Insight Leads To Inspiration Leads To Effectiveness
The most important part of marketing a franchise brand is understanding the distinctive place it holds in the market, then using that insight to create meaningful communications that achieve a specific goal or goals. With customers bombarded with more choices than ever before, it is critical that a franchise brand hold a position in the market and in the mind of the consumer that is unique and differentiating. And, once that position is established, to maintain a consistent and credible presence in the marketplace to reinforce and effectively build the brand.
I Want Consistency In Everything, But…
There are many reasons why independent entrepreneurs seek out franchise opportunities. Among them, the ability to own a business that customers recognize so they can build upon a successful formula and leverage the equity of the brand. Why is it then that so many franchisees want to change an established marketing format or alter the approved materials when it comes to advertising their store? If part of being a franchisee is to buy into a format and offer the consumer a consistent experience at every point of contact with the brand, why is it that franchise restaurant owners, flower shop owners, pharmacy owners, fitness center owners, among others, decide that their market is so different that the consistent marketing materials provided by the franchisor’s marketing department won’t work for them?
When entrepreneurs deviate from the established visual and verbal language that has been endorsed by the corporate office because they don’t think it will be effective in their market, they diminish their ability to build on the brand equity that they bought into. Creating their own ad formats and communications pieces is like starting at ground zero and building a brand from the ground up.
You can almost feel the pain of the Marketing Director who watched in horror as an ad created by a local franchisee, and never approved by the corporate marketing department, appeared on the ‘Stupid Headlines’ segment of the Tonight Show. It would have been bad enough had this ad only been seen in the local community, but now it was representing the brand on network television to an audience of millions. Did this one ad damage the brand irreparably? Probably not. But when there are enough of these rogue messages and creative executions in the marketplace, and you keep chipping away at the foundation of the brand message, you end up with a brand that doesn’t hold the same value in the mind of the consumer. They get confused. They don’t understand what you mean to them anymore. And they start to stray.
Focused Yet Flexible
Marketing concepts must be rooted in a sound strategy and, ideally, tested with the target audience. Understanding the response of the people the advertising is aimed at is not only critical in predicting effectiveness, but also in deflecting personal bias. How many times have we heard “my wife doesn’t like green so this ad’s not going to work for us” or “people in my town don’t need to buy product x so I don’t want to promote it here?” Too many arbitrary decisions about marketing materials can be the beginning of the end for a brand.
That said, franchisees need and want to be able to react to local competition, seasonality issues, market-specific merchandising and so forth. Being proactive and reactive to market conditions is the sign of a good businessperson and should be commended. From a marketing standpoint, the challenge is to funnel those strategies into marketing communications that are consistent with the brand image so they can leverage other communications that are already in the market. Franchisor marketing departments and their agencies must take this into account when developing marketing campaigns.
The creative execution must allow room for various types of customization. A well-structured format can convey the unique selling proposition of the franchise while still allowing for multiple offers, coupons, an open house, a call to action, etc. And, a well-structured format can do all this plus establish a brand personality all the while not looking like the parts and pieces were just randomly thrown on the page.
Whose Job Is It Anyway?
It is the responsibility of the corporate marketing department and the agency to anticipate, understand and incorporate these elements into communications concepts so that they can achieve equally important roles of building the brand, stimulating sales and accommodating franchisee needs. They must also communicate to the franchise system why the marketing materials have been designed the way they have, what research or strategy is behind this effort and how these materials can be used in various local market situations. The franchisor and agency must continually communicate, communicate, communicate.
It is the franchisee’s responsibility to participate in communications with the franchisor, its agency or the ad committee and to understand that corporate has the larger brand-building effort in mind ñ an effort that will bring value to their franchise investment. They must also work within the guidelines set forth by the advertising council or committee to use approved materials, appropriately customized for their market needs. This not only strengthens the brand that they bought into when they sought out the franchise agreement, but also builds recognition for their unit with current and potential customers.
That’s not to say that good ideas can only come from corporate or its agencies. Some of the more interesting concepts have been generated at the local store level and moved up the marketing chain. In this situation, itís the franchisees responsibility to provide feedback and share good ideas that they have had success with, and for the corporate marketing department to evaluate against objectives and adopt those with merit for the benefit of the entire system.
Take, for instance, the case of a franchisee who reacted to local competition by re-imagining a product and marketing it locally to address the claims of the competition. His efforts were so successful that the new product was launched nationally, along with a promotional campaign, and continues to be a profit-maker for the company.\r\n\r\nBut, no matter where the idea originates, the key is to anchor it in strategy, assess the value to the target audience and execute it at a level of consistency and flexibility thatís appropriate for the organization and the brand.
A Win-Win-Win Situation
It is important to manage expectations of all parties, because brand building takes persistence and patience. But the bottom line is that when the franchisee, the franchise ad committee, the franchisor’s marketing department and their agency work together to achieve a consistent visual and verbal language for the brand, they are giving the customer a consistent and reliable brand experience — one that will build brand equity, brand preference and brand sales over time.’
