Maintaining your brand while franchising it

Hospitality, as an industry in India, has experienced a tremendous boom in the last decade. With many foreign brands coming into the market, and a plethora of home-grown entities coming into being, customers are spoilt for choice when it comes to what they want to do when they go out. However, with the proliferation of this eating out culture, expectations and the drive to increase business has led to expansion and franchise plans aplenty. As a woman leader, who dealt with marketing in hospitality for years, here is my advice.

With great franchising comes great responsibility, and brands must deal with the pressure of performing successfully in hitherto unexplored locales. They must also maintain their brand standards when they may not be in the driver’s seat. So how does one preserve their marketing standards in today’s day and age?

Firstly, it is important when creating a brand to define what it stands for. Who are you catering to? You cannot cater to everyone so narrowing down and focusing on who your audience is, is key. Are families your target? Millennials? Defining who you cater to plays a massive role in the tonality you use while communicating with them. The creatives you make to attract them, and what your brand stands for as a whole is defined by this. The great thing about some of the most impactful brands has been that they know what they stand for, be it a McDonald’s, Starbucks or, closer to home, a Mamagoto.

Secondly, establishing brand symbols like logos, templates and formats for communication is also key. If your brand plays with three colours (like red, white and green)- be consistent. Ensure you have all your brand decks in place and your key words illuminated so that whoever you franchise to can use these as a bible.

That said, localized communication is crucial. Whenever you franchise to someone in a new city or location ensure you do your due diligence of researching the market, the crowd profile and the trending topics of that locality. Do people in this new city prefer to listen to the radio or read newspapers? Do they follow local tastemakers or are there no such reservations? All this will help you aid your franchise partner in curating the perfect launch plan. It will also ensure sustainable coverage post launch.

Once you establish the region and the branding opportunities, as well as contact your franchise partner with all the required information, you have all the ingredients needed for a successful launch event. This is when the tricky part comes in: figuring out the amount of help to be given to that franchise outlet and determining how hands-on/off to be.

Depending on the resources at hand with your franchise, you can determine how much involvement is needed from your end. Personally, it is good to have a more hands-on approach, however, ensure the franchise partner is compensating your team adequately for the same. However, it is of use to you to not go into this partnership with too many expectations. Allow for some trial and error, and some freedom as sometimes local resources can gauge their market better than you, sitting at another corner of the country. Ask your franchise partners’ input when choosing a marketing agency or planning PR events in that area as they know the local lay of land better.

A few key points to keep in mind at this juncture, beyond brand logos/colours/ symbols, is also brand content guidelines. What is the usual schedule of posts? Are you a brand that thrives on daily activity or do you only post when you have something impactful to say? What are some of the words you would never use and what are some that are part of your lingo? How do you measure your results not only via on ground marketing campaigns but online as well? Is it organic following or reach or engagement? Once these parameters are set it becomes easier to keep an eye on what your franchise resources are doing.

Coming to the curation of campaigns, both on ground and digital, it is important to keep two major things in mind: your plans for the brand at large, and the needs of the outlet. For instance, let’s say you are running a countrywide campaign featuring local produce on a menu. For the same, you would have to brief the franchise partner as well as provide all the creative contents- be it the menu design, digital look and feel and collaterals. The second type of campaign is more important. This is because it involves hearing the struggles and what is most popular and working in that franchise outlet and crafting a menu or promotion or curating an event to drive footfall and engage the local populace. For this, it is important to listen to your franchise partner. Also, keep track of the local culture and improvise as needed for the best results.

These are some of the basic tips to keep in mind when evolving your brand for franchises and to preserve your marketing integrity, while ensuring your outlet is one of the top places to eat. When marketing it is important to keep an open mind, and to know how to compromise on smaller issues for bigger results. As with anything else know how to pick your battles and that will be the difference between success and failure.