Building a Modern Franchise Brand in 2026 - Test-and-Learn: Offers, Bundles, Pricing

Franchise brands regularly need to find new ways to attract customers, increase order values and generate more business during slower periods. New offers, bundles and pricing strategies can help, but frequent or poorly planned changes can also create confusion for customers and franchisees.

Brands need a way to test ideas, measure whether they are producing meaningful results and determine which ones are worth expanding across the franchise system. Here are several ways they can do so.

Start With Products Customers Already Want

A new promotion does not always require a new product or a major change in pricing. Brands can start with products or services that already perform well and use promotions to encourage customers to purchase more often or consider inventory that has additional capacity.

For Sal Longo, founder of Busy Bee Jumpers, more than 25 years in business has given the inflatable rental company a clear understanding of its core products and customer behavior. That foundation allows the brand to experiment without moving too far away from what customers already know.

“We like to anchor our core products to offers that will increase frequency with underutilized inventory,” Longo said.

That gives the company a familiar starting point. Rather than asking customers to understand an entirely new proposition, the promotion builds around products and policies they already associate with the brand.

Brands should first understand which products generate the most demand, which have unused capacity and what customers typically spend. That information can help determine where a promotion has the greatest opportunity to change purchasing behavior.

Test Small Changes Before Making Bigger Ones

Testing does not have to mean rolling out a new offer across an entire franchise system. Smaller experiments can give brands useful information before they commit more marketing dollars or introduce an idea to additional locations.

“We run A/B tests on email and digital ads to see what specific messaging is generating a stronger click-through rate and higher conversions,” Longo said. “By making minor adjustments to some ads, we are able to see a big increase in conversion value.”

Brands can test one variable at a time, such as the wording of an offer, the creative or the way a bundle is presented. Keeping the changes limited also makes it easier to understand what may have affected the results.

Use Local Markets to Test Demand

Franchise systems can use individual markets as testing grounds before deciding whether an idea makes sense on a larger scale. This can give brands a clearer picture of how customers respond while limiting the scope of the initial test.

“We will set up geofencing in areas where rental volume is low,” Longo said. “This allows us to see trends in underserved markets in which we offer a specific offer that is capped with an end date.”

This type of localized testing can help a brand learn whether an offer creates additional demand without introducing it everywhere immediately. It can also show whether a promotion works differently by geography or existing customer volume.

Time limits are useful as well. Giving a test a defined beginning and end creates a clearer evaluation period and prevents a temporary promotion from becoming something customers automatically expect.

Look Beyond Clicks

Clicks and conversions can show whether customers are responding to an advertisement, but brands should also consider what happens after the transaction. A successful offer should contribute to a larger business goal.

Depending on the test, that could mean generating incremental sales, increasing order value, improving utilization or attracting customers who return after the promotion ends. Longo said Busy Bee's experience gives the company benchmarks it can use when evaluating new ideas.

“Being in business for over 25 years, we know our core products and have a strong understanding of the lifetime value of a client as well as average order value,” he said.

Those measurements provide context that a conversion rate alone cannot. A promotion that produces many transactions may be less valuable if customers spend less than usual or only buy when a discount is available.

Brands should establish what they want an offer to accomplish before launching it. That makes it easier to determine which metrics matter and whether the test delivered the intended result.

Protect the Core Brand

Franchise brands also have to balance experimentation with consistency. Customers should still recognize the same business even when a market tests a different promotion or message.

Busy Bee does that by keeping its core products and customer policies at the center of its marketing. One example is the company's free-cancellation policy, which remains part of its customer proposition even as advertising and offers change.

“I believe leaning into core policies but making minor adjustments based on market conditions keeps our brand current and also top of mind with clients when they need our services,” Longo said.

The same principle can apply across a franchise system. The offer may change based on the market, but the brand's positioning, customer experience and core value proposition should remain recognizable.

Testing can then refine the business rather than continually reinvent it. Brands can use customer data, local results and controlled experiments to identify ideas worth expanding while dropping those that fail to produce the desired result.

The strongest tests answer a specific question. When brands know what they are trying to learn, keep the variables manageable and measure results against actual business goals, new offers and pricing strategies can provide useful information without sacrificing the consistency that makes a franchise brand recognizable.

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