Customers can see golden arches from a mile away and know it’s McDonald’s. They expect to order a Big Mac and know what it’ll taste like at any McDonald’s restaurant.
But, what if those arches were blue or that restaurant didn’t sell Big Macs?
Would customers recognize that it was even a McDonald’s?
Brand recognition is one of a franchise’s best assets. But, many franchise marketers struggle to reign in “rogue” franchisees who take marketing into their own hands. When franchisees create their own marketing collateral, their materials often are inconsistent and confusing to customers with certain brand expectations.
Here are 5 tips to keep franchisees on-brand:
1. Be clear about your expectations – While franchisees deserve some level of freedom in their own market, be clear about when it’s appropriate to create their own materials. An in-store board to highlight employee of the month? Sure. Creating their own slogan, message or branding for a direct mail ad? Probably not. Be clear about these expectations from the start of your relationship with new franchisees.2. Maintain a list of approved vendors – If you partner with specific vendors to create branded collateral, create a list, keep it up to date and share it with your franchisees. Especially if these vendors know your brand well, they’ll be able to help keep franchisees on-brand or alert you of any red flags.
3. Give clear brand guidelines – Create and share guidelines on your brand’s voice, tone and style. Give examples of copy and how your franchise describes itself. Is your brand witty and playful or serious and professional? These are key elements that help customers recognize your brand; be sure your franchisees are familiar with them before they write any branded copy online or in print.
4. Provide corporate-approved materials – Give franchisees access to all types of branded assets and there’ll be no need for them to develop their own. Create a brand assets library with logos and images of various shapes and sizes franchisees can use on their website, blog and social media sites. That way, they’re not stretching out your logo to make it fit on Facebook or LinkedIn.
5. Use a white label marketing platform – These sites make brand and message control easy for franchisors. A white label marketing platform is a central website portal, created by the franchisor, filled with branded, corporate-approved marketing templates. Franchisees are able to create and launch ads in their own local market, and franchisors know everything created on the site is on-brand, consistent and controlled.
Many franchisees create their own marketing collateral because they feel corporate doesn’t supply enough resources or 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.
View our previously recorded "Keep Franchisees On-Brand" webinar