Building Brand Awareness For Franchises

| 13.06.2023

Brand recognition is extremely important for franchises. Development of a franchise marketing strategy and its successful implementation can greatly impact buyers’ attitude to the company and, thus, improve the volume of sales. A franchise’s brand recognition can influence its competitiveness, and it can encourage customers to choose your company's products among many others.

Consumers can prefer specific products, while taking in consideration its quality and features. However, most people choose companies that they are well aware of. So, working on the brand awareness for franchises is crucial. Recognition could procure loyalty and trust of customers, form a good reputation, and contribute to its promotion.

What is brand awareness?

Recognition of the brand is an indicator of productivity of marketing operations that reflects how well the public knows the company. Developing recognition of the brand is a powerful tool that could help shape buyers’ attitude to the company. It consists of creating a memorable logo, drawing up a slogan, and figuring out distinguishing features. The goal is to introduce the company to as many people as possible and improve chances of customers finding out about branded services and goods.

Importance of brand awareness for franchise success

Brand awareness for franchises is significant for attracting consumers. You could influence how the public looks at and feel about your enterprise, and encourage it to acquire goods. Brand recognition matters for many reasons. They are as follows:

• Building trust and loyalty
• Sticking out from rivals
• Creating brand equity
• Increasing volume of sales

How brand awareness impacts customer trust and loyalty

Brand awareness plays an essential role in keeping your franchise in the spotlight. When mentions of the company constantly pop up, consumers become familiar with it and comfortable with its products, which in turn creates a sense of trust. Positive customer experience with the franchise yields loyalty and trust. When a company is highly valued, clients prefer it to other brands that produce similar goods.

Defining Your Franchise Brand Identity

Identity of the brand is a set of features that reflect the company's personality, form proper associations among potential buyers and influence the development of the brand recognition. A franchise brand identity is something that highlights you among all competitors, even if they sell similar goods. It's helpful to identify in what ways you are different from others, and how you stand out. Highlight the unique features of the enterprise and draw up a franchise marketing strategy that will communicate these characteristics to consumers.

Creating Consistent Branding across Franchise Locations

If a franchisor wishes to succeed, then a franchise network should maintain consistent branding. All marketing strategies need to be implemented across all franchised units. That way potential customers will see a unified image and message. Consumers may be confused if the brand presents different information at every unit. That’s why it is essential for a franchise organization to present consistent messaging and branding.

Leveraging Digital Marketing Channels

A franchise organization could greatly benefit from advertising via digital channels. There exist numerous marketing channels, like social media, apps, websites, forums, that could be excellent tools for increasing brand recognition, attracting potential clients, and creating a base of loyal customers. We live in a digital age, and it's almost impossible to build company recognition without leveraging digital marketing channels.

Using the Power of Local Marketing

Local marketing is aimed at attracting customers within a certain area. These sorts of marketing operations are great because they allow you to focus on the specific demographic that lives or works near your unit. Rather than spreading marketing resources on larger geographical territory, concentrating efforts on a narrower area and demographic is more efficient.

Implementing Franchise-wide Marketing Initiatives

Creating and upholding branding through franchise marketing is surely to be performed franchise-wide. Therefore, when you introduce new marketing initiatives they must be implemented across all units. Do not be afraid to experiment. Our world is constantly changing, and fresh trends emerge. However, ascertain that company’s uniqueness and messaging stays consistent.

Measuring and Tracking Brand Awareness

There are various approaches for tracking brand recognition. Take into consideration the most efficient ones:

• Monitoring of social networks. There exist lots of social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, where you could track customers’ reach and mentions of the company.
• Search engines. Track the main traffic channels on Google, and study what demographics are reaching out, and how they are engaged. Analyze the keywords that consumers leverage to look for the company.
• Feedback. Analyze reviews of your establishment and its products on the official brand’s website or social networks.
• Surveys. Create a lead magnet on the site and ask users to participate in a questionnaire about the company in exchange for some bonus or a gift.

The information that you obtain from these tools allows you to analyze how involved customers are and their attitude towards the establishment and its product. It is valuable information that will help modify your marketing strategy to achieve better results.

Training and Supporting Franchisees in Branding Efforts

Typically, franchise owners are obliged to invest into national ad campaigns. These funds are used for development and implementation of various marketing campaigns. However, it is always a good idea to encourage franchise owners to make their own marketing efforts. As franchisees are usually familiar with the community where their enterprise is located, they have a better understanding of how they can reach it. Franchisors can offer training and assistance, so franchisees can promote their unit locally on their own.

Trends in Branding Strategies

• Content in open access. You could post information and news about new goods and events, as well as create videos and presentations. It is the surest way to share the brand's mission, positioning, and identity, which allows companies to connect with consumers and improve brand recognition.
• Sponsoring events. Brands that sponsor various events, festivals, and concerts do a good job associating their name with these events. It’s a good step for developing positive recognition of the brand.
• Brand personality. While creating advertising campaigns it is a good idea to try to personalize them. It can mean different things, you find the one that makes sense for you and your business. Add some personality and humor to your ads, so next time customers see them they will associate them with this particular brand.
• Podcasts. They have become extremely popular today. Many companies use podcasts to inform and entertain the public, and encourage it to buy from your establishment.

Conclusion

Recognition of the brand reflects how well potential buyers know your brand. If the company is renowned, then there are no problems with attracting and retaining customers and having good sales. Whereas unfamiliar to public brands will have troubles building a customer base. In the modern world, it is not enough to create a certain product that can even be superior to competitors in technical or operational terms, it is still necessary to achieve brand recognition and acceptance by potential customers. So, there is no doubt that it is significant for any business to work on its recognition using various strategies and tools. Above you can see some tips on how to improve your brand awareness.