As a business owner, franchising is a terrific way to rapidly expand your operation with reduced risk and a lower failure rate.
While having motivated franchisees is critical to the success of this business model, it is also important to build a strong brand identity across all your franchise locations that customers and staff can identify with.
But how do you do that?
Here are some things you can do to ensure you build a robust brand across all your franchises, as well as your sales and marketing channels.
1. Take a Business Course
There is a lot to think about when you start franchising your business, so before you start to do this, it is worth taking a course that can help you to more effectively meet your objectives.
Institutions such as UTS Online offer a range of business and management courses that you can fit in with your workload.
They allow you to develop skills like business analytics, technology management and digital marketing that can provide you with the tools to grow your company in the current business landscape.
2. Know What Your Company Does
You can’t build a strong brand identity for your marketing franchise without knowing exactly what your company does in terms of its core values and mission.
Therefore, you should take the time to determine things like what your business stands for and what are the principles that guide your overall operation and the decisions you make. The answers to these questions should resonate through all aspects of your business, from your marketing materials to customer service.
It is important to get this right because customers tend to buy into a set of values, as opposed to specific services or products. Subsequently, the more these principles align with them, the greater the likelihood that they will want to support any of your franchises.
3. Be Consistent
Having settled upon your mission and core values you will need to ensure that your brand identity is consistently reflected across all outlets and platforms.
The more consistent it is the more it will help to build trust and recognition among your customer bases. Therefore, it is important they see the same logo, colours and types of messages – not just across all franchises, but also throughout your website, advertising, social media and staff interaction.
To help you achieve this consistency it is a good idea to create an extensive brand guideline document which can ensure all franchise owners, staff members and external agencies are on the same page.
4. Embrace Local
Although it is important to be consistent throughout all franchise destinations, it is also a good idea to embrace local nuances where possible.
Tailoring certain elements of your operational and marketing approach to ensure it fits in with local cultures and tastes can make a significant difference. That is because it demonstrates your brand is not faceless or uniform but is one that values and understands the local community.
The best way to do this is to find clever ways to include localised elements such as language nuances or events into your wider brand strategy through local partnerships or location-specific services/products.
5. Tell a Story
If you want to develop a robust brand identity it is important to tell a story. Every brand has one, so it is crucial to incorporate yours throughout your franchises.
Initially, your story could include the inspiration for how your business idea started, any challenges or issues you faced in getting it off the ground and the awards or successes your company has achieved.
However, the longer you trade for, the more you can tell your story through testimonials from satisfied customers, community involvement and the dedication of your employees. By sharing these stories across blog posts, press releases, social media and video platforms, you will go a long way towards humanising your brand and creating an emotional connect with your audience.
6. Train All Staff in a Consistent Way
Ultimately, the employees in all your franchises are brand ambassadors of your company. Subsequently, the way they represent your core values and interact with customers is a significant factor in how your organisation is perceived.
To ensure they are viewed as favourably as possible you should take steps to train all your staff members in a consistent way. As well as the operational parts of their role, this should also include them understanding the ethos behind your brand identity.
The more they can relate to and appreciate your brand’s values, mission and story, the more they will be able to deliver the type of experiences you want your customers to enjoy.