Why You Should STOP Reading Trends in Franchise Marketing

As a kid, I spent far too much time trying to complete the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. For those who are not familiar with these books, you read the book normally until you are presented with a choice. For each choice there was a different page number. For example, “To enter the room with a scary growl, go to page 35. To run the other direction, go to page 42.” Most readers would try to remember what page they came from just in case they chose incorrectly because picking the choice that led to peril happened all the time.

These forks in the road are a lot like the marketing trend predictions we see around this time of year. They all seem to present solutions that cause a definitive decision. From labor shortages to sustainability, there seems to be no shortage of advice that is free to give, but, for you, can be awfully expensive.

So, rather than crack my crystal ball by trying to tell the future, here are 3 things that we, at Tiger Pistol, believe you should really consider before rewriting your strategy for 2023.

1. The Strength of Your Franchise’s Brand

Angie Eckelkamp from Nothing Bundt Cakes said it best.¹

“A key benefit to franchising is that new business owners are becoming part of an established brand. Franchise marketers must protect the value and integrity of that brand by ensuring there is cohesiveness between the brand's national marketing (led by the franchisor) and local/franchisee marketing happening across the country (or countries). The best way to do this is to educate franchisees on their role in protecting the brand from day one and empower them with local marketing resources and strategies throughout the life of their business.”

Empowering your partners means going beyond simply providing creative and copy to use. It means investing in foundational resources and strategies that synchronize your brand’s messaging with each market. As social advertising experts, we connect the power of your brand to every element of a social campaign – from the audience that it targets to serving the best creative for a single user.

When you understand the combined power of your brand and your franchisees, you begin to set trends rather than responding to them.

2. The Structure of Your Franchise’s Marketing

Most franchise marketers find 3 types of marketing partners in local marketing, the regional agency, the multi-location owner, and the single-location entrepreneur. These different structures have vastly different expectations and marketing skills. The regional agency can provide strategic insights and expects light oversight from the brand. A single-location entrepreneur possesses strong local knowledge and expects simple effective marketing executions that don’t take away from their investment. The multi-location owner often falls somewhere in between.

Regardless of how you interact with your franchisees, Tiger Pistol allows you to offer social advertising that meets their level of expertise. For your experienced marketing partners, you can offer independence while still maintaining brand control. For your non-marketing partners, campaigns can be launched on their behalf. What’s more, you can do both at the same time.

External trends change many things, but the way you work with your partners will define if you should change with them.

3. The Setting of Your Franchisee’s Location

When most marketers think about the customer journey, they think of all the impressions that lead to the moment of conversion. Yet, for the franchisee, the bulk of the journey occurs in the moment, and more things than you realize can impact it. Issues in the supply chain can cause a customer to become frustrated at the phrase “sold out.” Labor shortages can lead to longer wait times or shifting operating hours. Negative experiences directly connect to misaligned expectations. Since brand marketing teams are in the expectation business, they can play a role to ensure customers aren’t led on a fool’s errand to empty shelves.

Social advertising provides a channel for instantaneous, locally focused messaging. Tiger Pistol allows you to turn on just the locations where an item is available and day-part to show ads only when a location is open. Franchisees can launch a campaign for hiring in the minute they need the staff. We even helped brands through the rapidly changing regulations across markets throughout Covid.

Trends that really matter test your ability to adjust, not to guess correctly. Tiger Pistol gives you that flexibility.

2023 will no doubt be an adventure. May you choose wisely.

Learn how Tiger Pistol, the world’s leading collaborative social advertising platform, connects the power of brands with the knowledge and credibility of their franchisees through simple and scalable location-level social advertising.

1. As mentioned in Entrepreneur's article "50 Franchise CMOs Who Are Changing the Game"

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