When you see the Golden Arches of McDonald's or the coloured stripes of the 7-Eleven sign, you always know what you’re going to get. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Texas or Tokyo, Sydney or Singapore: the experience remains the same. That’s the power of maintaining brand consistency when running a franchise.
Brand consistency is the primary factor that sets these global success stories apart from businesses that flopped when they tried to move into new markets. Your brand identity is made up of your brand personality, your values, how you communicate and how your brand makes people feel. When you’re moving into a new area, it’s essential to stay true to your brand identity while also adopting local marketing techniques for franchises.
How do you market your franchise business consistently? While it’s important to maintain your brand image and keep the same products people already know and love, it’s also worth remembering you’re moving into a completely new area. You’ll have to adapt to suit the lifestyle, culture, tastes and sometimes even the language of your new location. Fortunately, with the power of local franchise marketing, you can grow internationally while maintaining franchise brand consistency.
Whether you’re an international brand seeking to make your mark in Australia or a local company ready to expand, here are some tips for local marketing for franchises while keeping your identity consistent.
What Is Local Franchise Marketing?
Franchising is a booming industry and managed to stay stable throughout 2023, even in the midst of economic uncertainty. You don’t have to go far to see examples of successful franchising in action. Chances are your own city has plenty of examples, from fast food to 24/7 gyms to department stores, car dealerships and coffee shops.
Franchise marketing is any kind of marketing activity a franchise carries out in order to grow. So, it follows on that local franchise marketing is marketing that customises these strategies to the local level. It’s marketing that allows a franchise in a new place and space to target locals, connect to the community, compete with local businesses and adapt to the market of the area.
Local franchise marketing requires you to find the right balance between maintaining your brand’s reputation on a national or international level and adding a regional touch. Much like McDonald's varies its menu to appeal to the tastes and customs of specific countries, you too can add your own community-influenced flavour to your marketing. Local events, causes, hashtags and SEO are excellent places to start when it comes to local marketing for franchises.
Key Difference of Local & National Franchise Marketing
How does local marketing for franchises differ from the national approach? While national franchise marketing is a big-picture strategy that focuses on the whole brand, local marketing zeroes in on the specifics of the region.
National franchise marketing ensures that all materials, promotions and campaigns align with the brand identity and voice so customers (not to mention potential franchisees) can get to know and trust the brand.
While national franchise marketing looks at the whole picture, local franchise marketing more closely examines the specifics. This is marketing directed at a regional audience in their own vernacular, focusing on their particular needs and preferences.
Knowing how to market a franchise business properly is essential to the success of both approaches, as is achieving brand consistency within a franchise.
Why Maintaining Brand Consistency Is Important
The further afield a business grows and the more new markets it reaches, the harder it can become to maintain a unified brand identity. Yet brand consistency not only shapes a customer’s first impression of a company, but it’s also often the factor that keeps them coming back for more. If you’re a franchiser, brand consistency builds trust and loyalty, helps you stand out among the competition and positions you as an industry leader.
Brand guidelines are the key to brand consistency. They define your brand, what you represent and promise and ensure that messaging is consistent. Brand guidelines also provide a map for franchisees to follow so that they can make sure that their own marketing efforts align with the business’s overarching approach.
Local Franchise Marketing Strategies
So, where do you start when it comes to local marketing for franchises? Here are some of the most effective local franchise marketing strategies you can use for your brand:
Establish and standardise brand guidelines
While you can certainly put a local twist on your franchises, customers expect the same level of quality (plus the most popular products) at every location. Your brand guidelines don’t just include your brand’s logo, colours and fonts (although those are important); they should also include the brand’s history, mission, value statements and operational instructions. Every franchisee should be able to access these guidelines easily, and staff training should be consistent.
Create local landing pages
Most customers will look at your online presence before they visit your physical location, so you need to make it easy for them to find you on their devices. A local landing page is a page on your website for each franchisee. You can use techniques like keywords, quality images and calls to action to entice potential shoppers in your region.
Use social media for local content
Harness the power of social media to create location-specific content the community can engage with, including local news, promotions and events.
Build a strong local online presence
In addition to optimising your SEO to target local keywords, you should also use online directories like Google My Business to ensure your presence in the region is easy to find.
Use geo-targeted online ads
Platforms like Google and Facebook Ads will allow you to target local customers based on their physical locations and search behaviour.
Encourage local customer reviews
Genuine positive customer reviews will always improve your credibility, and you can take advantage of this by encouraging customers in the region to leave reviews.
Grow And Market Your Franchise the Right Way with Anchor
Whether you’re still establishing your brand identity or you’re ready to expand into several overseas markets, Anchor can help you grow your franchise the right way.
Our marketing strategy services include everything from helping you identify your unique selling proposition (USP) and collect data on target demographics to identifying the right tools and techniques to build your brand.
A powerful brand strategy helps you stay consistent and build a trustworthy reputation. Anchor’s brand strategy services can help you get your messaging right and keep your brand authentic. We’ll look at elements like your brand story, promise, voice, and values, making sure you’re in the strongest possible position.
A full-service creative marketing agency, Anchor will work closely with you to make sure your brand identity and assets represent you and what you’re trying to achieve. We’ll keep you involved in our marketing strategies and explain our techniques and findings to you in a straightforward way with no jargon.
If you’re a purpose-driven brand looking to become a successful franchise, drop us a line.
