategy.  A new Expert Partner” status will enable newspapers to participate with the local franchisees by facilitating their use of the Wave2 solution.

While most franchisors are looking to manage and control use of their brand there is a void of systems to enable them to do this.  Wave2 working with their newspaper partners will be able to offer a digital workflow that will connect franchisees to their local newspaper’s advertising products for the print editions of the newspaper and digital ads for the newspaper’s website.

Wave2 Media Solutions also helps manage, control and implement online standards for other marketing materials.  These include logoed apparel, email campaigns, brochures, business cards, direct mail, door hangers, internal and external signage, Point of Purchase (POP), post cards and anything that includes a franchisor’s brand.

Stormy seas?  Worried about protecting your brand?  Need to streamline marketing materials for franchisees?  Wave2 can help you navigate the roughest seas to a safe harbor.

“We understand that the last thing franchisors want is to juggle dozens of emails, phone calls and shipments from warehouses around the country every time a franchisee needs new monthly promotional materials or on-going marketing tools,” noted Brian Gorman, co-founder and Vice President of Wave2 Media Solutions.  “The typical franchisor system being used today is a server with static PDFs that franchisees can download or they order pre-printed material from a warehouse.  These systems offer little if any customization and regionalization for the franchisee and are slow to respond to changes in products, promotions and advertising.”

Gorman continued, “By implementing one of our white-label self-service portals, franchisors will be able to maintain their corporate brands across all types of media.  Franchisees will have much better access and editing capabilities so they can both personalize and localize their message in a more time effective manner than they can now.  The Wave2 newspaper partner channel will also be available to franchisees in their local markets making it much easier for them to place ads with newspapers.  This will empower the franchisee to improve both the targeting and timing of their localized promotions increasing their sales and lowering their costs. This is all available without taking the brand management away from the franchisor.”

Wave2 Media Solutions was formed in 2004 specifically to develop a range of solutions for the automated generation of documents. With an extensive installed base around the world hosting hundreds of websites, Wave2 aims to provide tools that will enable clients to both save costs and to generate new revenue.

Wave2’s product range includes solutions for Self Service Advertising, Self Service Portals, Creative Automation, Sales Visuals, Online Marketing and Personalized Publishing.  Wave2 is a world leading developer of Adobe Systems InDesign Server and Adobe’s Flash technology.

For more information, Wave2 Media Solutions can be contacted at 114 Turnpike Road, Suite 203, Westborough, MA 01581, (508) 366-6383, info@wave2media.com, www.wav2.com.

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