EXPERTADVICE
EXPERT ADVICE CLINIC Our expert panel offers advice on a range of issues for franchisors
SALLY ANNE BUTTERS Sally Anne Butters is director of media at Coconut Creatives, a leading franchise recruitment marketing company. She has worked in the franchise industry for over 10 years and offers skills workshops throughout the year that cover many franchisee recruitment marketing activities.
I’m taking my brand to a franchise exhibition for the fi rst time – any tips for getting the most from it?
In order to make an exhibition really successful, franchisors need to make the most of the opportunities involved! You need to have a master plan to give you a return on investment. Get involved with pre-show activity – share social media updates and link to the show
organisers’ social media accounts, eshot your prospect database with an invite mentioning your stand number and post news items with your online media listings. Never waste a minute during the show – book speaking slots and educate (rather than sell), offer a useful guide in exchange for contact details, have franchisees on your stand to help build trust, make sure your stand graphics clearly communicate what your franchise offers. And, most importantly, exhibitions are tiring for everyone so schedule regular breaks to keep your team fresh every second that they spend on your stand. Don’t forget to follow up – make
sure you have discovery days or meeting slots planned before the event so that you can book people on to them at the show and follow up with confi rmation calls after the show. Add your new contacts into your database and keep them warm with a monthly e-newsletter.
I’ve spent a lot of time coming up with my brand and logo. How do I keep them protected from others using it?
Your logo and brand are essentially trademarks – signs that distinguish your goods and services from those of your competitors. In most cases, you will be giving your franchisees permission to use your brand and logo as part of franchise operations.
MATTHEW HOLMAN Matthew Holman is a solicitor in EMW’s commercial contracts team. He specialises in advising businesses on the development, protection and exploitation of their intellectual property rights, predominantly in the context of brands, franchising and IT. He acts for all sizes of businesses and has helped clients build successful regional, national and international franchise networks.
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The key is to ensure that you don’t give the franchisee more rights than they strictly need to operate the franchise, nor for longer than they need them. Ideally, the rights granted to the franchisee will be encompassed in a separate trademark licence between you and each franchisee, but it is not unusual for the rights to be covered in the franchise agreement and franchise manual. Strategically, consideration should be given
to registering the logo and brand as a trade- mark. A registered trademark gives you the exclusive right to use your logo and brand in
respect of the goods and services for which it is registered. If your logo and brand are distinctive for your goods and services and differentiate those goods and services from someone else’s, then you can probably register them as a trademark via the UK Intellectual Property Offi ce. A word of warning – trademarks are
registrable in what are known as ‘classes’, depending on the goods and services of which the mark is used. If registered in the wrong class, you lose the protection that a registered mark gives you. It is, therefore, crucial to get the classes right in the application. Whilst other legal avenues are open to you if someone uses your brand and logo without your permission, a registered trademark makes it far easier for you to stop someone from using them without your permission.
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