Branded or Generic - does it really matter?
Branded or Generic - does it really matter?
When you buy into a franchise, you're buying into a brand and many franchisees rely heavily on that brand for the custom that walks through the door or calls on the phone. Unlike other small business owners, the franchisee need do nothing to build the brand it's all been done for you. Sure you pay for that in your upfront costs and part of your marketing levy goes towards the continuing promotion of that brand. But what about all the peripherals and collateral that you need to purchase for every day trading do they really need to be branded too?
Let's look at coffee cups for instance. You can probably save several cents per unit by buying the plain, un-branded, Styrofoam or cardboard coffee cups and that all adds up. And surely people buy coffee because of the way it tastes, not the way it looks. And let's face it, the cups just get thrown away once the coffee's drunk anyway. So does it really matter if you're using generic cups or branded ones? Does anyone really notice the difference?
Well, let me ask you this: do you think that a customer only comes to your particular franchise location? If they like your brand of coffee, isn't it possible that when they're in another suburb or another city, that they might gravitate to the same franchise because of the experience they've had with you? Of course it is and that's one of the great things about owning a franchise customers recognise your brand wherever they travel. But let's imagine that you use generic coffee cups and that the new location they visit uses branded coffee cups. What message do you think your franchise is sending the customer?
We're very perceptive creatures, you see. So a customer that notices that you don't give them a branded cup is likely to make one or more of the following assumptions:
You're cutting corners
You're doing it cheap
You have no pride in your business or your brand
You don't value your customers
You don't value your relationship with the franchisor
Maybe the franchise isn't as good as they thought it was
Maybe you don't like being part of the franchise
Perhaps these are not so much assumptions as they are subconscious perceptions. Many of these possible scenarios will run through a customer's mind without them really being consciously aware of it but they're there all the same. And perceptions are reality; they're reality filtered through our beliefs and experiences.
This is more than being about conformity. It's more than being about advertising. This is to do with the subtle subconscious messages you're sending your customers messages that will affect customer behaviour. What happens in the customer's mind is a "sense" of incongruity; a miniscule lack of integrity in the way you portray your business. One they perhaps can't immediately put their finger on, but it will nag at them just the same.
We all filter information this way; we all form perceptions about things we witness. Consider for a minute when you see a school kid in uniform behaving badly in a public place. What is your first perception? Do you form an opinion about the parents of that child, or are you more likely to frown at the school's obvious lack of discipline? It's the school right? After all, that's what you notice first, because the kid is wearing the school's brand right in front of you. And you probably make the assumption that clearly the kid has no respect for their school, so therefore they're unlikely to have respect for other things as well.
So next time you do the ordering for your franchise, think twice about ordering the generic product. It sends more messages than you realise. What message you want to send your customers about your product, your business and yourself?
Dawn Russell 2010
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