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“The operating parameters of a business that entrepreneurs can control (like excellent customer service and consistently high product quality) may finally become more and more important in determining the strength and quality of a brand.” well we manage our operations and customer service, the most surefire way for a franchise to become successful is by building and maintaining a strong brand reputation with marketing and advertising strategies that positively influence the purchasing behavior of consumers. For the majority of this century, the power of marketing and advertising programs was directly correlated with the size of a company’s advertising budget. Businesses with a lot of money could hire the most talented agencies, create the most compelling campaigns, and buy the most influential media to proliferate their messages. Television, radio, magazines and newspapers (or what I call “traditional media”) have always been the most effective ways to reach the most number of people; and because such valuable media could only be purchased by the larger and more established businesses that could afford them, it became increasingly difficult for newer, smaller concepts to build their brands and expand their customer base. Of course, there are a number of franchise systems that have become notable exemptions to what appears to be an ironic world in which only successful businesses can succeed. But such exemptions are driven by disruptive ideas, new business models, abundant talent, or quite honestly, sheer luck. Most successful franchise system have remained that way because of their unwavering commitment to strengthening their brand with effective and influential advertising. The inability to cultivate a strong brand reputation
is a big reason why some franchised businesses operate like mom-and-pop amateurs, while others are beneficially mistaken for well-run corporate stores. Traditional media has been effective because television, radio, newspapers and magazines have, for the longest time, represented the most relevant and ubiquitous channels to command the attention of consumers. Television and radio, for example, were the only ways we could indulge in entertaining content, so we had to watch commercials. Newspapers were the only way to stay on top of current events, so articles were adorned with ads of all sizes. Because the general philosophy of traditional media is to reach as many people as possible, traditional media isn’t cheap. And even if a business wanted to focus its ads on a specific segment of consumers, it could only do so by advertising to an entire city or county, or perhaps by loosely communicating to people based on the types of magazines they read. Even with such demographic targeting, the cost to purchase media to reach such a filtered audience was still high because of the large number of impressions such a targeted ad still reached. Even if the ad were affordable, there was no guaranty that they wouldn’t get lost in the clutter of localized advertising that provided advertisers with very few levers for control (just consider all of the irrelevant junk mail you receive). In short, this conundrum boiled down to the simple fact that effective marketing was expensive, and effective brand building through
Dan Kim
effective advertising was available only to those franchise concepts that could afford it… at least until now. The past few years represents only a fraction of the amount of time franchising has been around, but it is also a time when social media disrupted the ways in which we communicate, share ideas, and engage with content. Companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram have become such dominant platforms for information sharing and engagement that instead of just being names, they have quickly become descriptive verbs that identify our preferred modes of communication. These interactive and media-rich social channels have significantly decreased the exclusive importance and relevancy of traditional media, and have become fluid environments in which consumers of all ages now spend an increasing amount of both personal and professional time. Unlike television or radio, these social platforms have become immersive, widereaching forums in which information can be shared in all directions with nearly anyone we want, including friends, family members and public figures that many of us would trust more than the advertisements of an impersonal corporation.
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