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Strong Brands Create Strong Business

24 Aug 2006

When you need your lawns mowed, who do you call? Looking for entertainment, where do you go? Hungry for a pizza, who do you visit?

If you answered GREEN ACRES lawn mowing service, VIDEO EZY home entertainment centres and DOMINOS pizzeria, you are not alone.  Many New Zealanders purchase the goods or services provided by these businesses.

What do these brands have in common? They are not the only products or services in their categories and they were not necessarily the forerunners of their product or service categories.  But what they do have in common is that these businesses have strong brands among consumers.   Another factor common among all three businesses is that they are franchise business. 

Franchising was built on the premise of branding and its ability to drive consumer demand.  A franchise business therefore needs a strong brand.  Not only because a strong brand will have top of mind awareness among consumers but also consumer loyalty and affinity. But strong brands do not exist by accident.  It takes a lot of hard work to create one and then, once created needs to be nurtured and treasured to survive in an ever-changing, increasingly demand business environment.

It is important that a brand identifies and embodies all that a business is.  Why?  Because it is the single most important feature of your business proposition.  The brand adds value to the franchise model and differentiates it from a mere business opportunity.   As a franchisee, what you are purchasing is essentially the rights to use the brand name.  You therefore want to align yourself with a brand that has the above attributes as this will enable you to build your business faster. 

So why is it that so many franchisors choose highly descriptive and almost unregistrable trade marks as their brands?

Recognising that the brand is central to a franchise business, you would think that such businesses would have some of the strongest brands around.  Wrong!  A common mistake franchise businesses (as well as other businesses) make is to choose a brand that tells the consumer something about the product or service they are offering.  Examples include QUIK CLEAN for home cleaning services.

Choosing descriptive brands may mean that is unregistrable as a trade mark.  As owning a registered trade mark provides many advantages over rights to a brand acquired merely through using it, this is a missed opportunity for a business to lay claim to one of its most valuable business assets.

Selection of a strong and distinctive brand is therefore vital.  Customers will choose a well-recognised strong brand for a product or service over a less-known brand.  A strong creates a point of difference in the marketplace.  The reputation of a brand and the fact that it is widely known and recognised by customers is one of the reasons why a franchisee chooses to own a franchise business rather than set up a business and create and build a new brand of their own.

Franchisors that do not support the strong brand concept risk diluting their brand.  Those that do not protect their brands registered trade marks could be committing business suicide.  All brands connected with a franchise should be protected (if possible).  This may include the name and logo, specific product or service brands provided as part of the franchise system, the colours of the business get-up, packaging, product and packaging shapes to name a few.

The marketplace is cluttered with competing businesses and it can be hard to stand out.  Choosing a brand that has its own personality and imagery, different to competitors, will mean that you are more memorable.  The window of opportunity for many businesses is short and you need to be ‘the brand’ your customers’ think of when needing your product or service.  Make sure you make an impact by selecting a brand that creates for you a point of difference.  The power of your brand is what you are willing to make of it.

Corinne Blumsky
Partner, A J Park Wellington
corinne.blumsky@ajpark.com
DDI +64 4 498 3445