A new kind of accountancy franchise was born after a two-year research pilot in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. Following a major review, Abacus Franchising Company Limited, appointed Kinghorn-Davies to handle all marketing activities.

Abacus accountancy services are aimed at the SME market where most companies were found to prefer a single multi-disciplined company for all their professional requirements. That is exactly what Abacus members can offer through a group of carefully selected strategic partners including the biggest names in their field.

There are 200 exclusive franchise territories nationwide, each with 10,000 registered SME companies. Franchisees offer a one-stop service for accountancy, audits, employee benefits, health and safety, credit management, human resources, quality assurance, pension and insurance, IT and telecoms, enabling the Abacus franchisee to compete with high street names.

Our first recommendation was to change the Abacus corporate identity for a more dynamic image for this highly competitive marketplace. Other work included redesigning all stationery, producing five practice operating manuals, writing and producing sales brochures for the three main service sectors of Accountancy, Business and Financial Services. We managed a high profile recruitment campaign to attract the very best candidates, first to a free "get to know Abacus" day and then to a full week's training course on which our personnel undertake a marketing training seminar for the new recruits. Each new franchise business is supported by business appointments generated by the Abacus call centre and Kinghorn-Davies arrange local advertising and editorial coverage.

A totally new website was an early must and the second generation site was launched in summer 2006, while PR and editorial activities in the first year generated nearly seven and a half million precisely targeted opportunities to see, with a value of coverage equal to eight times our actual PR fee.

In separate contracts we created corporate identities for two major support organisations, Millfield Abacus Financial Services and Abacus Pensions Plus, and produced separate sales literature and websites.

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