Why brand consistency is crucial for your franchise
Franchise marketing thrives on brand consistency. Customers should experience the same look and feel in every location, whether they walk into a store in Groningen or Antwerp. Yet, this is often where things go wrong: an individual branch may create its own flyers, social media posts, and print materials. So how do you ensure that every piece of communication reflects one unified corporate identity?
Online design tools like Canva make it tempting for franchisees to create their own marketing materials. While that might seem convenient, it carries significant risks: brand colours can be altered, the wrong fonts may be used, and logos may be misplaced. Promotions might even stray from the official brand guidelines, leading to off-brand messaging and less effective campaigns. Without centralised control over marketing management, costs can spiral due to reprints and corrections, while the marketing team loses valuable time to ad-hoc adjustments.
Brand consistency for franchises through centralised management
The most effective way to guarantee brand consistency in your franchise is by centralising your marketing management. With a single platform, your head office can manage all marketing materials, brand guidelines, and user permissions. This ensures maximum control over quality and brand identity, while still allowing franchise locations to adapt materials for their local market.
With such a franchise marketing platform, you can easily set up branded templates for all types of communication — from flyers and posters to social media posts — with locked brand elements like colours, fonts, and logos. Franchisees can quickly adapt promotions to their local needs without compromising the corporate identity. You can also link approved suppliers and predefined print specifications, such as the correct paper type or format, helping you avoid errors, reduce revision rounds, and keep every output perfectly on-brand.
Successful real-world examples
Alcon – optical industry
Alcon is a global company dedicated to improving eye health. The company was looking for a company-wide ordering platform for marketing materials used by the pharmacies and opticians that sell its products. Their new system offers a clear structure, is highly user-friendly, and contains all communication assets — from posters and brochures to shopping bags. In addition, inventory management is integrated, allowing users to instantly see what is available and place orders right away. The platform enables Alcon to track orders, analyse data, and continuously optimise the ordering process.
“It is a fantastic platform for our resellers to order marketing materials. It works efficiently and quickly, without any barriers for the users. The platform provides valuable analytics. The flexibility is enormous.”
Philippe Moons, Digital Marketing Manager at Alcon
GGZ Friesland – healthcare sector
GGZ Friesland, active in mental healthcare, was struggling with a large variety of communication materials spread across different locations. This led to inconsistency, confusion, and inefficiency. By implementing a brand portal, the organisation now has a centralised system for managing all marketing materials, while employees at local branches can still access and adapt the content.
Thanks to simple workflows for creating and approving materials, the branding remains consistent across all channels.
“It’s great to manage everything from one platform. It saves us a lot of time and effort. The templates are perfect for staff to make their own adjustments without losing the brand style. We regularly update the portal with new flyers or revised brochures.”
Communications team, GGZ Friesland
Benefits of centralised brand management
How a marketing platform can boost your franchise marketing!
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Frequently asked questions about franchise marketing
How do successful franchise brands maintain brand consistency across all locations?
By managing marketing materials, brand guidelines, and suppliers from a centralized franchise marketing platform, you ensure a consistent brand experience everywhere.
What is the best software for franchise marketing management?
First, determine whether you need a design tool, DAM system, or ordering portal. Prindustry offers all of these in one integrated ecosystem. The Brand Portal allows you to manage, edit, and order both online and offline marketing materials. It connects systems, users, products, and print partners into one centralized platform – creating a smart, scalable solution for your franchise marketing.
How do I manage brand guidelines in my franchise organization?
Use a marketing platform that locks in brand elements like colors, fonts, and logos within templates. This ensures every location works within the same brand framework.
How much creative freedom do franchisees have?
They can localize campaigns and materials within predefined branded templates, where only certain variables – such as text or images – can be changed. This prevents brand deviations and ensures a consistent look and feel across all locations.
How can I reduce marketing costs in my franchise?
By managing all marketing materials and brand guidelines in one place, you avoid costly corrections, duplicate orders, and unnecessary reprints. Locations work with pre-approved templates and preferred suppliers, enabling faster, error-free campaign rollouts. A centralized platform also gives you full insight into budgets and spending, so you can optimize ROI while maintaining brand consistency.
