Who is Kid to Kid?

Kid to Kid® is a national franchise with more than 50 retail stores across the United States. Kid to Kid retail stores buy gently-used kids clothes, toys and baby furnishings and sell them at amazing prices. It’s a common sense kind of store for parents who know that while their kids grow quickly, paychecks don’t. For more information on Kid to Kid, readers can visit www.kidtokid.com.

The Marketing Solution

In 2004, Kid to Kid began a national search for a solution to provide their franchisees with customized marketing collateral in operational forms online. The solution would need to be flexible, accessible, and easy-to-implement, and would need to be entirely branded for use by Kid to Kid’s franchisees. The company was able to identify several solutions for online ordering of quick-print products; however, what the company really needed was a solution that could offer the franchisor complete control over branding and customization while providing franchisees with a complete set of marketing resources and tools to ensure their business success.

The Solution: The Alexander’s Advantage Platform

For Kid to Kid’s needs, one solution emerged: Alexander’s Advantage. Beyond traditional online branding modules, Alexander’s Advantage® provides franchises and distributed companies with a fully-customized management console that gives them all the tools they need to help their marketing efforts succeed.

The Advantage platform is a proprietary online management console and print engine that allows client companies to offer customized marketing collateral and forms to their empoyees, franchisees and distributors. Product templates can be customized, proofed and ordered directly from Alexander’s, providing the franchise outlets with personalized, on-demand products at volume pricing.

The Process
 
Today, Kid to Kid franchisees can select more than 60 products through their customized Advantage portal. Users can personalize materials for each store and proof for accuracy during the ordering process. After the order is complete, the item is combined with orders from other stores, merged into a print-ready PDF and moved directly to the HP Indigo press 5000 or HP Designjet 5500 for printing. When the product is completed and shipped, the Advantage system sends an automatic confirmation e-mail to the store to provide a UPS tracking number and order verification.

When Kid to Kid stores order direct-marketing pieces, they upload their mailing list through the Advantage wizard to personalize each piece for the end consumer. After printing, the pieces are mailed directly from Alexander’s to the designated customer.

The Benefit

Thanks to the Advantage platform, Kid to Kid stores have realized lower prices, higher quality and fully personalized offerings, which has translated to increased business success. Franchisees recognize that they are receiving tremendous customer service and support from the Kid to Kid Corporation, thanks to Alexander’s Advantage.