The franchisor-franchisee relationship sets up both sides with certain responsibilities. For franchisees, one of their most important duties is maintaining the franchisor’s branding. Branding is one of the keys to success in business. But for a franchisor, developing a good one is only part of the process. It is then up to its franchisees to implement and uphold that branding to the customer base.
The process of ensuring that franchisees use and present your company’s brand according to your specifications is called brand compliance. It ensures that branding is consistent among franchisees and within your standards.
Your brand, defined
Your brand starts with your business’ name, tagline and logo. It also includes all advertising and marketing that you do — your website, print ads, social media and so on. Branding also impacts internal business, such as company culture and customer experience. In short, your branding is how you attempt to control how the public perceives your business. Your franchisees are the ones with the most direct contact with customers. If some of them fail to implement your branding correctly, it could damage that branding and hurt business overall.
Four tips for ensuring compliance
Here are four steps to establish strong brand compliance:
- Set clear guidelines. Before a franchisee can comply with your brand specifications, they have to understand what your brand actually is. A clear set of guidelines that lays out what your branding is and why you use them should greatly reduce confusion and error.
- Include branding in training. The training you provide to new franchisees should educate them on your business’ branding, the reasoning behind it and how it will benefit them to comply with it.
- Provide templates and content. Once they start interacting with their local community, your franchisees will need the right materials to convey the branding you want. Templates make this process much faster and easier.
- Monitor their branding. Regular check-ins with franchisees to see if their branding is on-point will help ensure compliance. If a franchisee has strayed from your guidelines, you can stake steps to correct them. Knowing that you regularly monitor their branding work will keep franchisees from going off-message.
You worked hard to create and evolve your branding. Ensuring compliance helps maintain consistency across franchises and gives your brand the broadest possible reach. It also helps reduce the risk of litigation over non-compliance.