Franchisees likely bought into the franchise business because it offers the independence of small business ownership but with the support of a large, national network. Franchisees are natural leaders, entrepreneurs and hard-working businesspeople. That doesn’t mean they’re experienced marketers or advertisers.
Despite corporate brand controls, some franchisees take marketing into their own hands. They create off-brand, inconsistent materials and collateral that dilutes the brand and confuses their customers.
Here are 3 reasons franchisees create their own marketing materials:
1. Unhappy franchisees resist corporate controls – While franchisees should have some authority to advertise in their local market, controlled branding and messaging is inherent to the franchise model. These controls are in place to ensure consistent branding and messaging franchise-wide. However, franchisees may become unhappy and resist these controls if they feel they have no say in how they market their business. This is especially true if franchisees have zero ability to choose or customize materials, ask questions or provide feedback. This damages the franchisor-franchisee relationship and often prompts franchisees to ignore corporate and market their own way.2. Lack of local marketing investment – Franchisees create their own marketing materials when they feel the franchisor doesn’t invest enough in local initiatives. Maybe they’ve seen a big Super Bowl ad promoting the franchise, but feel corporate doesn’t allocate enough budget or resources to help franchisees promote their business locally. Franchisees, like most small business owners, realize the importance of local customers. If they feel there isn’t enough focus on promoting the business locally, they’ll likely create their own advertising and marketing materials to do so.
3. Corporate doesn’t supply enough – This is a big one. Many franchisees create their own marketing collateral because corporate doesn’t provide enough resources or materials. They need a logo or image for their local Facebook or LinkedIn page. But, corporate didn’t supply a brand assets library with images that are those specific sizes. Instead of requesting the specific images (which may take a while), franchisees will likely just make their own by stretching (read: distorting) logos and images to make them fit.
Without frequent, unannounced site visits (requiring a lot of additional resources), franchisors may be largely unaware there’s even a problem. Instead, franchise marketers should aim to prevent these three reasons franchisees create their own marketing materials.
Develop a relationship with your franchisees, and give them the marketing elements they need. That way, you’re spending less time enforcing brand guidelines and more time developing campaigns to grow the brand and the business.
Franchise marketers: Learn what you can do to prevent franchisees from creating their own materials and tips to maintain brand control in our latest webinar.