Regardless of the business you’re in, your brand is the smile on your face and the reassurance of your firm handshake; it is the cut of your jib and the shine on your shoes; it is a symbol of your personal reputation, and a calling card. Your brand represents your essential character and evokes a visceral reaction among your admirers — and your detractors. And while a brand is completely intangible, it can be your business’s single most valuable asset.
Even steely-eyed accounting professionals turn to the brand as the balance sheet repository of a business’s elusive “goodwill.” A lawyer for Coca-Cola once famously said that if every piece of the company’s tangible assets, every building, every delivery vehicle, and all of its cash in hand were to burn to the ground overnight, it could all be rebuilt and financed purely on the strength of the asset value represented by the Coke brand.
What does all this mean for your franchise brand? A strong business brand is particularly important in a franchised network of businesses because it is the singular symbol and the common identity used to identify independently owned franchises to the public as one organization. The products and services offered by franchisees are all represented by the brand; it’s the one name that appears over everyone’s door.
Given its importance in any franchise network, great effort goes into promoting the brand and, of course, protecting it. Wise franchise managers know that their brand is as fragile as any person’s reputation. It can be irretrievably injured by bad decisions and bad behavior, and it can be sullied and devalued as easily as a jilted high school friend can start a gossip campaign.
Franchisors and their franchisees should take these four basic steps to protect their common brand:
1. Trademark Legal Protections. Although branding goes beyond the words and designs that are your trademark, the trademark itself must be protected to the full extent legally available. The triple goals of the franchisor as a trademark owner are (1) federal registration, (2) consistent enforcement of trademark rights against infringers, and (3) both proper use and consistent presentation by the authorized users of the trademark, your franchisees. A full discussion of the rules surrounding trademarks is beyond the scope of this article, but suffice it to say that franchise executives must learn the fundamentals of trademark use and protection, and then watch their trademark use by franchisees like hawks.
2. Protect Confidentialities, But Know You Live in an Internet Fishbowl. Your franchise counsel will advise you to protect your instruction manuals from reproduction, put your sensitive online operational guidance behind password protection, and be smart about email communications and social media. We have all read about embarrassing revelations posted on the Internet, Facebook, or Twitter: they can destroy political careers among our elected officials, but they can also seriously injure a business brand. Everyone in your franchise organization, particularly franchisees who are new to the system, must be reminded to write every email, Facebook post, or tweet with the thought that it may very well appear publicly on the Internet the next day for national ridicule. The message to everyone in the network: Trash-can the snide remarks about competitors, snarky notes about coworkers, or worse, “humorous” swipes at the product or service represented by your brand.
3. Reach Out to Your Customers with Social Media. Not only has the Internet created a powerful voice for the customers of your franchised businesses, it has also spawned tools that you can use to promote your brand and talk directly to your customers. Business marketing has become a running conversation. Use the new tools available to promote your brand. This means responding to your customers and immediately handling any complaints posted.
4. Surprise Your Customers with Service. There is no greater brand-builder than surprisingly good service, and the word-of-mouth buzz that it generates is invaluable. Encourage everyone, including franchisor managers but particularly franchisees and their employees, to shock their customers with a little extra service, a complimentary extra something, an un-asked-for and unexpected expression of generosity. It can be as small as a genuine smile delivered with a “Thank you for your business.”
That smile, that simple human gesture, is the essence of your brand.
Andrew A. Caffey is one of the nation’s leading franchise legal specialists and represents franchisors across the United States. Caffey served as General Counsel of the International Franchise Association, a member of the Governing Committee of the ABA Forum on Franchising, and Chair of the ABA Forum on Franchising. He is also a member of the Panel of Neutrals of the American Arbitration Association. In 2011, Caffey introduced the FranchiseComplier, the world’s first smartphone application for the franchising community. Download it for free at the Apple App Store, join the FranchiseComplier community on Facebook, and follow it on Twitter (@franchisecomply).
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