Franchisors Rise Up to the Challenge in a Falling Economy

It is an indisputable fact that the economy is in a mess. If you think 2 million job losses in the US and 1.9 million unemployed in the UK is bad, how about the 26 million migrant worker jobs lost in China?
Large mulinationals are shedding jobs at such an alarming rate that panic seems to be setting in and nobody dares to predict when the turn around will come.
But in contrast look at many franchisors which are showing the purpose of spirit with which they were founded and still have the will and the hard-headed, thinking-on-your-feet to not only survive, but also excel.
A case in point is Dunkin Donuts which has just announced a $100 million dollar advertising campagn, which is an increase in over 5% from 2008. You can almost hear the cheering from their franchisees!
This is yet another example of the advantage of the franchise model. Collectively the franchisees of Dunkin’ Donuts are about to ramp up their advertising, increase sales, save the jobs of their employees, therefore boosting morale and making the place not only a better place to work, but also a better place come in and relax with a coffee and donut.
At the risk of laboring the point, let’s go over that again. Although ostensibly it is the franchisor who is responsible for the coming advertising campaign, it is also true that it is the franchisees who are doing it collectively. So in essence you have 5,769 coffee and donut stores in the US banding together to promote their brand, service and products. How can a little mom and pop coffee and donut shop ever do that? The answer is, they can’t. No matter how good their shop is, or their coffee, or their donuts, or their friendly customer relations. Although it doesn’t stop them, of course from one day turning their business model into a franchise and eventually competing with Dunkin’ Donuts.
Here is another example of what a creative franchisor can do. Burger King has obviously put considerable resources into conceiving, conceptualizing, designing, testing and launching their new “Whopper bar”. It has a “Whopper Topper” area to encourage customers to customize their burger to suit their taste. It is a excellent concept, I think and it reminds me a little of the McDonald’s Cafe. Leveraging on the brand name and the fact that you already have plenty of customers, some of whom might want a slightly different experience than the normal McDonalds.
So as you see, times are tough, but many franchisors are not letting that slow them down as they wheel out better products, entice more customers and provide a rewarding and worthwhile business for their franchisees and their employees.

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