By Renee Chaplin, VP Asia Pacific, Constant Contact
Five interconnected circles. All different colours. Three on the top – two on the bottom. An event that dominated the world from the end of July to the beginning of August.
Most people would be able to identify the event in question, based solely on the description of the logo.
Like the Olympics, trademarks and the brand of a franchise is critical to its success as it impacts the trust and reputation it has in the market.
The International Olympic Committee, as it should, closely guards its brand, with every message directed from above, and how its logo is used in media and for sponsors is heavily directed by the mothership.
Franchises are no different; brand credibility is at the core of the franchise business model and it needs to be protected. But unlike other organisations, franchises have to work with franchisees, which themselves have their own unique requirements in order to execute on important local marketing strategies.
This makes franchise marketing a complex balancing act between the overarching requirements of the franchise from a branding, strategy and promotional perspective and the bespoke needs of the franchisee in their territory.
As Business Franchise Australia points out, “one of the primary challenges in franchise marketing is finding the right balance between maintaining a consistent brand image across all locations and allowing franchisees the flexibility to tailor their marketing efforts to local preferences and conditions.”
The franchisee has two goals: to sell and to get more customers. But the franchisor has a lot at stake when it comes to how its brand is positioned in market and one franchisee bringing the brand into disrepute can have devastating impacts on the entire franchise network – not just headquarters.
At a top-down level, the business is heavily invested in helping to grow the sales of its franchisees – it’s directly incentivised in the form of royalties. But attracting new franchisees is also an important growth stretch, one in which the business model and operations plays a critical role, but without a strong brand reputation, these businesses rarely achieve high levels of growth.
Consistency sounds simple… in a vacuum
The message from the franchise to its customers should offer a degree of consistency – this is to ensure that the message is always on point, allowing for customers to understand what to expect whenever they walk into a franchise, regardless of its location.
But every location is different. Suburbs and cities have their own communities and nuances – a melting pot of people, culture and experiences that make them unique.
“Australia is a diverse country with significant regional variations in consumer behaviour and business practices. What works in one state or territory may not necessarily be effective in another,” Business Franchise Australia notes.
So, it’s not uncommon for franchisees to disagree with the main office based on their own needs – and if they do, and there’s no visibility in place, marketing messages can go “off the rails”, a logo might be used incorrectly or, worse, a particular promotion could bring the brand into disrepute.
If there’s no visibility into the regions or tools to oversee what is going out to market before someone hits send, managing this is very difficult – and risky. It all comes down to effective governance.
The Shifting Sands of Governance – How Can Anyone Keep Up?
Franchisors – and even their franchisees – will know all too well the challenge of keeping up with constant legislative changes in the spam and privacy acts with respect to marketing communications.
Let’s take a high-level view of the Franchising Code of Conduct, for instance. It’s set to be amended, again, this year. The legislation was already amended 10 times since it was first enacted in 1998. It was re-legislated in 2015, and a further eight amendments have been made since, not counting the forthcoming changes.
If that’s confusing to read, you can imagine how confusing it is for the franchise industry. How can franchisees possibly keep up with these changes? Some franchises can be big operations, sure, but many franchisees are small businesses with a lack of resources – they simply don’t have the time to keep up, even if they wanted to.
That’s where franchisors, again, can step in – with their larger pool of resources and by relying on third parties – particularly when it comes to marketing legislation – they can keep across the details that their franchisees don’t have time for.
So what can Franchisors do to strike the balance?
Franchisors need to find a middle ground in which they protect their brand and comply with legislation, while also allowing some wiggle room to allow each franchisee to message to their specific market. Governance with flexibility if you will.
There are tools available which manage the marketing needs of franchises from the top down while allowing for the local area marketing that is required. Marketing technology platforms can offer franchisees the right to edit and wordsmith marketing campaigns based on their customer base, while giving franchisors final sign off.
Although this may come across like ‘big brother is watching’ – it actually creates greater balance, helping franchisees navigate the complicated world of brand consistency and the plethora of legalities that are intertwined with brand ownership. And it protects the brand from the risk of franchisees going rogue or too far off-script.
This top-down, one-to-many approach is one that is adopted by franchisors across the country and the world, and even by businesses – think a bank – with branches dotted across the nation.
Furthermore, taking a top-down, one-to-many approach to marketing allows the franchisors to understand what best works and what doesn’t, either overall or by region, or even by franchise. The business can then tailor its future marketing campaigns around the analytics, taking a data-driven approach to its marketing efforts – positively impacting all franchisees.
The HQ can also keep a close watch on its brand this way – monitoring the feedback it’s receiving about campaigns, even the general sentiment of the brand among the population. It can then adjust and remediate as required.
By leveraging digital tools, franchises can tackle their unique set of challenges by balancing centralised control and visibility with local autonomy, delivering a win-win from the top down.
Bio
Renée Chaplin has led marketing and commercial teams in the Asia Pacific region over the last 20 years. With a particular focus on B2B tech companies, Renée’s experience stems from start-ups to multinational SaaS organisations such as Constant Contact, LivePerson and CSG International.
Based in Brisbane, Australia, Renée is the Vice President – Asia Pacific for leading online email marketing company, Constant Contact. A passionate marketer driven by customer experience and commercial growth, Renée holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management (Marketing), a Graduate Certificate of Business Administration and is completing an MBA at the University of Queensland.