Name Dropping Won’t Help Your Franchise Grow

There are literally hundreds of businesses named after the founder or owner but what if you buy into a franchise system that is tied to a particular person and something catastrophic, like a scandal or even a death, happens that negatively affects the way that person is viewed by the public?

A situation like this can be particularly damaging to a franchise that provides services that people trust and rely on. Recently there was a perfect example of what can happen to franchisees in this situation.

This May, Roni Deutch, a well-known tax attorney, abandoned her Roni Deutch Tax Center franchise due to legal problems, leaving dozens of franchisees in the lurch. These franchisees paid thousands of dollars in fees and royalties, only to be left with nothing to show for it.

Deutch began her franchise in 2008 as an attempt to capitalize on the, once positive, name recognition that she’d built through her more than 20 years as a tax attorney.

Deutch also used television advertising that was seen around the United States for the better part of a decade, using her name to help build that recognition and her brand, which must have seemed enticing to the people who joined her franchise system.

But, clearly Deutch was not in a position to create and build a franchise system the right way.

So what can we learn from this story?

First, if you are going to become part of a personality’s franchise, be sure you are going with a franchise you, and your customers, can trust.

Don’t just rely on name recognition and hope the franchise is run correctly. Talk to other franchisees and see what they have to say about the leadership and system of the franchise.

Finally, remember that one of the best indicators of success for a franchise is how long they’ve been around.

If it’s only been a few years and the name of the company is the name of the founder, you might be dealing with a vanity project rather than a proven system that works, so take your time, do your research and pick a franchise with a name that isn’t tied into the roller coaster life of one individual.

Does the Power of Your Vision Make You A Leader?

It’s been 100 years since he was born and more than a decade since he died, but David Ogilvy continues to influence the world we live in. Ogilvy was known as “The Father of Advertising” and he pushed the boundaries like no other advertising executive before him.

What Ogilvy did was make advertising interesting. He said, “You cannot bore people into buying your product, you can only interest them in buying it,” and if you look at advertising that came before Ogilvy, you can see that was a groundbreaking notion when Ogilvy came up with it.

But Ogilvy isn’t just an important figure because of the impact he made on advertising, he remains important because of the impact he made as a leader, not only changing the face of the industry he worked in, but leading the change of the society around him.

Much has been written about Ogilvy and he was, depending on what you read, a snob, a perfectionist, rude, impatient and even egotistical. No, Mr. Ogilvy was not a perfect person. But he was, in many ways, a perfect leader.

Ogilvy knew that if your ideas were powerful enough, you must lead, and his ideas were not only powerful, they were groundbreaking. He made advertising smarter, more interesting and something people would talk about at the dinner table.

Along the way he obsessed on details, he was certain about virtually everything and he had a huge ego, but he was also the smartest person in the room (when it came to advertising) and everyone knew it.

The people who worked for him may not have liked him, but they loved him because they respected him, his knowledge and his vision.

What does Ogilvy’s story tell us about what it takes to make a leader? Often leaders aren’t made, instead people become leaders because they are in the best position to lead, whether it’s because they have the most knowledge, passion or attention to detail.

David Ogilvy had all three of those qualities and whether the people that worked for him liked him or not was irrelevant. They trusted his vision and his ability and their commitment showed in the work produced by Ogilvy’s agency over the years.

So if you are in a leadership position, ask yourself, does your team follow you because of your vision and ability, or because you sign the checks?

The Fashions Change, Target, Offer, Copy Remains

Are you a PC or a Mac?

We’ve heard that question since personal computing began to grow in popularity and in many ways people can be defined by which computer they prefer.

Or can they?

As you can see in this original PC vs Mac ad from over a decade ago, the perception is that the person that uses a PC is all business and no fun while the Mac user is creative, cutting edge and successful on their own terms.

Of course this generalization isn’t true. There are plenty of PC users that are a lot of fun and Mac users that can be buzz kills, but Apple wanted to appeal to a younger demographic and built an edgy, cool image of the Mac user, versus the stodgy, buttoned up idea of the corporate PC user, to grow their product.

The reason this campaign lasted as long as it did was that it worked. The target that Apple was looking to connect with didn’t want to be perceived as corporate types, even if they happened to work in a corporate environment.

Apple did a great job of understanding their target and building an offer they would be interested in through copy that connected with that target market.

But what made the campaign truly powerful is that, even as that target market got older (not too many people have the “casual Seinfeld-cut” anymore) they remained connected to the image of themselves as Mac users.

It wasn’t about the picture in the ad anymore. They remained loyal because being a “Mac” had become part of not only their life, but part of who they were.

The ultimate goal of marketing is to make it seem like a natural for customers to do business with you and unnatural if they don’t. Those loyal to the Mac would never convert because they are, in some respects, just as much a “Mac” as the computer itself.

Of course there are many steps on the path to brand loyalty that go beyond target, offer and copy. You have to have great customer service, deliver on what you promise and add value to your customer’s experience with your business to name a few.

But it all starts with target, offer and copy.

If your target is wrong, your offer doesn’t appeal to them or you copy doesn’t speak to their needs, you’ll never find the type of customers you need to build a strong small business.

Apple was able to reach their target market for more than a generation with this campaign and because they made those customers happy they built a loyal base that has helped make them one of the most successful companies in the world, even if that loyal base doesn’t think that “mandatory wacky watch” looks so cool anymore.

Is information that I find on the internet (by Googling) reliable?

The internet can be a fantastic source of high quality information, but it is also a place where anyone can say anything they choose about any subject.

There is no fact-checking for blog posts, and the ignorant and uninformed have the same right to speak their mind as the world’s experts, on any topic. Even competitors can easily pose anonymously as either disgruntled coach or a client. So use a little common sense. If you want the most reliable information, it is all at your disposal at the ActionCOACH website, the International Franchising Association website or any of the National Franchising websites.

In most of the developed nations in which we operate – franchising is heavily regulated. Which means that we have fully disclose on all the numbers and legal proceedings (existing and pending) on our business. Even though less than 20% of franchisors put in an earnings claim in their disclosure document – we do.

Our business has been around since 1993, and operates today in 34 countries. Every year – we are named in the Franchise Business Review Franchise 50 – 50 franchise concepts that rank high in franchisee satisfaction.

Our company gives back in a profound and lasting way to the Small to Medium Sized business community and their communities at large. This is best shown by three (of many examples). 1) The Indonesian government created an award and gave it to ActionCOACH for their contribution to entrepreneurialism and growth in their country.  2) Coaching for a Cause (our pro bono coaching program to charities around the world) in its first year (during an economic recession) helped non-profits raise an 2.5 million in charitable contributions through coaching them. Coaching has a compound effect, you cannot unlearn what you learn through coaching. So these non-profits have been taught “how to fish” rather than “given a fish” and will continue to apply lessons  learned via coaching year on year. 3) In Florida USA, a year-long study of businesses being coached by ActionCOACH showed an average $7.50 profit return for every $1 invested in 12 months.

ActionCOACH is the only coaching company who guarantees your coaching will be self-funding on or before the seventeenth week. If you really want to know about a company – you need to look at the source of the information. Is it reliable? We welcome you (in fact we insist) that you speak to our coaches and our clients. Only then will you be able to determine what a company and its people is really like.

So if the information is not true, why don’t you defend yourself in the blogs or forums?

In some instances we do, albeit not publicly.

To understand why we choose not to – you might want to read our 14 Points of Culture – especially our Communication point to understand why.

Business coaching and the essence of our company is about growth, forward thinking and positivity. What is truly unique about our business is our culture and the people. We have a belief that action truly speaks louder than words. So rather than spend time on the fruitless endeavor of convincing anonymous haters and cyber-bullies – we created a forum for people to ask questions of our Founder, Brad Sugars directly. We have regular webinars with our coaches so people can find out direct. You can even find many of us on Social Media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn including executives.

Our CEOs will speak direct to any person interested in becoming a coach or being coached who may have concerns. Unlike the anonymous posters – we are not hiding. We figured if intelligent and genuine people were truly concerned with anything they read online – they would ask us and our team so they can come up with their own opinion.

Is Seattle’s Best Good Enough?

When I first began with ActionCOACH, one of my first tasks was to oversee the rebranding of the company from Action International to ActionCOACH.

We did a lot of work to finally decide on the new company name, logo and colors, surveying 100,000 business owners and letting them choose the company’s new image.

I don’t believe in focus groups and we didn’t use them for our rebrand for a number of reasons.

Participants often try to please the moderator or the other members of the group, so they may hold back or say what they think others want to hear rather than give their real opinion.

Companies have less control over focus groups than they do over a one on one interview, where they can ask focused questions and get real answers.

A focus group is a small group. I chose to find out opinions and hedge my bets by talking to a target audience of 100,000.

“They (focus groups) just ensure that you don’t offend anyone and produce bland, inoffensive products,” Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive says and I think he’s on the mark.

A big part of rebranding is the company’s new logo but typically logos are designed by creative people who aren’t necessarily interested in creating the best logo or design for generating leads or sales.

Instead they want to create something that feeds their inner artist and many businesses have lost a lot of money by doing just that. Award-winning logos that nobody connects with and don’t stimulate people to buy happens when art wins out over proper research.

Ideally, rebranding is done to build recognition and better connect with a company’s customer base and target market. But too often rebranding seems to be nothing more than an excuse to undertake another project, or, to put it bluntly, busy work.

The latest company to undertake a major rebranding that is completely underwhelming is Seattle’s Best coffee.

Seattle’s Best is in a difficult position because they are owned by the same parent company that owns Starbucks, so they are competing for wallet share within the same four walls as one of its biggest competitors.

So how do you build a brand when you’re in that position? They began by naming Michelle Gass President.

Gass is no stranger to the corporation as she had been brand manager and global strategy chief at Starbucks. Her goal was to bring focus to Seattle’s Best, which hadn’t been performing as expected.

Gass has made some significant changes to the brand, including separating the five basic styles of coffee the company sells into numbered packaging to help explain the differences between them to customers.

But if you look closer at the new packaging, you will see their new logo, which I simply don’t like. I know I can’t be the only one that looks at that logo and wants to donate blood.

You can find plenty of other people who don’t like the new look by just looking for Seattle’s Best on Amazon. Included among the comments were two that stood out to me.

“Seattle’s Best has obviously been taken over by idiots. That’s the only explanation for this new change in product look… Are they trying to market coffee to grade school children? The new product presentation in bright colored, ugly bags with huge numbers on them is so unsophisticated and juvenile that it boggles the mind as to how this piece of rubbish got rubber-stamped by any executive who loves coffee,” said one comment.

Meanwhile, another brought back visions of one of the greatest rebranding fiascos in history, saying, “…it makes me wonder if corporate is purposely trying to kill off SBC (Seattle’s Best Coffee) or create a media fiasco like Coca-Cola did with ‘New Coke’ in the 80′s.”

As you can see, the new logo is sterile and simple and who, exactly is it supposed to appeal to? Is it a logo for a premium brand or does the logo and new packaging make the brand look like any generic brand one finds at the local supermarket?

“People don’t drink no-name colas,” Gass said, “But lots of people drink no-name coffee. That’s because no one’s come in and said, ‘Don’t accept a bad cup of coffee’.”

I find that statement perplexing to say the least, especially when the new look is generic and has removed the traditional aspect from the look and feel of the brand.

(Also, I don’t believe people choose no-name coffees. We ran out of a premium brand at our office recently and my team definitely knew they weren’t drinking the good stuff.)

Rather than a new logo, I think Seattle’s Best needs to find a better way to differentiate itself from Starbucks and other major coffee brands.

Brands, especially food retail brands, need to concentrate on brand experience as much as taste profiling.

In Australia, coffee shops are influenced by European cafes. You can go there to eat a real meal and even take a client there. There don’t seem to be many places like that in America and that would seem to be a perfect niche for Seattle’s Best. In fact, McDonalds is testing this with their McCafe line of coffees.

So rather than changing what was an effective and attractive logo, change the customer’s experience at Seattle’s Best.

You Are the Chips You Eat

Building the business you want comes down to finding your perfect customers and to find the perfect customers, you have to target your marketing correctly.

It’s kind of like potato chips.

No matter where you are or what you call them, people like potato chips, as they are called in America, or crisps as they are called in other parts of the world.

While people from virtually every culture love the crisp, salty treats, that’s where the similarities end. If you travel the world, you’ll notice how the popularity of flavors vary, depending on the nation.

For instance, squid flavored chips that are popular in Japan would be a very hard sell in the United States, while the ever-popular sour cream and onion variety favored in The States probably wouldn’t have the same affect on Spaniards who prefer ham-flavored chips.

The fact that everyone likes chips, but each culture, and even in some cases, each region of the same countries prefer and buy different flavors, is a pretty interesting scenario when you look at it through the scope of marketing.

One of the basic principles of good business is sell what people want to buy.

After all, I know very few Americans that are looking for those Mint Laccha chips that are so popular in India.

Targeting the correct audience with an offer they are interested in means you’re well on your way to developing a customer base that is a powerful resource for your business.

When you look at marketing critically, you see that many businesses produce marketing that is akin to selling Spicy Rice Cake chips in Texas or Marmite-flavored chips in Thailand.

In other words, their offer isn’t matching their target.

If the market isn’t selling what you’re buying, it could be you don’t understand the flavor your local market craves and you have to take the time to learn.

Start by writing down who your ideal customer is, what they do, where they live, why they will buy from you and any other factor that makes them your theoretical ideal. From there, develop offers in your marketing that match their tastes.

Turn Your Challenges into Opportunities

I love to read.

I read voraciously, because I’m always trying to find the next thing that can take me and my business to the next level.

While reading is a regular part of my schedule, I’ve met a lot of people who just don’t have the time to read business books. Luckily, a small publishing company in Chicago has decided to tackle this problem head-on by converting business books into easier to read formats that some might even call comic books.

The ideas are still there, and in many ways they are easier to understand and take in than the conventional way.

By converting the power-point presentation of these books onto the page, Round Table Companies has come up with a much easier way to connect with potential customers.

The person who came up with this idea, Corey Michael Blake told Forbes, “People in this economy are so busy, they’re freaking out.”

By converting books to this format, his hope is to be able to reach more people, people who may have been intimidated or disinterested in reading, while turning a nice profit for his publishing house.

What makes this story more compelling is the fact that this company has taken something that seems to be waning, the art of reading, and made it more modern and appealing to potential customers.

Blake obviously understands one of the most important concepts of business, sell what people want to buy.

If they aren’t buying long business books with no pictures, make a shorter, picture version for them and watch it fly off the shelves.

It’s the old “build a better mousetrap” theory at its best and an exciting development for people that just don’t have the time or inclination to read.

So what business book would you like to see turned into a comic book?

Does Business Coaching Work? Check the Numbers

We know business coaching works. We see it every day, in the success stories of our clients, and even the successes of our coaches that use those same principles to run their businesses.

But for some who haven’t experienced coaching, objections still abound. Often these people see putting money toward coaching as an expense rather than an investment.

But we have definitive studies that prove that coaching provides a terrific return on investment for businesses.

In fact, businesses that have been coached by an ActionCOACH Business Coach have seen a return of $7.50 for every dollar they invested. If you knew you could get that kind of return on your investment, wouldn’t you do it straight away?

So where did we come up with those numbers?

Our terrific Florida ML’s, Nick and Arcelia Dove commissioned a study of their clients by a financial analyst.

The study showed that the team in Florida not only proved a return of 7.5 to one, but they also helped their clients increase revenues by 79% and grow profits by 106%.

By any measure, these figures are outstanding and proof that working with world class ActionCOACH business coaches can help any business grow revenue and profits.

So if you’re looking to grow your business, what is the best option?

With our Guarantee and this evidence supporting the power of business coaching, there is nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Are You Getting the Results You Want?

We’ve all seen those inspirational posters. The ones with someone on top of mountain and the word RESULTS in big letters underneath them.

But getting results isn’t really like climbing a mountain, is it?

Success, excellence, they aren’t things you achieve and then step back and appreciate the view. They are ongoing processes and everyday you have to find a way to keep moving forward, keep climbing that mountain.

We all know this can be a tall order, but by remembering that excellence and achievements are journeys, not destinations, we can go a long way toward building a better life and a better business.

That’s one of the reasons we list Fun and Abundance in our points of culture.

These aren’t just buzz words at ActionCOACH. They are ideals that allow us to keep track of the journey we are always on toward success, even as we reach goals along the way.

In the latest edition of Forbes, Northwestern Mutual CEO John Schlifske talks about the importance of taking a step back and appreciating the journey.

“You don’t walk into retirement having put your life’s work into retirement having put your life’s work into a company only to say, ‘Gosh I’m miserable.’”

Schlifske went on to say, “You’ve got to insert fun into the workplace now and them.” And I couldn’t agree more.

We encourage fun at the Global Office through various methods. We have our High Five meeting on Monday mornings, we WIFLE on Friday afternoons and we often have lunch together and celebrate each others’ happiness, whether it’s through birthday parties, baby showers or our team trainings.

So what are you doing to encourage your team to have fun?

There Goes the Neighborhood!

Would you be willing to have your neighbors hate you to have someone else pay your mortgage?

That is essentially the question Adzookie, a free advertising network for mobile devices, is asking.

In return for their paying your mortgage, the company wants to turn your house into a billboard.

Do you live on one of those streets where all the houses share a uniform look and have a real desire to never be invited to a block party with your neighbors again?

Then this might be a good way.

There is no doubt this is a unique way to market a business, but there are some questions that pop up on this topic.

First of all, how will this strategy work in areas where it simply isn’t legal?

Local municipalities have the ability to zone both residential and commercial areas and won’t often let a people in residential areas generate commercial profits.

Secondly, how many residential neighborhoods have so much traffic that the ads will be seen enough to deliver a nice return on investment for Adzookie?

Hopefully the company has done their homework and has reason to believe this marketing campaign will be profitable, but it remains to be seen.

Still, just the fact that we are talking about Adzookie makes it clear that this campaign does have some merit. After all, did you ever even hear of them before reading this blog?