Franchisees are an amazing asset for restaurants, but even the greatest assets can have drawbacks. There are three main ways in which franchisees can endanger your restaurant’s brand, often unknowingly. These problems often come with the territory of working with individuals and groups separated by distance and demographics. It helps to find viable ways to minimize and eliminate these risks.

Individual franchise locations often use different ways to print their custom print products and can veer drastically from corporate’s brand standards.

Some potential problems you don’t want to encounter include:

Mismatched colors: They print in RGB, but your standards designate CMYK for print. This is a designation many franchise owners don’t recognize or notice. Your brand colors are one of the most identifiable ways consumers recognize your brand, so it’s important to get it right!

Questionable quality: Franchise locations are always looking for ways to save money, and one way they do this is by cutting costs on their print materials, often negatively impacting quality. The material type they use may not be up to corporate specifications, causing items to look unprofessional and low quality.

Using in-house printers: Franchise locations may use a printer they have in the back office. These printers are NOT for commercial use and are often of low quality. Even a slight deviation in color and hue can degrade your brand.

Using online printing: Another franchisee may decide to order their print products online from a printing company. It’s difficult to find a reliable online print company, so they risk low quality print materials and, again, colors that don’t match.

Franchisees often change pricing on menu options or offer deep discounts to move low sellers. This can lead to an incremental increase in sales at the store level, but it can also lead to consumer confusion and dissatisfaction. If a customer visits one of these off-kilter franchisee locations and then a location following your corporate guidelines, they will undoubtedly question the seeming “upcharged” items.

These unapproved pricing models can cut into your bottom line and make your customers doubt your brand.

Everyone likes a good deal. But what franchisees often don’t consider when they’re onboarding a new vendor are the additional fees: shipping fees, picking/packing fees, admin fees, restocking fees, etc. It all adds up!

If Store A uses different vendors than Store B, not only is your brand at risk for inconsistencies and poor quality, but the unapproved vendors may be charging extra for shipping and fees. Oftentimes, franchisees don’t know that you have already worked out the best pricing for custom print products and want to try and get better pricing on their own. This method can get wheels off quickly.

When franchisees choose vendors you don’t approve of, that affects your bottom line.

Take control of your brand!

With Brand Fulfillment, you can control your brand. You choose what products and print materials are available to your franchise locations, and they have 24/7 access to a branded web portal to order products online.

They get the products they need, and you get peace of mind that your brand standards are up to scratch.

Save money by consolidating vendors

By choosing Brand Fulfillment, you have total control over what products your locations have access to. Even better, we have a full-time Sourcing & Procurement team whose sole job is to find you better products at the best pricing.

Franchise locations have a full-time partner for sourcing new products and you save money and increase efficiency in your supply chain.

Control what your franchisees can edit

By utilizing variable print technology, locations are only able to customize certain items on your art templates, so for print pieces like menu boards and coupons, you control what items can and cannot be changed.

Franchise locations have the ability to customize things like menus, name tags and bounce back offers to fit their needs, and corporate can choose what is editable and what isn’t. Win win!

Example Variable Piece – Holiday Hours Flyer

Franchisees select content from a set of predetermined values and customize art templates. Then, they can send to print at the push of a button!

Empower Franchisees

Franchisees can be the best tool in your arsenal to grow your brand and increase profits. With Brand Fulfillment, you’re able to control your brand while still providing franchisees the flexibility to customize custom print to fit their individual needs. It’s the perfect solution to secure your brand standards, save costs, and empower franchisees.

Learn more about Brand Fulfillment by calling 800-642-3687 or emailing sales@dotit.com

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