Brand building the franchise way

Making your brand famous can be as difficult as starting a business from the scratch. So what can make it simpler? There are two ways of doing it - marketing and advertising the brand extensively and opening outlets across the country. Obviously, the latter is more favourable as opening outlets will further add to your business’ success. Starting company owned outlets has many hassles, so franchising is an easy option and the fastest method for expansion. Taking the franchising route is the best way for brand building, in the following ways:

• There is a rapid increase in the number of stores through franchising as the investments have to be made by the franchisees not the franchisor.
• Having a number of franchised stores across the country gives instant recognition to the brand.
• Franchisees are better informed of tastes and preferences of the city dwellers than the franchisor, so they can further add to the brand promotion by giving it a regional touch. 
• The brand gets more popular if the outlets are opened at many places, with outstanding services and great ambience.

The major benefit of franchising is that the franchisor does not have to overlook his own l outlet when he expands his business. There are franchisees to take care of their outlets and the franchisor only needs to guide them to gain success and further add to his brand. However, there are also some considerations which the franchisor may have to keep in mind while his brand is being promoted through the franchise route.

Building brand credibility

In order to sell franchises, a company and its management team put in the foremost endeavour to build up its credibility amongst its prospective franchisees. No matter how good the concept may be, it is significant to win over the trust of multitudes of aspiring franchisees to let one take off. So try to add to the tally of your franchisees, as more franchisees you have, more credibility you gain. After franchising the brand name and carving a niche things do not get over. The brand has to constantly strive to retain its reputation among its customers. People should believe in the product and services of the brand outlet.. And for this, the franchisor needs to watch and oversee the working of his franchisees and franchised stores and maintain quality of his brand. If the customers are satisfied with the brand, there is no looking back for the franchisor.

Need for identical stores: Building a brand takes years of hard work. The brand becomes successful when customers develop instant recognition to it. So, to develop brand recognition, the franchisee outlets should be identically laid down across the spectrum. Care should be taken that the franchisees do not change the interiors, the services pattern and the quality of products. The patrons should not find any variation in the interior or façade of the outlet. Franchisees should be encouraged to buy the logistics and essentials from the same vendor.

Develop Public Relations: The marketing of the brand cannot solely be relied upon franchisees. The route to successful marketing is PR, and advertisement comes secondary to PR. The company therefore, should at apex level draw a blueprint of its PR programme. And once that has been accomplished, the advertising media should be discreetly used. PR is a low-cost alternative to other forms of promotion, and is particularly useful to small franchisor with a limited budget.

So, for prospective franchisors the path is all clear to move forward on franchising to make your brand gain national and international recognition. Happy branding to all aspiring franchisees!