How Brands Can Create Awareness and A Following in an Untapped Territory

As a franchise system expands across the country into new markets and territories, it faces the challenge of continuously introducing the brand to new potential customers. While larger brands with national recognition can rely on their name to start, smaller brands must educate potential new customers on the brand and its value proposition.

Checkers* & Rally’s, the innovative drive-thru burger franchise, spans 29 states and Washington D.C. Since most Americans enjoy a good hamburger as well as great value in their fast food meals, the Checkers brand doesn’t have to spend time introducing a new product to market or explaining what it has to offer to customers.

To continue the brand’s aggressive growth, Checkers partnered with Buxton Analytics Platform in the spring of 2016 to integrate the platform’s insights into its development strategy. As the brand looks to new territories, it keeps customers top of mind when making strategic decisions.

“Everything starts with the customer at the end of the day. While we have many different buckets of target or typical customers, the analytics we now have access to help us educate the franchisee on their market ahead of time,” says Jennifer Durham, Vice President of Development with Checkers.

To build awareness in a new market, Durham explains, “Checkers works with the franchisee to make sure the location gets as much media coverage as possible. We want to be top of mind for people when they are hungry.” An established brand like Checkers can also rely on the fact that residents in the area may have already heard of the brand and will plan to try it once. The task is then delivering on that first experience.

For large brands hoping to make a splash in a new territory and sell units fast, opening one unit at a time slowly will make it difficult to create brand awareness. Checkers makes sure to support the individual franchisees but at the same time tries to develop structure for multi-unit buyers and keep planning for growth.

For an emerging brand, opening multiple units at the same time in a market might not be as realistic of a strategy. Fire and Rice founder Paul Schmidgall used grass roots efforts to find new owners in new territories.

While serving in the Air Force in Europe, Schmidgall fell in love with the concept of paella and didn’t see it anywhere in the states when he returned. He decided he wanted to provide the unique dish to the masses for an affordable price. Fire and Rice was born in 2011 as a cross between catering and a food truck business offering both services. After just two years of franchising, the company now has four locations with a few more in the works.

“When we first started franchising, we went through the traditional channels--franchise shows and portals--and for emerging brands, it can be difficult to see success there. Since our brand involves a food that is unfamiliar to many in the U.S., we didn’t get a lot of uptake,” explains Schmidgall.

Despite the setbacks from traditional channels, Schmidgall and Premier Franchise Solutions came up with the idea to do a Paella Road Show for Fire and Rice. They thought if he could show and educate people firsthand on what the brand is all about, they could create buzz and demand for the product and therefore help to pique the interest of potential franchisees, too.

Along with each road show city appearance, Fire and Rice built momentum for the events with a lot of brand awareness via social media so that there was plenty of interest before the truck even arrived.

“We started the road show in areas where we already had interest from potential franchisees so they wouldn’t have to come to us--we came to them! I could rely on their knowledge of the market once they were sold on the business,” said Schmidgall.

Whether your franchise relies heavily on analytics or chooses to pursue a more creative approach, choosing a strategy that fits for your brand and your customers will ultimately win. And that’s exactly what brands like Checkers & Rally’s and Fire and Rice—the end result was the perfect recipe for franchise development success.