When marketing campaigns succeed, everyone benefits. Brand recognition increases and traffic to individual franchises increases, too. However, even the best thought-out marketing campaigns can fail. There are a few common mistakes that franchise systems can avoid making to make your franchise opportunities succeed.Using the wrong medium - If your customers are teenagers, they probably won’t read your ad if it’s placed in the business section of the newspaper.

Conveying the wrong message - Your pet food may delight dogs and cats, but if your message is that pets don’t have taste buds and might as well eat your pet food, you’re not creating demand.

Putting together the wrong offers - For example, if you’re representing a high-end brand, you don’t want to cheapen it by slashing prices to be in alignment with discount stores in your area. This will only confuse the customer.

A lack of trust - Many franchisees feel that the franchisor is out to turn a profit on advertising fees. However, this money funds the marketing department, which should hire the best in the business. Their strategy should be trusted by individual franchisees, since it’s usually based on hard data and has been focus tested thoroughly.

A lack of integration and coordination - If the franchisor takes out a national ad, franchisees would be wise to build on that message in their regional and local efforts.

Overpromising and underperforming - If the ad portrays the franchise as a clean, well-run, efficient operation that serves its customers well, and individual franchises are unwelcoming and serve inferior products, the reality won’t match the advertised promises, and customers won’t return.

In addition, franchisees should give a marketing campaign a chance. Ads must be repeated many times before the message sinks in. If you feel that your advertising money is being wasted on ads that are replayed over and over again, it isn’t. The message needs to be repeated to build brand awareness.

Overall, marketing campaigns work best when everyone is open to new ideas and can get enthusiastic about them. If a franchisee doesn’t promote new products, or doesn’t know anything about them and therefore can’t properly sell them to customers, the brand will weaken. However, if franchisees are willing to try something new and be well informed about the newest promotions and products, the customer will be satisfied on all levels.