You’ve done your homework, chosen your team wisely, and taken the plunge. Congratulations on being part of a franchise business!
One of the key factors to consider before launching a franchise is marketing. This applies to any franchising opportunity—be it a food franchise or a home builder franchise opportunity. For owners and operators, success rests on the company’s ability to reach out and maintain a relationship with customers. Marketing efforts are crucial to establishing these relationships and growing the business.
A thoughtfully planned and well-executed campaign can provide huge returns. Conversely, lazy and poorly executed advertisements can cause more harm than good. Here are common marketing mistakes that could result in weak brand identity, lost opportunities, and loss of trust.
Ignoring Local Trends
A market trend is anything that can alter the market a company operates in. To keep a competitive edge, an evaluation of the changes or a market trend analysis is crucial. One of the common franchise marketing mistakes is not paying attention to local trends. This leads to lost opportunities for campaigns that are timely as well as relevant, especially to local consumers.
The value of local marketing is important even for national businesses. A good franchise company will recognize and realize this necessity of adopting local marketing or localization. One good example is an international pizza company using local trends to create a connection with local customers. For instance, it can offer bulgogi pizza in Korea or maple bacon pizza in Canada on top of their global variations.
Outdated and Irrelevant Marketing Content
In the context of keeping up with the local trends, ensuring that marketing content is relevant and updated is equally important.
Marketing plans can be complex, and there are a variety of media choices to consider. Franchisors and franchisees should ensure that the brand is consistently producing enough content. Otherwise, they do not stay fresh in the customer’s mind. The use of marketing assets and choices, such as flyers, coupons, social media, and other promotional offers, should be maximized to grow sales further. Research shows that content marketing increases brand awareness by up to 81% and brand credibility and consumer trust by up to 68%.
Inconsistent Branding
Maintaining franchise brand consistency is important to create a uniform marketing message and maintain a strong identity across all partners. Consistent branding extends to the company’s products services, customer service, and quality control. The goal is not to bore the audience but to present a united front. Inconsistent branding, on the other hand, weakens the brand messaging. This can lead to confusion, loss of trust, and a relationship disconnect with the consumers.
Franchisees are often permitted to conduct local marketing campaigns on their own, in addition to the franchise’s national marketing initiatives. To ensure consistent branding, approval from the franchisor should be received before proceeding with the local plan.
The 2016 Franchise Industry Marketing Survey reveals that around 63% of marketing managers are not sure how their current marketing strategies are doing. By understanding the common franchise mistakes, marketers and owners should be able to successfully evaluate their strategies and make the necessary changes to position their stores for the most profitable year yet.
