A franchise brand is tested by its fifth location, not its first.
Franchisees buy a ready-made system that works, so what they need is standards clear enough to follow on their own. Sinh Vũ writes the brand down as a standards set, a model storefront and ready-made print templates.
Three things: standards that say plainly what is mandatory and what is optional, a model storefront with specifications, and a ready-made print set where franchisees only change the text. With all three in place, the fifth location looks like the first.
A mandatory part, a part chosen from a list and a free part, so franchisees know at once what they may change.
Dimensions, materials, color codes and sign positions, enough for a contractor in another province to get it right.
Menus, standees, flyers and posts built in advance, so franchisees only change the location's details.
All of them are franchises, but what has to stay consistent differs from one kind to the next.
Their customersCustomers stop by quickly and buy out of habit, and often meet the brand only through a photo on a food delivery app.
Brand challengeThe cup, the logo and the presentation look the same at every location, even when the customer sees only a small photo on an app.
Their customersCustomers sit down to eat, usually in a group or with family, and remember a restaurant by its dishes and atmosphere.
Brand challengeKeep the atmosphere, menu and service consistent across locations, even though every owner manages in their own way.
Their customersCustomers come in for essentials or specialist goods and trust the familiarity of the brand.
Brand challengeLay out goods, price signs and the counter to one standard, so customers at any location find an item as they would at the one they know.
These are the places where a franchise system thins out even when the business model is good.
A franchisee asks whether the menu or the decor can be changed and gets a different answer every time.
Split the standards into mandatory, chosen from a list and free, with examples for each.
Start from this problemPeople considering a franchise look at many profiles at once; one that only shows off a beautiful store is hard to believe.
A profile that shows the system: standards, the model storefront, the print set and how franchisees are guided.
Start from this problemSigns of different sizes, shades of color that drift, substituted materials, because the drawings had only a rendering.
A model storefront with a specification table for dimensions, materials and color codes, tried at one real location before being multiplied.
Start from this problemEach location prints its own menus and posts its own promotions from its own templates, and the brand thins out.
A library of ready-made templates and one central place to manage brand assets, so a new location takes what is ready instead of making its own.
Start from this problemAt the Return stage. When a regular from the first location visits another and finds it different, trust in the whole brand drops.
Touchpoints are the places where customers and franchisees see, touch or read about the brand. These five decide whether the system is consistent.
The document franchisees open whenever they need to do something.
What people considering a franchise read before they meet.
The image customers see at every location, so it needs clear specifications.
Every location uses the same template and doesn't remake it.
They follow customers out of the store and appear in the photos customers post.
Listed in the order to do them. A brand that already has a solid identity skips step one and starts at step two.
Only when the brand lacks a solid identity: standards can't be written on a loose base.
Standards in three layers: mandatory, chosen, free.
A model storefront and point-of-sale items, with a specification table.
A franchise profile that presents the system.
A library of print templates and how new locations draw on it.
Sinh Vũ has not published a franchise project. The two below are the closest because both build a shared template that many people can work from without drifting.
A packaged consumer goods portfolio with many lines, all going to shelf from one shared die-cut: Sinh Vũ built the logo system, identity and packaging…
Standards for each mark include a proportion grid, a safe zone, a minimum size and its variants, so the mark doesn't distort as it passes through many printers.
More than a dozen Tây Bắc specialties once stood scattered across the highland market. Sinh Vũ built the positioning, name and packaging for Quà vùng cao, bringing them under one rustic…
More than a dozen items come together in one template and one color range, and a new product line only needs filling in: a way to add products without drift.
The principles behind it
Standards for logo, color and type; standards for the storefront, signs, shelves and uniforms; and ready-made print templates. Divide them into a mandatory part, a chosen part and a free part.
That is for the franchisor to decide according to its own business model. Sinh Vũ helps write that decision into standards that are easy to understand, so franchisees know at once which parts they may change.
It should show a system that works: standards, the model storefront, the print set. People considering a franchise trust what they can see more than a promise.
You need a lean version. Written early, the fourth and fifth locations follow the template; written late, you have to fix the locations that opened with drift.
Give franchisees ready-made templates instead of a logo file, and assign one person to keep that library. Standards only work when someone keeps them up to date.
A few lines about how many locations you have, what kind of franchise it is and what is holding you back is enough. Sinh Vũ reads and replies within one working day.