advice Marketing

Franchisors spend a great deal of time and money creating a successful brand, but is it really safe to assume that franchisees are promoting the brand correctly?

It could be argued that a franchisors brand is their ‘product'. Therefore controlling quality and conformance when related to manufactured products is a given. However, franchisors have to ask themselves if they pay a similar amount of attention to policing their brand, do they really have effective tools in place to perform this task and if so, at what cost?

The pitfalls

Franchisors face many dangers if they fail to control their branding. As well as incurring unnecessary costs, irreparable damage can be caused in the eyes of their customer. Just some of the possible pitfalls could be:

• Confusion caused by too many logos, customers will be unsure as to whether they are dealing with the brand they have become familiar with, or a copy
• Costs associated with rectifying mistakes
• Inconsistent quality of marketing materials
• A cheapening of the brand through use of poor quality materials or images.
• Litigation caused by copyright infringement or inappropriate messages.
• Reduction in customer loyalty and retention - exactly the opposite of good brand management
• Dilution of a hard-earned reputation.

A good brand promises high quality, is recognised, engenders loyalty and retention, plus greatly assists the significant task of customer acquisition. Will confused customers come back for more, or will they look elsewhere?

Some franchisors issue corporate guidelines, then sit back and relax basking in the assumption that franchisees do as they are told. All too often reality is different, franchise owners themselves often delegate tasks, such as procurement of printed matter and the franchisors assumptions are shattered, not through maliciousness, but ignorance. Variance from guidelines is a reality, and creates mistakes. Unnecessary administration costs are often incurred through the management of an extended supplier base and fragmented supply chain, but these costs often become accepted and unchallenged.

New franchisors, who are still building their brand must not become complacent with one of their most valuable assets. They must implement measures to control the reproduction and use of their brand by retaining an element of central management. The creation of a brand manual detailing the specification of their logo, fonts, business stationery and use thereof, including any strap-lines or standardises messages is essential. They should also, wherever possible, use management information provided by their suppliers of marketing resources to help analyse individual franchisee performance.

Choice of suppliers therefore becomes important, as does reducing their number to an optimum level. The fewer suppliers there are, the fewer mistakes or inconsistencies you would expect in return. Choosing a single, cost-conscious and capable supplier who has good technological support and an innovative approach to the future needs of their customer is ideal.

A business that can help is Franchise Connect, which provides franchisors and franchisees with a free of charge, bespoke on-line ordering system for all of their marketing resources. Franchisees use the system to simplify the ordering of their print, promotional, advertising, signage and display materials, plus they can also benefit from the production of local creative campaigns. All this is obtained from a single source while using a dedicated portal featuring head office-approved products and prices.

Franchise Connect simplifies the supply chain, eliminating unnecessary suppliers, reducing administration costs, reducing item costs and often improving the quality of product supplied.

The franchisor benefits from the projection of a consistent brand image and the receipt of management information to help optimise franchisee performance, all for free!

The franchisee benefits from a simple to use, secure, 24/7 on line ordering facility, having fewer suppliers to manage, enjoying both consistent quality and value for money prices.

Just some of the benefits of using Franchise Connect are:

• Free of charge personalised portal for on-line purchases
• Savings in both the price of purchased products and reduced administration costs
• Improvements in product quality
• 24/7 order placement
• Simplified supply chain with a greatly reduced number of suppliers
• Remotely gaining control of your brand and consistency of your marketing message
• Reduced lead times for standard items
• Creative marketing campaigns
Case study
One person who immediately saw the benefits was Mike Hanrahan, managing director of Maid2Clean. With 85 franchisees to manage nationally, Mike turned to Franchise Connect to help streamline his business.

Mike initially invited Franchise Connect to present their on-line ordering resource and creative ideas to his franchisees at their spring conference. Within 30 days a free of charge, fully branded web portal was created and operational. Franchise Connect created new marketing ideas, new products were introduced, current product specifications were improved and prices reduced to the network. Having access to its own printing and design capabilities means it can add value fast.

Kevin Edge, managing director of Franchise Connect, explains: "This is just the beginning. Franchise Connect visits Maid2Clean on a monthly basis to help develop and pro-actively manage its marketing initiatives, keeping Maid2Clean at the forefront of the cleaning industry."

Mike Hanrahan says: "The new portal offers our franchisees increased choice within pre-defined service levels, order consistency, brand policing and management information. We are all delighted with this solution. Maid2Clean franchisees now have access to an industry-leading, on-line resource, which offers a professional, convenient, single source for an improved and increasing range of products."

Clearly, Franchise Connect is already helping franchisors to reduce costs, to find out more, click here.