Mistakes To Avoid While Marketing A Franchise

1. Mistakes To Avoid While Marketing AFranchise Franchise business Marketing of products or services of a franchise business model is crucial to the success of the franchise units and also the whole chain of business. Due to this, franchise businesses invest a lot in the marketing of franchise. Marketing input designed by the best in the industry is one of the advantages of a franchise business model. A franchise business that has the right marketing strategy coupled with timely execution, profits a lot from the attention that it manages to grab at the right time. The business of a franchise unit is derived largely from the brand value of the franchise. To create brand value, extensive marketing is done on a national level but one of the disadvantages is that often marketing at a local level is missing. When marketing is done on a large scale with a big budget, sometimes it is forgotten that small things also matter. Lack of location-specific marketing is one of the main problems in marketing a franchise business. Most of the franchise businesses have strict norms regarding marketing in order to maintain a unified message. Due to this, reaching out to the local community is neglected. Often, a franchisee’s lack of understanding and experience of marketing results in serious gaps while addressing the customers. www.frantastic.in 1

2. Nowadays, with the widespread use of mobiles, technology and related consumer behavior are highly dynamic. It requires an equally dynamic and responsive team to match step with new technology, online platforms, and trends that change every day. Including these, there are a few mistakes in marketing a franchisethat is often made by franchisors as well as franchisees. Relying entirely on the Franchise Company: One misconception that newly launched franchisees have is that they are not responsible for marketing their product or service since they pay marketing fees to a franchisor. A franchisor is definitely responsible for developing a brand and marketing at a national or regional level but all businesses need marketing at a local level. An individual franchisee has to reach out to the franchisor to access leaflets, coupons, and other marketing materials. He should try to understand more about the marketing strategy of the franchise company and search for a space to fit his franchise unit into the marketing campaign in a natural and organic way. Weak branding: Franchise image and business rely heavily on branding. The ultimate purpose of marketing is to establish a brand identity that customers can relate to. The brand identity is built through communications intended to project certain values that a customer can associate with. When marketing communication comes from any source in an uncontrolled manner, the messages vary and create confusion regarding the brand. In a sea of marketing communication, if you are not clear, you cannot stand out and differentiate your brand. This results in weak brand identity and customers lose confidence in the brand. A strong brand identity is extremely essential in order to maintain a sense of consistent quality and target a certain segment. www.frantastic.in 2

3. Local community: It is necessary for any business to build a connection with a local community. It is the responsibility of a franchise unit to devise a marketing strategy that takes into account local events and the local community without diluting the brand. There have to be customized marketing campaigns that are in sync with local trends. A franchise has to market itself in such a way that it creates a unique space for itself within the community. This depends largely on the in-depth understanding of the location and community. This is exceptionally true in the Indian context where regional difference varies greatly in all products and services ranging from food and dressing to climate and water quality. Digital marketing: It goes without saying that digital marketing is one of the most effective marketing techniques today. Major franchise businesses have an online presence but the strategies focus largely on a national market and are not always streamlined to align to address local needs. If the franchise company ignores training the franchise in the digital marketing part, the franchise may initiate digital marketing on his own. In such a situation there is a high chance that the message sent out will differ from the main marketing communication. This results in mixed messages to the customers. To avoid this situation, franchisees should be given proper training in marketing to enable them to leverage the main website in a local context. The main website itself can have sub-sites for different locations and franchisees should be encouraged to keep it updated. The social media marketing strategy also needs to be very specific and engaging in order to keep brand visibility and connect through competitions and giveaways on social media platforms. Online reviews: There was a time when word of mouth played an important role in marketing. In this digital age, this role has been taken on by ratings on apps or social media sites. Blogs with online reviews matter at every stage of the buying process such as need recognition, information search, and evaluation of alternatives, often online purchase and post-purchase evaluation. www.frantastic.in 3

4. In some of the businesses, such as food and beverage service, ratings from customer experiences matter more than anything. It is necessary to respond appropriately to these reviews to gives the message the customer satisfaction is important to the business. SEO strategy: With search engines’ increasing focus on local content, it has become imperative to devise an SEO strategy that increases location specific engagement with customers. Using more related keywords rather than only branded keywords for content may be necessary with changing search trends among consumers and changes made by search engines. Simple things like marking accurate geo-location help in showing up results for the large scale of searches that are looking for “near me” options. Over marketing: This mistake often happens during the launch of a new franchise. Many recent incidences point to over marketing the launch of an already popular franchise creates a rush during the launch. The operations team, all related infrastructure, and provisions are not enough to serve the customers satisfactorily. One negative experience burgeons into huge negative publicity due to the vast popularity of social media platforms and online consumer forums. Often coupons and discounts through multiple avenues cause this problem. It may be advisable to spread out the potential of. a launch offer over a month rather than the first week only. www.frantastic.in 4

5. It is absolutely necessary for a franchisee to understand the brand values of the franchise business that he is associated with. He should also understand the marketing strategy and be encouraged to do his bit of marketing at the local level. This can be guided in the right direction by the marketing division and also be supported by providing marketing materials. There are marketing solutions for franchise businesses where location specific material can be easily developed on a platform with minimal customization for a location. This is a good option to provide ease of customization without diluting the branding. www.frantastic.in 5

6. With multiple avenues for marketing that are easily accessible to a franchise unit, it is very easy to deviate from the main strategy and even the purpose of marketing. The franchisor should have a clear cut marketing strategy and it should be included in the initial training programmes intended for a new franchisee. It is advisable to keep the franchisees updated about the latest trends in consumer behavior and guide them accordingly. A franchise consultant can help in devising a marketing strategy that addresses these requirements. www.frantastic.in 6