Over the last ten years, franchising has changed color faster than a chameleon. How to franchise used to seem like deciphering the Enigma code, but on your journey of How to Franchise, those twists and turns are less intimidating and somewhat more accessible.
Think about 2013. Franchises were like that jukebox on the diner counter, always playing those same old songs but never missing a beat. But with every brilliant playlist, well, times change. Consumers wise up; they wanted more than rehashes of already proved ideas. The franchise model had to take a bullet and come up with some new innovation.
Then came social media-like fireworks that burst forth without warning. No more running commercials on TV or slapping up colourful banners. Now, franchises were chit-chatting with customers on Instagram, tweeting out witticisms, and pinning stuff to boards on Pinterest. The change in characteristics from stiff-upper-lipped traditional marketing toward more holistic engagement had been well and truly marked.
It was not a maybe-the-box technology but Frankenstein’s monster risen and come to life. Franchisee and franchisor alike found they could use it to grease the wheels of their operation. Cloud-based systems, mobile apps, and online loyalty programs were not only for geeks but were the real thing that got the motor purring sweetly. Witness the case of one coffee franchise that implemented an app-based rewards system: the ordinary latte was no longer just another latte in the virtual world.
Meanwhile, amidst all this digital cacophony, a new player blew in: big data. It shook the boat, forcing franchises to change the way they used to make their decisions. These earlier blind guesses had now turned into educated decisions based on consumer habits which businesses could quite literally count on their fingers. Analyzing those patterns gave the franchises an insider’s view, and that let them move faster than a caffeinated squirrel on a hot tin roof.