Franchise Articles

The 3rd annual Franchise Consumer Marketing Conference is right around the corner... in Atlanta, at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, this June 25-26.

All the information you need for this year's event - agenda, brochure, speakers, venue, registration - is already online, so instead of repeating that here, to give you a sense of the energy, enthusiasm, and creativity of last year's conference, here's a look back at last year's conference.

Since its launch in June 2011, the Franchise Consumer Marketing Conference has become a must-attend favorite of chief marketing officers, brand managers, and marketing managers. Increased attendance by both franchise marketing executives and sponsors were a testament to the event's rapid growth...

We all know that social media links influence our rankings in search engines. They can increase search rankings when customers search for you, both in the local business directories as well as organically. This is because Google has started to give "social rank" authority, or credit for having authority in the social networks.

So what exactly does this mean for franchise marketers? It means that if you have a large following on Twitter, Facebook and Google+; and/or if you are associated with other high authority figures; and if your posts are shared, then you are considered an "authority" with Google and you will get credit for that. Not only will you get credit in the social networks, but organically in the search rankings as well...

A survey of 437 service industry franchisees conducted by Yodle in December 2012 revealed that 9 out of 10 respondents said online marketing support was a key factor in choosing a franchise brand. Major insights from the first Yodle Franchisee Survey include the following:

1) Franchisees are putting a high premium on online marketing support, and franchise networks must respond accordingly.

More than half of franchisees (58%) view online marketing as "very important" or "important" to the success of their business, while another 27% said it was "somewhat important." A vast majority (89%) also responded that corporate online marketing is an important factor in choosing a franchisor - indicating that it's imperative for franchisors seeking new franchisees to demonstrate their commitment to online marketing...

Small Businesses Need Social Media Help
Research by email marketing giant Constant Contact reveals that 60% of small businesses need help with social media marketing. Small businesses often find the time commitment needed to make good use of social networking greater than they anticipate, and many have trouble allocating resources and time to it. Also, social media continues to evolve quickly, and businesses often find their choices and opportunities confusing and hard to understand. Finally, it's rare that social media marketing drives sales directly: ROI may be hard for a small business to identify. Understandably, it's hard for them to have the patience to reap the benefits of sustained, strategically sound campaigns. Learn more here...

In my 20-plus years of teaching and consulting with business owners and hiring managers about how to "hire tough so they can manage easy," I've discovered there are 10 commonplace mistakes almost everyone makes that are guaranteed to result in bad hiring decisions and waste untold time, money, and effort. Thank God I've never had a client who's made all these mistakes at once, but it really only takes two or three to sabotage your efforts to hire great people. Are you guilty of any of the following?

"If you're not hospitable, you're in the wrong game."

If President Obama decided to name an Ambassador of Franchising, John "JD" Draper, with his dapper attire, mile-wide smile, and booming voice would surely make the "short list" of top candidates. At least someone in Washington is listening: Draper was just voted onto the board of the IFA Educational Foundation's Diversity Institute.
Draper has been a student of franchising since his first job out of Wayne State University. "I went to work straight out of college as a shift manager for a Burger King in Detroit. I made $1.75 per hour," he says. Today, as president of operations for V&J Holding Companies in Milwaukee, he is responsible for 125 units, 6 brands, and 4,000 team members in 6 states (Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Minnesota, and Massachusetts)...

"How does eliminating the 'silos' of separate departments help integratea brand's recruitment, development, sales, and marketing cultures and tasks?"

Jamie Davis
Executive Director of BusinessDevelopment & PizzAmbassador
Donatos Pizza
Silos are good for one thing, and one thing only: holding stuff back.
I grew up in the Midwest, so silos were a familiar site to me as a child. These huge concrete structures held enormous quantities of grain to be shipped off to other parts of the country, and they never moved. Ever. Of course, the silos were doing exactly what they were supposed to: hold stuff back and not move.

In the dynamic world of franchising, silos have no place. Franchises are complex organizations made up of independent franchisees supported by a corporate structure of marketing, operations, real estate and construction, and business development teams...

Managers are often task-oriented, and not necessarily focused on their employees. Leaders on the other hand are people-oriented; they work through and motivate their employees, utilizing their resources to perform assigned tasks in the most productive and profitable way possible.
Many managers confuse management with leadership, and feel they are automatically leaders because they occupy a position of higher responsibility. While this assumption is often true, many fail to display active leadership qualities. The roles leaders fulfill are different than those of managers, although sound management practices are complementary to effective leadership.
While some individuals are natural leaders, most managers must evolve into leaders both by investing time and effort in developing their abilities and by adapting their management roles to a more flexible, effective leadership style...

A franchise is not an ordinary business asset. You don't really "own" a franchise outright as you do a traditional business. What you own is a right or license from the franchisor to operate the business under the franchisor's name for a period of time (the franchise term). More important, when retirement, disability, or death requires a sale of the franchise, you cannot change ownership unless you meet the franchisor's requirements.
This difference becomes even more complicated when it involves multi-unit franchisees, who may be area developers or subfranchisors and who may have more than one unit in two or more unaffiliated brands or sectors (think donut or burger franchisees who are also hotel and convenience store franchisees). Not only are there different franchise terms for each of the franchises, there may be different franchisor requirements in the franchise and area development agreements controlling transfer upon retirement, disability, or death of the managing member or members of the multi-unit franchisee...

If you're not using social media as part of your recruiting process you should be.
Social media is becoming a more popular tool for job seekers, but few are seeking out restaurants directly on sites like Facebook to identify opportunities, according to a new survey on job seekers' social media habits from Snagajob, the hourly employment network for job seekers and employers.
Researchers surveyed 5,958 respondents and found nearly half of them use social networking sites in their job search (46 percent), and of those, 39 percent admitted searching for a job is their primary activity when online. But how they're using social media to find jobs might be a surprise.
While 42 percent have visited a social media job site page, like Snagajob, only 18 percent visited a restaurant's page...

You might assume that Jo McCabe has a background in home repairs. The co-owner of Mr. Handyman and the system's 2010 Franchisee of the Year, serves the Prince William and southern Fairfax counties in Virginia. But it's her background in the military that has helped her succeed in franchising.
McCabe attended the U.S. Naval Academy and received a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and then furthered her education with an MBA from Southern New Hampshire University. She worked as an aircraft maintenance officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the Reserves. McCabe spent eight years in physical security, overseeing the Navy's northeast region and eventually managing 1,500 people.
She graduated from the Naval Academy in 1991 and served until 1996, then joined the Reserves...

Part 1 of this series addressed how to improve attendance at franchisee conventions. Part 2 discussed how to maximize the benefits to your franchisees. This final article explores strategies for taking the momentum generated at your convention into your franchisee operations and using it as a recruiting tool for your next convention. As with the first two parts, we drew on the results of an online survey conducted by Speak!, Ingage Consulting, and Franchise Business Review, which drew responses from nearly 200 franchisors.

Hosting a top-quality, exciting conference can do many things for your organization. For starters, it inspires your current franchisees, sparking and renewing enthusiasm for the business and for the relationship between the franchisees and franchisor...

Moving your franchise business phone system to the cloud can increase employee productivity, improve customer service, and lower IT costs. Imagine a phone system that lets you change your system's outgoing message within minutes, not days; easily add and tie multiple stores or restaurants together; and enable field agents to use their business numbers to call and text customers from their smartphones.

All of this is possible in the cloud. Yet, most franchise businesses have not yet experienced these benefits. Many still rely on legacy on-premise business phone systems commonly referred to as a PBX (public branch exchange). These systems are designed for a 1990s work environment when employees came into the office every day; used desktops, not laptops; and made calls using desk phones, not mobile devices...

Executive review committees are typically composed of senior franchise executives who review a candidate's qualifications before granting them a franchise. If you are a founder just starting up your franchise, employ a close business associate, franchise consultant, or other trusted advisor to be a part of your committee. They can help in your decision-making process, and provide greater credence to your professionalism.

It is the committee's decision at the conclusion of Discovery Day whether to extend a franchise offer or disqualify a candidate. Successful franchisors prominently position this venue as the final qualifier in granting new franchises to prospective buyers. It's a legitimate "country club" approach that helps safeguard the future of both the organization and prospective franchisees...

Generation Y. You know they're out there. But are you still scratching your head trying to figure out what to do about Millennials?

Accept them or not, they are here to stay. They're entering the workforce in record numbers, taking their first jobs with your companies, rising up through your leadership tracks, looking at your franchise opportunities as investments, and becoming some of the fastest-growing multi-unit owners in franchising.

Truth be told, they're even launching competitive businesses--often because they don't feel like they can grow fast enough in other companies. That should make you wonder: What messages are you sending them?

With a passive approach, you will inevitably experience Millennials and their impact...

David Buckley, CMO at Sears Hometown & Outlet Stores, Inc., is a busy marketing executive. He's responsible for the development, planning, and execution of the consumer marketing strategies for not just one, but four retail chains under the Sears label. He also oversees marketing efforts for the brand's more than 1,200 locations. Before taking the CMO post with Sears, Buckley spent time as global director of advertising for the Associated Press, where he led the advertising strategy for digital assets, focusing on mobile and tablet technologies. For more of Buckley's views on the role of today's CMO, see the Q2 issue of Franchise Update magazine, available online by the end of May.


Describe your role as CMO.As CMO for Sears Hometown & Outlet Stores, Inc...

When Brandon Jones was in the third grade, his teacher asked the class to write about what they wanted to be when they grew up. "Most kids said things like 'Be a policeman or a firefighter,'" says the 33-year-old today. "I wrote 'Own a bar with my dad.'" It may have sounded funny to his teacher, but that's exactly what he went on to do.
Jones grew up in La Porte, Ind., a town of about 22,000. He was a hard-working kid who was throwing newspapers by age 13, earned enough money to buy his own moped at 14, and stayed busy doing various jobs when he wasn't on the athletic field or in the gym. When Jones was still a toddler, his father converted an old house into a small tavern, and it was here that Jones would finally fulfill his third-grade desire...

Rewarding its customers drives growth at Harrah's

I attend a lot of franchise conferences in Las Vegas. When you look around there, gambling seems to a very profitable business, right? But you also look around and see a ton of competition. And no matter where you play, it is basically the same games. By that description, the casino business is a commodity business. Same games, lots of choices.
What is really the difference between one casino and another?
Let me tell you a story about the unlikely little company that has become one of the world's most distinguished casino operators. The company started as Harrah's in Reno, Nevada. Over time, Harrah's was acquired by Holiday Inn and built casinos all around the U.S...

Using innovation and technology to compete

If you and your franchisees are currently making a profit, let me remind you: There are people who are dedicating their lives to taking that profit away from you. (And no, I am not talking about the government.) I am talking about innovators: people who break with conventional industry practices while most players just maintain the status quo. I just had an amazing experience with a company called Uber, which is killing competitors with innovation.
My story starts at an out-of-town event held at an executive's home. When I needed a taxi back to my hotel, my host said, "You should user Uber. They are very fast and reliable. You download their app, sign up with your name and your credit card information, and it uses your smartphone's GPS to know exactly where you are...

Creating a customer-focused culture requires strategy and constant review. Each year you should review your goal setting and organizing efforts. Take the time to apply these same disciplines to your customer focus. I suggest going as far as renovation and retrofitting.
I encourage you to look at two areas - processes and people - to strengthen your customer focus.
Organizations' processes and systems can get complicated. Too often businesses have an internal focus that can create hassles for the customer. Customers want ease, simplicity, and responsiveness. No matter how the customer contacts your business, hassle free is their desire. Look at your website, social media, call center, phone handling, and in person contact. Where are the interaction points that can cause glitches, delays, and frustration? Evaluate how hard it is for the customer to reach you and get a timely response...