Is a franchisee allowed any input into how a franchisor markets and advertises its business?

Alan Wilkinson writes:

An experienced franchisor will know what works and what doesn’t work when marketing its business. It will have learned valuable lessons from its own business and from activities within the network. Therefore, the franchisor has a wealth of knowledge and experience on how best to market the opportunity.

This said, somewhere along the line a franchisee will have a great idea and put this to the franchisor. The franchisor should then investigate, trial and if successful launch this idea into the network for the benefit of all franchisees.

Sometimes, however, a franchisee will have an idea that has been tried before and did not work. With its prior experience, the franchisor avoids unnecessary expense by not repeating previous mistakes.

Some franchisees contribute to a national marketing levy, building up a marketing fund for the franchisor to use to promote the brand and generate business. Any good franchisor should welcome input from franchisees on ideas and recommendations on how to use this marketing budget.

Ultimately, however, it’s the franchisor’s decision on how and where to market its brand. As the custodian of the intellectual property and using the combined experiences of the network of franchisees, it’s very well placed to make these decisions for the benefit of the brand.

Alan Wilkinson is head of franchise development at The Franchising Centre and has been in franchising for over 24 years.