Interesting article in Blue Mau Mau about KFC Franchisees filing a lawsuit to maintain marketing control. 


In a nutshell, the story goes:  KFC introduced a new menu item, Kentucky Grilled Chicken, and part of that introduction was to offer a free in-store sample.  They were crafty enough to get that offer mentioned on the Oprah Winfrey show, which caused an overload of requests at the store level.  The franchisees were unhappy and the customers who were turned away were also unhappy.  Lawsuits abounded.

I'll avoid for now the legal side of this issue and instead talk a bit about something that we discuss frequently here at Balihoo:  franchisee empathy.  From our perspective, a franchisor that feel franchise empathy takes the time and the challenge to truly understand the business from the local operators perspective.  They understand the challenges to the business at the local level and strive to improve the day-to-day performance of their franchise locations. 

In our experience, when this franchisee empathy exists in a franchise system, the net result is a consolidated, clear effort from national to local.  In terms of franchise marketing, this means that messaging and tactics are supported from national to local media and marketing efforts.  When local store marketing activities support the national brand message, everyone wins (including, by the way, the customer). 

A franchisor that discounts franchisee engagement or buy-in is missing a huge opportunity - the ability to align local marketing strategy with their national efforts.  When this alignment exists, the franchise brand realizes significantly additional value as the franchisees align their local media buying and planning efforts with that of the nation brand - dramatically amplifying any message.  Isn't this what we should all strive for?