| When anyone chooses to invest money into a franchise it is because of the brand and back up provided by the franchise owner. Would you rather run a burger cafe or invest more and buy a Burger King franchise?..... or Macdonalds, or KFC etc etc. You are buying into a readily marketed brand - or are you?
One problem franchisees have is that of internet marketing. The biggest mistake that the headquarters of many franchises make is that they look at the Internet as a world wide marketing opportunity and forget that each and every franchisee is heavily reliant upon his local trade. Retailers probably don't feel the pinch as much as Business to Business types such as printers, signmakers, plant hire, PC repair etc because of the walk-in nature of their business.
Imagine for a moment that you are an individual looking for a printer or signmaker, the easiest and quickest route is of course the internet, so you log on to your favourite search engine and type in your keyword. At this stage you may type in either the name of the business or the business description.
Let's say you have typed in 'Printers' and your location, it is highly unlikely that any franchise will appear - why? because the person responsible for submitting the franchise to all major search engines will concentrate on branding and using generic keywords and if the franchise is a large one, it will be impossible for each and every location to be added.
To add salt to the wound, some franchises are asked not to promote their own business on the internet! - why? because they are told it is unfair marketing and out of their zone! A bit like asking them to remove the signage from their vans should they travel too far and someone in another area sees them !
There are solutions to this, firstly we need to look at the real element, if someone searches a local website such as Hertfordshire's Website
[ www.hertfordshire.cc ] whilst looking for a printer or indeed signmaker and sees a banner link, he clicks on it, goes to the site and finds what he is looking for - two things have happened, the franchise has made itself known and the customer has found it ...... isn't that what marketing is all about?
But won't that action upset another franchise from the same group? surely they too have an option of marketing locally and if the location is clear on the banner. i.e. Super Dooper Printers (Watford) and the customer opts for that particular one, it is fair game surely?
The solution is to allow each operator to promote his own outlet using the appropriate corporate image and if possible a 'Gateway Page'. This system, mirrors a corporate website but the 'skin' relates to the local franchise. Too much information and too little space here, so feel free to call me on 01707 646457 for a brief chat and I'll explain more.
All in all franchisees should not have to suffer because headquarters cannot provide sufficient local internet marketing. It is not the fault of the groups owners it is just the nature of the beast and local internet marketing should be carried out locally.
If you are a franchise owner and you would like further information on the best way to get the most out of internet marketing locally, call me. Peter Yexley on 01707 646457
|
