Multi-Unit Franchising Conference 2011: Day 2 Recap

As mentioned in our Day 1 Recap, this is my first Multi-Unit Franchising Conference, and I am evaluating whether or not this conference is a worthwhile investment. I hope this series of recaps might help other franchisees determine if the MUF might be a good investment for them. So, let’s get started…

General Session

The session began with a welcome from the Conference Chairman, Charles Smithgall, who operates 85 Aaron’s franchises in 9 states. I mention Charles only because he is incredibly funny, obviously accomplished and has been an excellent leader for the conference.

Industry Trends: Who’s on the Fast Track with Darrell Johnson. President of FRANdata.This talk covered the rising cost of capital, U.S. demographic shifts, sector trends, and unit performance. He noted how there is an excess supply of housing, regardless of price, which will likely take 3-4 more years to absorb. Dry topics by their nature, but important and informative. I had the pleasure of speaking with Darrell in the exhibit hall, and the guy really knows his stuff.

• Getting Ready for General Session: Day 2

  Key Takeaway: Franchising is about uniformity of product/service, but we live in an age where mass customization is becoming the default expectation of consumers. Franchisors will need to negotiate this conflict in the years to come to thrive.

Where Do We Go From Here? Why Innovators Will Rule in the Post-Recession Economy – And How You Can Join them! with Jim Carroll, Futurist. Carroll was an excellent speaker. He was very enthusiastic, and it was obvious that he loves talking about his subject matter.  He covered a wide range of trends and topics, including the current and coming explosion in mobile access, the speed at which consumers move , and the huge generational displacement to come from the text message generation.

• Key Takeaway: The innovators who are willing to make bold changes will win the future.

MVP Franchisee Awards. Awards were given to a number of franchisees from different brands. The purpose of the awards is to recognize successful franchisees, team players, and brand ambassadors.

Behind the Blind Side: A Franchisee Success Story with Sean Tuohy, Entrepreneur. Tuohy is the father from the movie The Blind Side, the broadcast voice of the Memphis Grizzlies, and more relevantly, the owner of over 70 franchised businesses including Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC. Tuohy’s talk was about making a difference. He told a number of interesting anecdotes about the casting and making of the movie. One interesting comment: the family believes the movie as “98% accurate,” which is pretty amazing by Hollywood standards.

• Key Takeaway: Making a difference in the life of one person is enough.

Concurrent Session 1

We attended Financial Dynamics and Valuation Trends for the Franchise Industry with Dean Zuccarello (Cypress Group), Ron Millard (Redstone Capital Partners), Seth Fink (CorePointe Capital Finance), Rick Thompson, GE Capital Franchise Group), Jay Goldstein (Regions Bank), and Chris Addison (Bank of America Restaurant Group). If you enjoy discussing CAPEX rates, basis points above LIBOR, and LTV guidelines, then this discussion was for you. The panel was very knowledgeable and gave great information. That being said, you simply can’t make this topic exciting, and my wife still hasn’t spoken to me since I tricked her into going with me.

• Key Takeaway: The old banker’s adage “no one ever got fired for saying no” is still the dominant outlook in lending right now. Franchisees need to give bankers reasons to feel comfortable saying yes.

Concurrent Track Sessions

Attendees were able to choose between four tracks. My wife and I split up and covered two tracks: The Human Resources Track and the Social Media and Consumer Marketing Track. For the record, my wife reported that the Human Resources Track was very good. Below is detail on the Social Media and Consumer Marketing Track that I attended.

Marketing and Consumer Engagement with Jason Falls, Social Media Expert and Founder of the web site Social Media Explorer. Jason gave a great presentation about social media and what it means to franchise networks. Jason did an excellent job tailoring his talk to the the unique attributes of the franchising industry. But more than that, Jason gets it! He understands that brick and mortar businesses and most large companies want to know one thing about their social media campaigns: “Did I sell more stuff?” If you need a social media keynote speaker for your organization (and heaven knows most us in brick and mortar still do), Jason is your man!

Ironically, Jason did my job for me and put up three “Key Takeaways” for his last slide. I decided to go with the first one:

• Key Takeaway: The consumer is not a customer of your brand but of the location down the street, meaning the consumer does not patronize Wendy’s as much as it patronizes the Wendy’s location by their house. As a franchisee, I can attest to how true this is.

Taking Social Local – Applebee’s Case Study  with Erica McClenny (Expion) and Elizabeth McGee (Applebee’s). This case study evaluated Applebee’s adoption of social media using Expion’s awesome social media software. It was a great session! One really interesting part of the talk came when the panel discussed non-technical aspects of the program that were used to drive engagement, such as enlisting employees as social media ambassadors. As a B&M guy, I really appreciated Applebee’s intelligent approach. They tested the entire program, using a specific sample of stores to benchmark those adopting social media against the status quo. In the end, Applebee’s and Expion sighted that mythical creature many in social media talk about but few have ever seen: tangible, provable ROI! Applebee’s had firm numbers showing the difference between the Facebook stores and the non-Facebook stores after 7 different events.

• Key Takeaway: Social media worked and, due to the Expion software, worked in a way that produced tangible financial results while maintaining brand integrity and compliance .

Best ROI Strategies for Local Marketing with Lorne Fisher (Fish Consulting) and Jeff Rigsby (Bojangles in Western North Carolina). I was late to this session and might have missed some key points. What I did see focused very heavily on the in-depth and regular grass roots marketing that Bojangles of WNC is doing in its communities. The panel discussed sponsorships, nonprofit events, and other guerilla marketing techniques.

• Key Takeaway: When doing a media buy, make mandatory media participation in a company-sponsored charitable event part of the buy deal.

Well, it was another excellent day at the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference! Tomorrow… Day 3 with John Dijulius.

Next: Day 1 Recap, Day 3 Recap