Have you ever said to yourself “I sure wish I had bought into ‘XYZ’ brand when they first started, I would be rich by now!”?
What comes into your mind when you hear the words emerging brands? To emerge simply means “becoming apparent or prominent.” In the world of business, emerging means nothing more than getting recognized, gaining popularity, or trending. Branding is becoming an identifying mark that companies use to distinguish their product or services from others. This means being new and small. Emerging brands have gained recognition by having value and an advantage over their competitors with the potential of becoming a strong and stable brand.
What is considered an emerging brand?
Does an emerging brand need an emerging market? Not really, what it needs is an innovative service or product and an opportunity to market. Take a look at the television when it came out. Intended for entertainment and it did entertain, however, TV networks saw the potential to earn more through advertisement. Soon, networks became saturated with commercials. Cable providers emerged offering services of channels dedicated to actual contents such as series, movies, news which basically cater to what people wanted and needed. Were television and network an emerging market? No, rather changed and caters to viewer’s needs. Nowadays, cable TV is staring at the eye of extinction with innovations of smart TV. All you need is an internet connection and you can have the freedom of selecting your preferred shows, series, video content through a smart TV. Yes, no more waiting for the airing schedule. This time it is an innovation, nonetheless, with the right marketing and advertising, service or product will gain massive recognition making it sell like hotcakes, but what else does it need to be a successful emerging brand?
Businesses need to look for new developments that will make new opportunities to sell. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic had caused drastic changes and shifts in demands across business industries. Food industry profit shifted from dine-in to take-out and deliveries. Consumers had increased their spending through online shopping.
Becoming popular in a short amount of time, in other words, trending. It would be pointless to reach the quota of 100,000 sales in 10 years’ time. If the brand can gain popularity in a short amount of time, it has a better chance to sell more, leading to a quicker return of investment, and better customer retention resulting in a strong and stable franchise.
Some people might believe that an established franchise with brand recognition is a less risky investment and better suited for success. However, this doesn’t always hold. Consider the U.S. electronics company, RadioShack, which had 4,000 company-owned and franchise units in 2014 and now has only 400. RadioShack failed to maintain relevance as technology changed and companies like Amazon.com continue to be more popular.
Conversely, emerging franchises are catching business owners’ attention for their growth potential, investment value, and franchisee satisfaction. These growing franchise brands may not be a household name (yet), but they have many advantages and business opportunities for entrepreneurs to carve a path of success.
But the reality is, you don’t have to invest in a big franchise company to be successful as a franchise owner. In fact, most franchises available in the United States today are companies with under 100 locations (in many cases, as few as 10, 15, or 20 sites). Over 300 new concepts hit the market each year, and 82% of franchise brands within the market have less than 100 units.
You’ll be surprised at just how many brands you can franchise. In the 90’s the noticeable ones are from the food industry such as McDonald’s, KFC, Dunkin’ to name a few. Nowadays, the changes and shifts in the market allowed the emergence of new brands from different industries like cleaning, automotive, senior care, education, and many more. Take a look at some of them for 2021. Mr. Handyman’s service for home improvement and maintenance. The business started in 2000 and started franchising the same year. Currently has almost 300 stores in the US.
Mr. Appliance started in 1996 and soon began franchising that lead to the growth of more than 300 stores across the US. Mathnasium Learning Centers cater to children’s learning and mastery of math. Mathnasium was founded in 2002 and started franchising the following year, and now has over a thousand franchise units in the US. Visiting Angels which provides senior home care Angels now have 640 units across US/Canada since the start in 1992.
Key things to look for when choosing one?
How mainstream is it? Word of mouth is a strong strategy for marketing. It is closely associated with popularity. Have you seen a long queue for a tea or coffee shop? It makes you wonder and leads to two things, either popularity or really good product and in some cases both. Now that almost everyone has access to social media and can post instantly, a brand can easily have all kind of exposure that leads to consumers’ curiosity and soon generates more sales.
How accessible is it to customers? After gaining exposure and popularity, consumers would want the ease of purchasing the product or service. I remember a decade and a half ago; every restaurant would have a fleet of motorcycles or cars to deliver the food. Ordering is limited by calling the restaurant itself. The emergence of Uber and the likes allows restaurants to cater to more customers since they have alternative options to place the order, either through a phone call, restaurant website, and now the application of delivery partners. They can generate more income through partners’ promotions and additional options to pay not just cash but through credit systems. An emerging brand needs to utilize options for customer accessibility, establish tie-ups that will steadily generate exposure, promotion, and income.
How long can it retain the hype? I mentioned how important a brand is to quickly generate popularity as it will create hype. Yes, after the peak this will subside but how soon and how low? Things differ for every business but what is important is taking action and acknowledging customer feedback and implementation of such. Customers that can see and feel they are valued are more likely to return on a regular basis. Taking action to keep high retention will minimize the dive after the hype translating to better income.
How good is the image of the brand? Gaining popularity for a brand is one thing, the market and consumer dictate what kind of image would stick with the brand, this is good. However, would it be better if the company itself would dictate what kind of image customers should have towards their branding? A business that has set a brand and is able to control the image that stayed with customers is more likely a solid investment as it tells us how close they are to their goal, operation, production, customer care, and relations all add up to a better investment being able to maintain what they have gained as an emerging brand.
Ultimately, with the guidance of a franchise consultant, purchasing an established or emerging brand is a great way of securing your future wealth. Franchisors have already laid out the concept and investors only need to focus on operating and securing the location and profit.