Money Mailer

Community. It’s about helping one another. It’s about unique people with a common bond. It’s about building a better quality of life; in the home and in the neighborhood. Money Mailer is a company founded on the idea of community. Its roots are deeply planted in the idea that everyday people, living everyday lives, deserve more. It’s rooted in the belief that helping your neighbor is about more than loaning a cup of sugar to the lady next door.

Founded in 1979 in a small surf community in Southern California, Money Mailer set out to offer the everyday people of the community an opportunity to save money at local restaurants, dry cleaners, and other small retail and service establishments in the area. Building a business on this principal is what has placed Money Mailer at the top of the Advertising Services-Direct Mail category. This belief in community is what has built Money Mailer with a network of over 300 franchises in communities large and small, stretching from the east coast to west.

Embracing Community from Within
To promote the idea of community, you must have it within. The Money Mailer corporate headquarters has always employed a very diverse group of team members. With a majority of their production crew of Hispanic, Vietnamese, Polynesian, and other decent. Many of the long time employees, with 20 plus years of service, hail from one of these ethnic backgrounds. The company’s core values focus on the idea of community and the team members that are employed there are expected to live by these values. The values of treating every person with the dignity and mutual respect they deserve, acting with honesty and integrity, and respecting the creativity and ability of every team member.

The idea of community at Money Mailer begins at the top. Godfred Otuteye, like most boys growing up in Akplabanya, Ghana, a small fishing village in West Africa, dreamed of becoming a fisherman. “I looked up to the fisherman. I wanted to be like them, to go out to sea and confront the elements,” he recalls. But young Otuteye’s mother had other plans for her youngest son. She wanted him to be the first of her six children to receive an education. With her support and encouragement, Otuteye left his small village at age 12 on a journey that would eventually bring him to the United States where he would earn an undergraduate degree from Harvard, and an MBA from University of Southern California, and eventually land at Money Mailer as President and CEO.

Godfred’s values for community, education, and quality of life are a perfect match for Money Mailer. “Where I came from, all we wanted was a chance to improve our lives,” says Otuteye. The Money Mailer environment is a perfect home for Otuteye; mostly because of the entrepreneurial opportunities the company offers its franchisees. During his time as a banker at Union Bank, Otuteye was encouraged by such opportunity offered in America. “I saw ordinary people take $1,000 to $5,000 and get started in a business. After five or six years of struggling, they would get a break and have a $50 million dollar company,” he said.

With a strong belief in affording others the same opportunities given to him throughout life, Otuteye ensures that Money Mailer maintains its focus on building a strong brand nationwide—one community and one franchisee at a time.

The Value of Diversity
Understanding the value of having a diverse organization, with differing backgrounds, viewpoints, and statures encouraged Money Mailer to develop powerful incentives to assist qualified individuals who have the drive, determination, and aptitude they look for, but may have lacked the capital to start a business of their own. As a growing franchise organization, they reach out to attract minorities through participation in the Minorities in Franchising arm of the International Franchise Association, as well as attending expos targeted at women in business and various minority segments. Also recognizing the growing percentage of minorities in the military, they extend a 25% discount to veterans in hopes of attracting additional franchise candidates in the minority segment.

According to Dennis Jenkins, Vice President of Franchise Licensing for Money Mailer, “Money Mailer is a great fit for the minority segment because of the growing number of women and minority business owners in the United States today. Local business owners want to buy from franchisees who can relate to them.” This philosophy will play an important role as Money Mailer continues to grow and expand into new markets. They recognize that having a franchisee in South Florida, for example, that understands the Latin culture, speaks the language, and can design marketing programs that will drive more of the right customers in the door makes sense. Since Money Mailer caters specifically to the local, community-based business owner, it’s a perfect fit for someone from that specific minority.

Money Mailer’s desire to attract more minority franchise owners resulted in 24% of the new franchise licenses to be granted to women and minorities in 2005 with plans to continue this successful initiative in 2006.

The Value of Community
Money Mailer franchisees reach out to a very diverse audience of consumers to help them save money on the things they need. For them, it is also about making a difference by contributing to the greater good of the community in which they live, and helping to improve the local economy by supporting the local ‘mom and pop’ businesses, and nationally known store locations alike. They provide a cost effective way for the local business owners to market their name to the community by offering valuable savings on everything from oil changes and dry cleaning to upscale restaurants and pizza.

A variety of local business offerings in the envelope helps to make the package more useful to the consumers, which in turn encourages readership, and growth opportunity for the businesses.

The value of community goes beyond supporting the local advertisers in their mailing area. Many of Money Mailer’s franchisees are active members of their local chambers of commerce, participating in key events to help bolster relations between city, citizen, and local business. Being a member of the local Chamber also presents Money Mailer franchisees with an opportunity to be involved in their community at an even deeper level than they are in their day to day activities. Michael Mojica, a local franchisee in Newark, California, is an active participant in the business organizations in his community. According to Mojica, “My involvement with the local Chamber of Commerce, has granted me many opportunities to meet great people from all levels of business—ranging from corporate CEOs to the owner of the local pizza restaurant. I am actively involved and have learned so much about the community that I have been able to become more tuned into how I can help business owners develop in my area. I actually feel like I am a contributing part of making my community healthy and it has really made my experience fulfilling. I’ve been able to grow personally and professionally through my conversations with other business owners in the Chamber.”

At Money Mailer, the franchisees are an integral part of the community and are encouraged to participate as such. While Chamber of Commerce participation assists them at the business level, Money Mailer also encourages them to grow from the more spiritual level as well. Nonprofit work and support of local charitable organizations is a wonderful way for their franchisees to give back to the communities they serve. Many franchisees support local chapters of large nonprofit organizations including American Cancer Society, City of Hope, Special Olympics, etc.

A Company with Community ‘Heart’
Witnessing how local franchisee support of nonprofits benefits their communities, Money Mailer began to seek out a nonprofit organization which could have an impact from both national brand recognition and community based perspectives. They wanted a charity that would keep local funds raised within the local community. In December of 2005, Money Mailer formally announced a national alliance with a charity close to their heart. Children’s Miracle Network.

Children’s Miracle Network is an organization with 170 children’s hospitals around the country. Amazingly, they treat approximately 17 million children each year. Their services extend beyond the traditional healthcare system, into research, neo-natal units, and disease specialists. On top of this, the treatment they provide is uncompensated, regardless of ability to pay. While their hospitals are located in 95% of the markets that Money Mailer serves, the most beautiful part about the relationship between Money Mailer and Children’s Miracle Network is that all of the funds raised at the local level remain in the communities where they are raised, and go directly to benefit the local hospitals. In fact, the thrust of the fundraising comes directly from the franchisees with a corporate match.

In 2006 alone, Money Mailer plans to raise $1,000,000 to benefit local hospitals across the nation. And in the years to come, they plan to continue to support Children’s Miracle Network through various fund raising objectives. They believe that helping children is an investment in the future of their communities, and the future of our country.

A Bright Future
Money Mailer is intent on encouraging the idea of community. Their commitment to ‘community’ starts with the markets in which they grant franchise licenses and continues with how their franchisees work within their community to enrich the many faces a city or town offers. In cities large and small, the Money Mailer brand will expand to benefit the local consumers, the local economies, and the local communities, because at Money Mailer, community is about “helping businesses get and keep more customers, and helping consumers save money every day™”, and now making miracles every day. And they will do it one state, one city, and one neighborhood at a time, affording every person the ability to fulfill their American dream.

1 Entrepreneur Magazine, Franchise 500 - 2006