Big Franchise idea hanging around your house

I have always been a traveler at Christmas time. I love the idea of avoiding the malls, lines, stress and slip out of town for 10 days to some place new and exotic with my family. It is simple, relaxing and the kids trade adventure over stuff by a big margin. One thing we do miss and apparently my neighbors miss from us is Christmas lights. I don’t do them, I really am not scrooge, I just never wanted to pay for something I really would not see and hated the idea of putting them up each year myself.

All the CEO interviews on the Whale are about big franchise ideas that I would use myself.

Imagine selling a product that is patented, it can only be sold by you in your area and everyone wants it.

As a franchisee you would have the comfort of knowing the franchisor is backed by a 100 employee company that has been around for a long time.

This is a perfect storm of opportunity.

Listen in as we talk with Jerry Handsaker the CEO of Innovative Lighting Inc. about his fantastic franchise concept. For more information jump www.channelbrite.com.

Listen to the audio here:

Build a monopoly the justice department will love.

Trust busting and monopoly breaking season is here. During the run-ups, everyone is sipping their own Kool Aide and too busy to notice things are getting dirty. Once the water drains out of the economic tub, it leaves a nasty ring the shareholders are only too quick to point out and politicians love to clean up. That may sound unfair to call politicians soap scum lickers. In the financial ecosystem they do serve their purpose, without bottom feeders things tend to stink even worse over time.

Google has a 70% market share of the online ad franchise; some might say that sounds like a monopoly. Google I am sure was on the sidelines smiling not too long ago when Microsoft got raked over the coals. When Microsoft got spanked for their monopolistic behavior during the last recession, it was not for their massive 90% market share of the client operating system market. That number has not come down since the monopoly settlement in 2001. What got the regulators and competitors upset was, Mr. Softy mandating Explorer as the only browser when you used Windows. Evidence of muscling suppliers and computer manufacturers to only load Explorer did not help their case.

The justice department is not against monopolies despite what their press agent may say. If they were, how can they explain allowing a merger of the only two satellite radio companies to form a new one with a 100% market share? Sirius buying XM was allowed today because they did not use their existing monopoly to create a lock in a new market. The justice department is against using one monopoly to launch another monopoly. That is the line in the sand Microsoft crossed.

Rockefeller has probably received more ink than anyone else for monopolistic moves. He was not just a monopolist, he was a blatant one. He believed that a monopoly was for the betterment of all mankind. He took the stance that a benevolent monopolist beat a self interested free market hands down. Without the competition, capital would not need to be wasted on pesky client acquisition costs like advertising and marketing. In a strange twist it sounds like that reasoning came right out of a Marxist playbook. Sometimes you can go so far to the right you show up on the left.

The government did not see the benevolence in Rockefeller’s argument. It was certainly not their intention but the trustbusters unquestionably made Rockefeller the world’s richest man and preserved his posterity’s piggy bank until the end of the world.

Chopping off the head of Rockefeller just mutated Standard Oil into an oil pumping hydra!

· Standard Oil of New Jersey became (Exxon).

· Standard Oil of New York (Mobil).

· Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco).

· Standard Oil of California (Chevron).

· Atlantic Refining (ARCO).

· Continental Oil (Conoco).

· Standard Oil of Ohio bought by (British Petroleum)

It was like the government plucked the biggest dandelion from the oil patch and gave it a big blow! Rockefeller’s equity was sprinkled all over the world. They did him a favor.

Wal-Mart seems to be the latest punching bag for the press. Believe it or not, this is déjà vu. The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., the grocery-store chain, stood astride the U.S. market in the 1920s and 1930s with a dominance that has likely never been duplicated. At its peak, A&P had five times the number of stores Wal-Mart has now (although much smaller ones), and at one point, it owned 80% of the supermarket business. Some of the anti-predatory pricing laws in use today were inspired by A&P's attempts to muscle its suppliers.

I assume Rockefeller was a sharper operator than the board of A&P. The chart will show you the staggering decline of stores over the past 100+ years.

Rise and decline in number of stores

Year	No. of Stores
1876	67
1915	1600
1925	13,961
1930	16,000
1955	10,000
1965	5,000
1970	4,000
1978	3,500
1980	2,000
1990	1,000
2000	600
2002	500
2007	456

Government intervention can be a blessing or a curse.

So what can we learn by all of this? I know you probably are thinking, “Harris, if I woke up and my assistant told me the justice department was on the phone that would be a great problem to have!” I think the main thing to remember is this. One man’s monopoly can be another man’s freebie. What could you offer your customers that means nothing to you but would go right at the heart of your competitor’s margin? Do you have something you could afford to give away that would make it impossible for your competitors to match because they have too much invested in charging for it?

Give me a buzz.

This past week I received a press release about our friends at Play-N-Trade. They had orchestrated a national Guitar Hero contest in 100 of their stores around the country. About 1,000 players competed and the winner received $2,000 dollars in store credit and the bragging rights that they are the best player in the country. It was the largest event ever staged for that type of contest but the real buzz did not cost them anything!

On the day of the contest, Chris Chike made the 2 hour drive to his nearest store to compete. He probably felt very confident that the $2,000 prize would be his before the sun went down that Saturday. Chris happened to be the Guinness World Records champ for Guitar Hero.

This is where PR genius is reveled or as the Chinese have a saying, “the sun even shines on a dog’s butt!” In simple terms, Play-N-Trade knew exactly what they were doing or they got a lucky break. Chris ended up beating his previous Guinness record at the contest! Free ink!!!!

Did the PR team orchestrate Chris showing up or was it a lucky break? It does not matter for us, we can all learn something from this and look like geniuses on our next PR gambit or promotion.

Get in the game.

You can wait forever trying to come up with some cool ideas. You will never win any hands you don’t play. Take a shot! I think the all time leading NHL scorer said it best. (That is hockey for you soccer fans).

“You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”

-Wayne Gretzky

Get creative.

As you plan your next event, think how you can create the most free buzz, not how much you need to spend. I loved the new logo rollout idea for KFC. Make the world’s largest logo in UFO crazy Area 51 and take photos of it from a plane, then tell everyone about it. The Colonel has a roll of cash that would choke Ronald McDonald, he did a very buzz worthy thing however. He thought small in terms of free buzz and not big ad buys. Free buzz is greatly undervalued today. It is the most credible, effective and powerful way to get your message across. Did I also mention that it is free?

“Advertising is a tax you pay for unremarkable thinking.”

-Robert Stephens

Get smart.

I remember Jim Carey saying celebrity awards shows are genius. Invite celebrities to come to the event and receive their award and make a statement. If they do not show up, make sure they appear ungrateful. Think of the check you would need to write to pay for the film talent that shows up for 4 hours at the next Academy Awards. Big check right? Award shows are genius, and so are you.

At your next event, grab a copy of the Guinness World Records and see if someone completed some task that might fit into your next event then give them a call and tell them what you are doing. What local celebrities might have an interest in participating in your promo in exchange for a healthy amount of exposure or PR for their charity or projects? Remember people love to compete and they love to be recognized. Reciprocal exposure for the participants is mother’s milk for a growing company short on cash and long on ideas. If you want another example of this powerful formula at work, read this:

http://franchisewhale.com/2007/10/art-of-great-licensing.html

Buzz on Whale Watchers!

Mickey slings some paint

I was in Home Depot with my little girl; she is 4 and very active. She is really into coloring, painting anything artsy. She goes right for the paint swatch samples every time. Tonight she came back with a handful of samples and they oddly had the sample color in the shape of Mickey ears on each one.

I asked my little girl, why did you pick that one? She did not say I like green, she said, “this is Mickey’s paint.” Squares are just too square for a four year old. If you want to sell anything to kids, print it on Mickey ears! I wondered, if the first movie Mickey showed up in, “Steam Boat Willie” had Donald Duck on the boat instead of a mouse, would we all recognize the image of a duck head instead of mouse ears for Disney? Donald has always played the understudy to that energetic mouse. Was it just a late, duck start or fate that made the mouse the icon for Disney? Anyway, back to Home Depot.

I turned the swatch over and it said, “Disney color by BEHR.” Next I went out to the Disney site and found an incredible selection of colors with catchy Disney names. What kid would not want Donald orange, Princess Bouquet pink or Tinker Bell green? Typically a licensing deal like this would be in the 6-8% range of gross sales for the Licensor (Disney) for BEHR to use the Disney name. They also brought Home Depot into the mix to have a retail exclusive with their 2,100 stores.

http://disney.go.com/disneyhome/disneypaints.html

I love this kind of deal, very smart licensing idea by Disney. Take something that old Walt would never even dream of getting into. Cut a deal where they use the name to create an entirely new use for the brand without you ever manufacturing a thing. Make the licensing deal in a category that drives additional brand loyalty as it is used. Once you go Princess Bouquet on the walls, you probably will go the sheets, lamps, toys…I am sure Home Depot also cut BEHR a good deal to keep it off the shelves of Lowes.

Those ears have some real power.

• What is the main thing people identify with your brand?
• What other cross over categories can your big idea jump to?
  
• Does your franchise have cross brand appeal locked up waiting to be licensed out?
  

Donald Trump licensing seems to take the position that all categories have a "Trump" player in any crowded field. He puts his name on a lot of average stuff and it does not seem to tarnish the upscale image of the Trump name. Maybe we tend to be a little too pious when it comes to the use of our brand names and we could learn a lot from the Donald, the man, not the duck.

Honey do these pants make my butt look big?

For years life was easy on the outside of the dressing room for a guy. Wait for her to come out with the new jeans on and then blurt out with enthusiasm, “Your butt looks real small in those pants honey!” If you could keep a straight face, you might be out in an hour. Today the four horsemen of the Full Butt Hall of Fame, J-Lo, Beyonce, Shikira, and Jessica Biel, have really made it tricky to pull off the right answer.

Last week I was watching the Big Idea on CNBC and Donnie was wound up about a company that had a very elegant solution to this very problem. The test was my wife; she gave it two very big thumbs up!

$25 bucks, no surgery, no exercise, great butt.

Now don’t get too crazy guys sending a pair of Booty Pop Panties unannounced to your wife or girlfriend, it could backfire. You might be slumming the sofa at the dressing room again. Just send her a web link to bootypoppanties.com and tell her, “check out the before and after of this woman’s butt, you would never need anything like this.” Watch her reaction once she visits the site.

Consider this your own private focus group. You can learn a lot from this little experiment. I personally think this is a very big idea.

• Great name

• Registered trademarks

• Solid management

• Simple solution

• Growing market

• Inexpensive and fun.

This was a fun interview. Listen in as Susan Bloomstone, one of the Partners of Booty Pop Panties takes you from Big Idea to your wife’s behind in 9 minutes.

What does your logo say?

A powerful logo can really have a magical effect on a business. It might be the most important and overlooked piece in the brand building puzzle for a start up because that is really all you have in the beginning. If you are thinking global with your big idea, the image component can be a real image make or breaker. With a strong image, your logo can be memorable regardless of the language.

Apple is a great example. It says what it is, without opening its mouth! Imagery translates into any language. It did not happen the first try however.

If it does not come out perfect, don’t get married to the concept because of cost or ego.

Apple has had three major revisions over the years to its logo. The first was the “Newton under a tree” bit. Yikes!



Designed partially by Steve Jobs, it gave us mortals comfort that God does not let one guy have a monopoly on all the talents. Steve stick with world domination of our eardrums, logo design is not your thing. Maybe the karmic flop of the Apple Newton PDA was a sign beyond the grave from Isaac he was ticked off with the new Newton-free logo. Put into context, look at the computer the logo was trying to sell.



That version was replaced by the rainbow Apple.




Then the monochrome.



Leaving Newton in the trash bin, the remaining two logos have very powerful branding punch. I personally like the rainbow version and find the new sleek logo a little cold.

The Colonel has been through several changes over the years himself. In 2006, they decided to bring the focus back to him. Are you old enough to remember the Colonel when he was sporting a cigar in their logo? Not sure if the idea of linking a wing with cancer or having the Colonel snub out in your mashed potatoes made them drop the stogies. He definitely knows how to get buzz for a new image.

-From the KFC’s PR page. November 14th 2006.

LOUISVILLE, KY - KFC Corporation (a division of YUM! Brands, Inc. NYSE:YUM) today became the world's first brand visible from outer space by unveiling a record-breaking 87,500 square feet, updated Colonel Sanders logo in the Area 51 desert. The event marks the official debut of a massive global re-image campaign that will contemporize 14,000-plus KFC restaurants in over 80 countries over the next few years.

I love this release! Space is always futuristic, it creates some free buzz by being so remarkable and I like the new Colonel. Look close. They gave him more of a Donald Trump comb over, lost the double chin and put an apron on him. No more walking around with a cane just waving. With the makeover he is back in the kitchen as the billionaire-southern -chicken-cook’in-genius!

I have found the recipe to a winning logo, you really only need three ingredients.

Get a fresh perspective:

Nike’s famous swoosh came out of the young mind of an intern hired by Phil Knight In 1971. The initial $35 concept went on to become the most recognized logo in sports and probably the top 10 worldwide.

Keep it simple:

Google

Make it remarkable:

NBC’s peacock is timeless. Coca Cola and Target are right to the point. Those “Franchise Whale people” have one that is hard to forget (Sorry). For your homework assignment, jump out to:

http://www.listphile.com/Fortune_500_Logos

Make a note of which Fortune 500 logos really jump out at you and why. Don’t lose your notes! Before you start designing, your notes represent billions of dollars of very smart people’s logo brainpower. It might save you some time and money when you decide to take over the world with one simple logo.

“Honey you smell like a Wendy’s jalapeno burger!”

I took that as a vote she liked the testosterone bouquet I was throwing her way. I just got back from the gym, so the acknowledgement was a sign I earned the right to eat one at least. My wife informed me that she did not intend it as a complement. It was her kind way of telling me I needed a shower, fast!

I have always heard that Las Vegas pumps in the right smell to keep you alert, happy and foolish. Not sure if it is an urban legend spun by losers at the craps tables or the truth. I do know this. Women are bloodhounds when it comes to nasal perception. I remember going to the movies with my wife when she caught a whiff of some 1988 mojo musk. She made me believe that time travel was actually possible! The detail behind the décor, sounds, fashion and cool hair styles was incredibly created by some strange emanation from a movie theater lobby. She even remembered, “Forever Young” by Alphaville was playing in the background. I have always thought that my wife had an extra nose DNA strand or two. I found out from my gym loving brethren, I am not alone. Hollywood seems to agree. It is always the woman featured as the CSI nose detective putting the aromatic clues together to hang her husband.

We are not marketing women hard enough through the nose! The reason women have so many choices in perfume versus men is not about more disposable income, they have finely tuned honkers. Like wearing the same dress to a party, they actually get miffed if another woman has her scent. I don’t think a guy could pick out his own cologne in a police lineup.

What about trademarking a scent for a retail franchise, car dealer or sports equipment? Yep, you can do it, but the key is specificity.

Until recently, the vast majority of countries only allowed the registration of marks that could be perceived visually. Today in the United States and the EU, marks could be the subject of protection providing they have a “distinctive character” regardless of the class you are registering the scent for. A good example a scent that won EU trademark protection was the smell of freshly cut grass. The smell was registered by a Dutch perfume company that uses it to give tennis balls their aroma. The key is that the product shape, sound, scent, color or other device must serve to identify a product as coming from a particular source.

It will take awhile for marketers to realize the nose can also be a protected infringement zone. With names, words, songs, colors getting snapped up, it is really tricky to make it through life without some trademark litigation if you want to create something in this world. I think scent is the last great bastion of marketing without the threat of trademark litigation around every corner.

Are you missing a memorable hook that can make a woman recall a 20 year memory with just one sniff? Why not create a nasal strategy to complement your audio and visual marketing? What should your business smell like? If the MGM lion roar and the Yahoo yodel are distinctive enough to trademark, I am sure you can come up with a smell that will be remarkable. Meanwhile, I will be trying to figure out how to get the smell of the ocean to waft your way each time you log onto the Whale! Surf the web by smell? Yikes!

Make money being a Guitar Hero!

CEO of Play-N-Trade Roger Lloyd talks marketing, growth and new initiatives with Franchise Whale. Roger shares valuable insights into what it takes to be a Play-N-Trade Franchisee and chats about the national Guitar Hero contest sponsored by Play-N-Trade.

I know I beat simplicity to death on some of our stories. You can never over simplify a web message in my opinion. As a company grows, their website tends to be like a very robust garden with a generous portion of weeds as well. It takes a lot of work to clean up the overgrowth. Roger’s team has made some big improvements in the simplicity department on their new website. Check out the changes at playntrade.com, they have pulled an acre of weeds out of their site. You will see what I mean.

Play Now.