Dream Global, Think Local

When you get into a Franchise you may think the world is at your feet with the Franchisor’s experience, leverage and even name. But what happens when you don’t consider the locals? Consider an Italian chain that came to Asia from Europe. One signature item was a Penne Arrabiata. In Asia, chili is eaten for breakfast and the European version was way too mild for local tastes but the franchisor was reluctant to tweak the recipe.

What do you do?

Franchise Growth through Localization

As a franchise brand coming to a new market, if your initial arrival is not met with excitement and lines out the door, you may already be in trouble. Even if you start well, you will most likely experience the drop in business, once you are no longer the new kid on the block or latest trendy and instagramable place in town.

Unfortunately, when you started, you didn’t think about localization. You see, in the growth phase of a franchise, many franchisors stick firm to the principle that you are signing on their concept, their food and their marketing, and as such, it’s not to be dabbled with. From my own experience, there are major pitfalls in this mentality for the franchisee. Restrictions with menu design, recipe tweaks or marketing concepts, will inevitably lead to flattening revenues or a slowdown in unit expansion or worse, BOTH. By negotiating early in your franchise endeavor “localization” rights of the franchise menu, or?at least a percentage of the menu, beverage list, and marketing, you will end up being more actively involved in your own business growth and feel more empowered to have a say in critical functions that ensure your success not to mention avoid potential snubbing by the locals.

How to Localize

When taking a franchise F&B concept off shore keep the following points in mind. By doing this you will put you and your franchisor ahead of the game when it comes to planning market entry and inevitable business drop offs.

• Get the Franchisor Culinary Creation Team a clear perspective of local flavor and taste profiles. Take them to local haunts, have your culinary team create their favorite recipes to try and have live taste tastings of the franchise menu with locals so all team members can hear the feedback.
• Sample every ingredient! Ingredients are not exactly the same worldwide. For example a fish sauce purchased in the U.S is not necessarily going to taste similar to one purchased in Thailand. Likewise one purchased in Thailand may not taste similar to one in Singapore, even if made by the same manufacturer. Just try an Asahi beer manufactured in Japan versus one manufactured in Canada versus Australia. They taste totally different!
• Get local images for marketing. There’s nothing worse than an American franchise in China advertising with pictures of an African American, a South American and a white person. If there are major marketing campaigns that the franchisor requires, demand that the images represent your target market
• Get control over you local SEO! If you’re a burger joint, you need to be sure you have a page about “the best burger in….” Be sure your franchisor has the correct SEO in place so that your business shows up in local searches. There’s nothing worse than googling “best casual Italian restaurant” and your business not showing up because it hasn’t been properly tagged.
• Even if you can’t get agreement on localization as part of your offering on roll out, having a plan pre-tested and approved will reduce headaches all around. Failing to plan is planning to fail

Franchisor vs Franchisee Perspectives

Even brands like McDonalds?? learned how important localization was to their continued growth. Localized items such as sambal burgers or green tea ice cream are becoming more and more important, from a volume perceptive and an awareness perspective. People may still be ordering a Big Mac?? but they came in because of the sign for chili shaker fries. While franchisors need to Dream Global for their founder, share holders or fund managers short term benefit, remember to think local for YOUR long-term success.