Franchising

I just read the book – Fast Food Nation. On the face of it, it looks like another alarmist book outlining how fast food has ruined a civilization. But there is something more than fast food that I think the author was trying to write against. It was the concept of Franchising. Franchising is an awesome business concept. It reduces cost, improves efficiency, is a perfect solution to brand consistency, and has been a roaring success all over the world. But I think the time has come for all the giant retail outlets of the world to do a rethink on their strategy. Franchising homogenizes customer experience and that has been its strength. People instantly feel comfortable in a McDonalds because its familiar. That was fine as long as McDonalds was in America. Now they are on a major expansion spree all over the world. Therefore it is vital to model each unit along a theme unique to the location of the outlet. Better still, let’s take the examples of Coffee Day and Barista.In some ways pioneers in the franchising model of experiential marketing. All their outlets are boringly similar to each other all over the country. A Barista near Delhi University seems frightfully similar to the one in Chennai.And the two cities could not be more different in their cultures. Each of these outlets should reflect the culture of the city, the architecture should be symbolic of the kind of architecture in that town, and information about the history of the place and its customs should be prominently displayed.In fact some of these outlets at the central parts of the district or near airports/railway stations and places where the floating population come should definitely be given a local makeover. Otherwise, ten years down the line we will all be looking at eerily homogenized cities of a nation that once prided itself on its diversity. America has done that to itself already. Lets not follow suit.