How to manage your brand

Becky Martin, writer

Published at 28/04/2018, Updated on 04/05/2022 , Reading time: 7 min

Photo © controlling-your-franchise-brand.jpg

Franchising your business is a great way to grow rapidly and cost-effectively, but it does come at a price. You have to take the scary step of handing over the reputation of your brand to your franchisees. You will have worked hard to develop and build your brand, so it's essential that you know how to control it without over-interfering with franchisees.

How to Manage Your Brand

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Here is a quick guide on how you can ensure that your franchise system, brand and quality of service are consistent from one unit to another.

Develop clear brand guidelines

Creating detailed guidelines for your franchisees helps them to understand everything they need to know about your brand. How your logo is positioned, the colours that should be used and what font needs to be applied; your brand identity should be very specific and leave nothing to chance.

During the initial training that your franchisees receive, be sure to include a section on the importance of branding and what activities they will be responsible for. Educate franchisees on how to achieve the consistent look and feel of your franchise, which is so crucial to its success. No matter what location a customer is in, the experience with your brand should be positive and consistent, and brand guidelines can make this happen.

Provide pre-approved marketing templates and content

Because the consistency of your brand is so crucial, make sure you cover all eventualities. Develop a collection of pre-approved content for your franchisees to use. What you provide is up to you but the more you include, the less likely it will be that franchisees will feel the need to create their own content.

Create a marketing template

Templates make it very easy for franchisees to adhere to your brand guidelines. These can then be used for local promotional activity to support the more extensive, nationwide marketing campaigns that you produce. However, don't fall into the trap of being overly prescriptive when it comes to local marketing activity. The responsibility is with your franchisees to provide local marketing collateral, and while most will be appreciative of your support, others may feel like you're overly controlling.

Find a balance - local marketing is often the responsibility of the franchisee

The way to overcome this issue and to achieve the right balance is to provide franchisees with the freedom to create localised content, but on the basis that you will perform regular checks on all marketing materials. Your franchisees should understand that this is the only way that you can ensure brand consistency across your franchise network, which is in their best interests.

Protect your franchise brand

Franchising your business puts you in control. The franchise agreement reflects this and gives you the right to terminate the contract if any franchisee jeopardises the franchise system by failing to adhere to brand standards.

Think carefully before taking action

But just because the terms of the franchise agreement state that you can enforce strict penalties on non-compliant franchisees, it doesn’t mean that you should. The legal processes involved in enforcing your brand can have negative implications for you, your brand and your reputation. However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take action either.

Create a strong brand image for all franchisees

You need your franchisees to understand that there are consequences if they breach the brand guidelines. Failing to acknowledge that franchisees are deviating from the brand or, worse, avoiding the issue to prevent confrontation and conflict, then you’re sending out a message to all other franchisees. This may open the gates for other franchisees to take advantage of your lack of action by also deviating from the brand, which will ultimately lead to the collapse of your franchise system as a whole.

Alternatively, franchisees that do stick to the rules may accuse you of not providing adequate protection of your brand, which has a knock-on effect on their franchise. After all, it’s the reputation of your brand that probably attracted your franchisees to invest in your business in the first place and without this, you’re devaluing their franchise.

When to terminate a franchise agreement

Choosing whether to go down the enforcement route is a tough decision to make, and so each breach should be thought through carefully before any action is taken. But, generally speaking, the termination of a franchise agreement should be only be considered if no other course of action is viable.

Questions to consider

When a breach does occur, it's an excellent opportunity to review your processes and to ensure that your brand guidelines are as robust as they should be. Is the training that franchisees receive clear enough? Are the templates you provide accessible and usable? Is the operations manual up to date with regards to the use of the brand? If there is an issue in any of these areas, then the fault may be more down to you than the franchisee.

Recognise and reward franchisees that maintain brand consistency

When you’re franchising your brand, you rely on your franchisees to maintain the uniformity of your brand. To encourage consistency within your franchise network, regularly recognise those who continually adhere to brand guidelines. The incentive doesn’t have to be anything substantial, but a simple thank you and occasional rewards go a long way.

The value of rewarding and recognising franchisees

It’s the age-old debate of what works best: the carrot or the stick? Although the threat of legal action for non-compliance is always present in the franchise agreement, the use of rewards and recognition are often far more effective. So, offer your franchisees brand-related objectives to work towards and then reward them when they achieve those goals. Take time to appreciate those who are doing a great job and use their stories as a benchmark to encourage other franchisees.

How to manage your franchise brand

Controlling your brand isn't always easy, but if you're fair and you treat your franchisees with trust and respect, they will view your actions as vital for the protection of the brand, rather than a dominating force applying unnecessary rules and restrictions.

You should now have a better understanding of how to control your franchise brand. We’ll now look at four more tips to bear in mind when managing your franchise.

Four Tips to Successfully Manage Your Franchise

1. Be creative

Remember that your franchisees will often reassess their investment in your franchise model and they will want to be reassured that they are getting their money’s worth. You therefore need to demonstrate that you are constantly coming up with innovative ideas for the growth of the brand. The franchisee will also want to feel like they are supported and trained to a high enough standard to run a lucrative franchise confidently. This isn’t just a one-off training session before launch day.

What will really impress franchisees and potential franchise candidates is ongoing support and training throughout the year and educating franchisees above and beyond what they need to know so they can really excel in the industry rather than simply getting by.

Creativity isn’t strictly limited to ‘creative’ franchise concepts; a franchise in any sector can be creative by continually looking to innovate their processes and developing new ideas.

2. Communicate effectively

It can be incredibly advantageous to get your franchisees’ perspective on the running of the franchise, as this is often quite different to how you will see it. There are many important decisions to be made as a franchisor. Rather than just trusting your own opinion on matters, seeing the situation from multiple angles guarantees a more well informed and less risky decision. The best franchisor/franchisee relationships involve frequent communication and the discussion of ideas. Regularly pick up the phone and check up on how your franchisees are doing too. This will also encourage them to come to you if they have any concerns, rather than burying their head in the sand.

3. Form trusted partnerships

We’ve all heard of the saying, ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’. Having connections and contacts in the business means you are more likely to benefit from added perks like discounts. You need to keep on top of what your franchisees need to run their business successfully. Take, for example, a franchise that relies heavily on printed materials – the franchisor should form a loyal partnership with a quality printing company.

It’s good partnerships that make the franchise more valuable and, in turn, enhance the satisfaction and security of franchisees.

4. Be professional

This probably seems like one of the most straightforward and easily accomplished, but you’d be surprised how many franchisors lack this key personality trait. Small business owners who have adopted the franchise model may be incredibly talented and responsible for the growth of their business from scratch. However, they need to polish how they manage franchisees. Otherwise how will the franchisees respect them? For more information about how you can support your franchisees, click here.