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Every Friday lunch we used to have a big crock pot on the bar, about the size of a miniature Jacuzzi washtub, in which we slow cooked big old lima beans with onions, bacon, smoked hocks and lots of salt and pepper. It was our lunch special. There were plastic bowls and forks and spoons. You helped your self, along with a big piece of cornbread, ate that with a few cold ones to wash it down, and left with thermonuclear gas potential for the rest of the day. About six months later, folks started asking us to vary the Friday special. We took it under advisement and decided, the hell with them. This is our bar and they can eat the beans we serve 'em or go hungry.
Bye and bye we noticed that the bean crock was still rather full at the end of lunch time. There was a message. What could we do? We could always call a lawyer and ask him to make these folks eat some more of them beans. That sounds like a "last resort" option, doesn't it? Whenever you call a lawyer to solve a business relationship problem, you know you are at "last resort" option. That's because a lawyer is a quantitative response to a qualitative issue. If you could find a lawyer capable of qualitative contributions instead of "sue the bastards" (totally quantitative), that might be great. But, since you almost never can find such a lawyer, maybe you could think of varying the Friday lunch special so people might be hungrier for what you are offering. What's that got to do with franchising? Hey! Hey! Let's kick this up a notch!
Many Franchise organizations have been very successful, and their franchises were perceived as valuable and worthy of substantial investment, until demand attracted competitors to the point of pernicious brand proliferation, price competition and the products being sold through more and more non exclusive channels of trade. Seasonal food gift baskets used to be sold by franchisees in malls. Now they are in supermarkets and discount stores. You can all think of several categories of products that have had that experience.
If a franchisee has his investment in a single product line concept, and that concept loses its exclusive appeal, and he has nothing else to sell, isn't he going to panic? No lawyer and no contract can prevent that panic. No lawyer and no contract can preserve by force a business relationship which is losing its market vitality. They just ain't gonna eat no mo of them beans. See the parallel here?
Well, what are you gonna do if you can't make 'em eat them lima beans? First you could try to think multidimensional before it comes to that. There are easily findable folks with new concepts, just dying to team with you to develop something really rewarding. You have the infrastructure in place already, just dying to have something fresh to put into your system. So what if it isn't what you are used to? And you don't have to worry that some new boy is going to come along and become more important in the company than you are. Hell, if you don't put something other than lima beans on the counter, you aren't going to be that important anymore anyway, right?
The internet has facilitated diversification research. Market research has the potential to revitalize your franchise offering, to revitalize your relationships with your franchisee network, to revitalize expectations of realization on further investment in you. No one has to live out the nightmare of war with their franchisees anymore. It's cheaper than lawyers. It's better than lawyers in terms of the result. It's qualitative!
Copyright 1997 - 2010 || Richard A. Solomon
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 | Licensing, Technology Transfers, |