Franchise Fame: How to Scale, Market & Lead a Growing Brand | Dani Peleva

Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: right, everyone. We're back for another episode of Dine and Dish. ⁓ And today's show ⁓ very interesting because we're on different time zones, and I'm so excited to have. my guest today.

We kind of connected on LinkedIn and ⁓ her background and her expertise is right in line with my show and my industry since I'm also a franchise or in my business as a restaurateur. So let me introduce Danny. She's the founder and CEO of Franchise Fame and I'm gonna let her jump on the mic so she can tell us a little bit about herself and we'll jump into all of our questions. I have so many questions for her to talk about.

⁓ but Danny, welcome to ⁓ my show. And you're in London, which I'm so excited. Dani | Franchise Fame: I'm very excited to be here. Thank you for having me, Michelle.

Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah. So I have to tell you, my daughter's actually in London right now for work. ⁓ she works for a large ⁓ accounting firm and one of her clients is out there. And I literally texted her this morning and I said, My client and my guest on the show today is in London and she's like, ⁓ that's so cool.

So welcome. I'm so excited to have you. Thank you very much. Yeah.

So before we jump into the show, I would love Dani | Franchise Fame: Thank you very much. It's a real pleasure to be here. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: for you just to introduce yourself and tell the listeners about your background. You have such an amazing background.

I mean, what you do is just so super cool in terms of marketing and franchise and you just wrote a book. And so before we jump into the whole agenda for the show today, if you want to just give the listeners just some background, that would be great. Dani | Franchise Fame: Sure, thank you. I've been in franchising for more than 18 years now.

⁓ First, franchisor side because I was heading the marketing and branding of a global franchise brand. Then I became a franchisee for them, interestingly enough. And I ran my own franchise for about three years. And after seeing both sides of the coin, I realized that I've been always a passionate person for marketing.

Marketing has always been my drive. So I thought why wouldn't I start a business as a franchise marketing agency? Because I know the challenges a franchisor and a franchisee face. And that sounded like the natural continuation of my career.

So back in 2014, I founded Franchise Fame, which is a global franchise marketing agency. We work with brands from across the globe that are in franchising and we help them scale up and successfully utilize marketing channels. so that they can do both brand dev and also national brand campaigns. In 2022, I published my book called Franchise Fame.

Let's just say that I had a lot of free time on my hands when we were shut down during the pandemic. So this is my baby. It took about nine months to write this. And to my amazement, when we published it with my publisher, it became an Amazon bestseller in the US.

So a lot of brands... Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: ⁓ sure. Dani | Franchise Fame: and lot of companies and CEOs and marketers bought the book, read the book and reached out to work with us. So we naturally scaled up in the last five years with working with franchise brands across the pond and in the US.

So the majority of brands we work with, funnily enough, ⁓ come from the US, even though I'm personally based in London, which meant that we had to open an office in the US as well. So now we have an office in Ohio as well. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Well, I didn't know that. That's exciting.

So you go back and forth. I'm sure. I'm sure. Well, ⁓ talk to me a little bit about your agency.

So ⁓ you talked about marketing and going from the franchisee to the franchiseor to now this huge marketing agency. So talk about what you do for your clients and how you help them build these brands and Dani | Franchise Fame: I do, yes, that's a lot of travel. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: What you see truly missing, ⁓ you know, where that gap is, that they would need a service that you provide to them. Dani | Franchise Fame: So a lot of franchise brands often focus on one direction rather than two.

What I mean is naturally when a new brand, emerging brand appears, they are very focused on franchise development. They want to sell as many territories and units as possible so that they can scale up. But they forget about making sure that those franchisees are successful through national brand campaigns, supporting them with local marketing initiatives and so forth. We are that partner that is always there to remind you about striking that important balance between the two.

Other brands will be entirely focused on national brand campaigns and marketing, but not so much on franchise development, which is also a natural way for a franchise to scale up and become popular on the market and grow. So essentially, saw that marketing gap back in 2014. I saw that a lot of marketing agencies, they claim to know franchising and to be able to work with franchises, but they don't necessarily understand the dynamics of a franchising ecosystem that you might be working for a brand, but your end client is also the franchisee and their customer.

So understanding the dynamics and the dialogues that happen between a franchisor, franchisee, vendors, and clients and so on is crucial to the success of a marketing campaign. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah, that's so true. I mean, you see that so many times where the franchise or is just there to sell franchisee franchise locations and they really don't care about the franchisee. I mean, you see that with a lot of big brands.

I mean, I don't want to name names, but I mean Subway, there's a lot out there where they just grow, grow, grow, grow, grow and they put them on every corner because they're more about selling the units. And then they don't really support the franchisees or they run very aggressive marketing campaigns where I mean, where you know in terms of food cost and the dollar what they truly make, but they have to do it because it's part of their national campaign, but the franchisees are really not happy about that.

I mean, it's really ⁓ creating that balance. I mean, I I totally get it because as a franchiseer, I mean we have two corporate stores that ⁓ we had twenty-five at one point, but we have two now, and most of the rest of our locations, ⁓ the other nine are all franchise locations. So it's so important that the franchisee is successful and they're making money and they're profitable or they're not gonna open more stores and they're not gonna stay open. You know, it's it's a huge challenge.

So I agree with you a hundred percent. Yeah. Dani | Franchise Fame: Thank you, yes. And it all leads back to the overall strategy.

If you are successful, other people are going to want to naturally and organically join your business and become franchising or partners to the brand. But if you see a lot of closures or a lot of not successful attempts to scale up too quickly, that becomes negative press or negative reputation for your brand and it ends up hurting it. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah. So at the end of the day, who's your end client?

Do you work more strategically with the franchise or do you focus most of your efforts with the franchisees? I mean, because there are a lot of ⁓ franchisees out there that have hundreds of stores. They could be very large franchisee units. So which do you prefer to work with?

And how does your mindset change? Because obviously, you know, working as the franchise or working with the franchisee is totally different models as a marketing standpoint. Dani | Franchise Fame: That's right, yes. The majority of our clients are the franchisors and the corporate team.

So we work with CMOs and very often the top leadership of the franchise brand by saying that we utilise their marketing budget and the marketing budget is often a contribution from the franchisees, which means that even if we're reporting to corporate, we have to stay aligned and understand what franchisees require. There should be full transparency. And oftentimes, I like to say that 70 % of our work is strategy, 30 % is diplomacy. Because the franchisor is our client, but we still need to make sure that every creative that we create, every messaging and campaign is also adopted by the franchisee, otherwise it wouldn't work.

So the diplomacy part is a key aspect of a franchise marketing agency's work and making sure that you manage expectations, but you also leverage for the success of a campaign. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Let's see that. ⁓ Dani | Franchise Fame: and you are aligning what the franchisor requires but also what the franchisee locally does as well. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah.

So when you first engage with a franchise or ⁓ I'm assuming you work from franchisors that have one corporate store to maybe they have fifteen or twenty and they're looking to grow at a much faster pace. So I'm I'm assuming that transition from a single unit to a multi unit is very different. And what's the whole strategy that you take from if let's say it's me, I'm coming to you and I say, Danny, I really need help. We want to take squizito, we're at Dani | Franchise Fame: Thank Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: five stores and now we want to go to 10 stores versus a hey I'm at one store how do I take that now to five stores so talk through that whole scaling process and then where you see maybe the franchise or even getting stuck.

You know, like you know we got to the point where we were at nine stores and we said, you know, maybe we don't want to grow more on the franchise piece. We want to do now more corporate stores. So you know that different shift from franchise back to corporate because I've seen that as well in the franchise or business. Dani | Franchise Fame: It's a very different model when you're starting out and you're looking to ⁓ sign up your second or first unit ⁓ compared to when whenever you already have 10, 20 or 100 locations.

And I often say to the franchise brands that are just emerging now and starting their business to learn how to switch between two hats because they used to be a great operator before and they had a successful brand that they franchised out and that's great. But for you to be able to scale up and manage franchisees and ⁓ add two, five, 10 units to the brand, you should be able to switch between two hats. One hat is being the operator, where you still maybe retain one or two corporate stores and you use all that knowledge to make them successful and use them as a case study.

But the other hat is the hat of the franchisor, where a lot of brands miss out on or don't understand it necessarily at the beginning. They don't understand what it entails, how much hard work it is, and what a completely new role this is. So you becoming a franchisor requires your full attention. It's almost like a new job description where you have to set up KPIs to make sure that your franchisees are successful.

You have to be safeguarding the reputation of the whole network. Now, you have to be actively working towards onboarding the franchisees and training them and making sure that they don't... Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: So if we hit a couple of time or record things, but only thing in the two when you have to set up any show has ⁓ been Dani | Franchise Fame: do the same mistakes you did back in the day. So your responsibility is not only managing one or two locations that are under corporate, but the franchise or role is very often missed.

I think shifting that mindset to you having another full-time job and being able to switch between the two is the biggest challenge, a new emerging franchise or role phase. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, when we launched Squizito, it was definitely, you know, going from running them and operating them yourself. I mean, even my husband, he's been in this industry for my God, almost 30-some years, you know, and having all these squasido locations and having them corporate and bringing in a small owner operator.

So when he first launched our pizza pasta concept. He had ⁓ owner operators where they owned 10% or 15%. So this way they were in there, skin in the game, running them. And he didn't have to be in them so much with a district manager or regional manager.

You know, they ran them as if they were owners. And then changing that and launching franchise, we gave them the ability, we said, okay, you know, obviously we're either gonna buy them back or ⁓ we sold the owner, the the owner operator the majority. So this way that's where we sold from 20 and we wound up with nine because Most of them said, ⁓ my God, we're making so much money. Obviously, we want to keep them, you know, we don't want to sell them back to you.

So ⁓ they wound up buying them and then we launched our franchise. So going from an actual owner operator to a franchise or was such a huge shift. And you're learning how to deal with, you know, at one point I felt like, you know, this overpaid babysitter, you know, because we were like, we had to stay on top of them for no, you can't just put handwritten signs on the door. No, you can't just pay somebody because they didn't like the food and I mean, I had one franchisee that just said, you know, that she this woman wasn't happy.

She had a complaint and she went to Google, whatever. And he's like, I'll write you a check to go someplace else. I'm like, no, you can't do that. You know, so it's learning how to make that shift.

And it's it's definitely challenging, you know, if you're not in that mindset, you know? It's crazy. Dani | Franchise Fame: I always like to say that a franchise or is first in it for the long run, but also secondly in the royalties business. So not only focusing on scaling up and selling territories, but making sure that you manage the franchisees that you already have, making sure that they're successful on the one hand side through onboarding and continuous training, but on the other hand, through marketing campaigns, support.

ongoing support, ⁓ franchisee committees and so forth. Everything helps and making sure that you maintain a close relationship with your existing network is also going to help you succeed further because you're essentially in the royalties business. The more royalties or the more revenue your franchisees are having, the more royalties you're having at the end. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah.

So let's jump into marketing because I want to make sure we don't run out of time. And there's so many questions I have for you in marketing and development. And then we want to talk about your book. And so let's just discuss national marketing for what it looks like for an actual restaurant and then what it looks like from a franchise marketing standpoint.

Because obviously the marketing's gotta be different. You know, your technique has to be different and your thought process behind You know, franchise marketing versus traditional restaurant marketing. Dani | Franchise Fame: Yeah, there are a few major differences. And again, we touch upon the ecosystem that franchising is built upon franchisees and franchise or relationship.

And I guess the balancing act between what you do as a national campaign is that you have to be globally consistent, but staying locally relevant. That's the key message. So adhering to all the brand guidelines and what the corporate strategy from is, but at the same time making sure that you're relevant to the franchisees so they adopt those campaigns and local messaging so that they can still attract customers as well. Very often we see that ⁓ brands, especially corporate brands and franchisees, in restaurants and franchise marketing, they have a budget for the national campaigns that can be very aggressive as you said yourself, but they also ⁓ really encourage franchisees to do their own local marketing.

of course, aligned with the campaigns. Very often we do that local marketing as well by working with the franchisees. So almost like having one vendor for corporate and for local marketing, where the franchisees become our end client is also of help because we know what the end goal is. We stay aligned with the messaging in the campaigns and we're driving footfall for the restaurants, but also brand recognition globally or nationally.

for the restaurants. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Hmm. So in terms of franchise development, ⁓ because obviously you definitely want to stay aligned with the brand vision, right? You know, so let's say we say, Danny, we want to bring you on and we want to support Squizito and you interview me and we sit down and we talk about what my vision is.

And I mean, obviously you have to go through a whole questionnaire of learning the brand and learning the system and finding out what's important to the franchise or. So talk through the whole franchise development piece. So once you understand our concept, how do you then market? Because obviously we want to attract the right franchisee, right?

So it's brand perception, it's all the growth. And so how do you work through that whole marketing piece as a recruiting tool? Because obviously that's at the end of the day, that's what you want, right? That's the end game.

We want to bring in the right franchisees. So talk through your whole franchise development process for me, how you do it through the marketing piece. Dani | Franchise Fame: Sure, absolutely. First, you hit the nail on the head, Michelle.

We have to know the brand. We have to really know who you market because otherwise, how are we going to actually market and what the value proposition is. So we really dive deep into first finding out about you, your motives as a franchise or who you're looking to partner with, what the value proposition for the franchise opportunity is and so on and all the nitty gritty of the opportunity. Then there's a few main concepts that we follow.

First of all, making sure that we really understand the ideal franchise candidate persona. And you'll be surprised how many franchise brands have no idea or have never thought or considered writing this down and really mapping who your ideal franchisee is. I know it's such a simple marketing concept, but sometimes you have to go back to the basics and really do some hand holding and work with the franchisor and their marketing team to actually understand. well, hang on a minute, you probably have three or four ideal franchisee personas, or let's really write those down and see what their troubles are, what their background demographics, where they come from, what messaging we should use to attract them.

Really, when you do that foundational work, that is already, I'll say, 40 to 50 % of the work done, because you already know who you're targeting. So then you can fine tune your marketing campaigns and... ⁓ fine-tune them with the information that you know who exactly you're targeting, what their biggest pain point is, how to message so that you stay relevant to them and then to attract them. This is a big part of the marketing process when we talk about franchise development.

Another key aspect of franchise development is making sure that once you pay to attract those leads that match your ideal franchise persona or candidate, Then you want to make sure that they land on the right landing page or the right website for your franchise opportunity that gives them enough information to interest them, but not enough so that they can make an inquiry and want to learn more. So it's, a balancing act where you want to stay and keep them on the page, but you also want to get their details, whether that's through a lead magnet where they download a franchise brochure or you all take them through a set of question as a quiz to tell them how relevant they are or how suitable they are for the opportunities.

We have different ways of incentivizing people to leave their details and they sort of they can fall into the funnel. And then of course, the third part is making that funnel. So what happens once someone leaves their details and their name and contact phone number and so on, ⁓ you have to really design the process after. they land on your landing page and leave their details.

That would mean anything from drip campaigns and email campaigns to follow up, text messaging, how they book their first discovery call, when someone calls them, if you don't get an answer, what happens after, what kind of drip campaigns and funnels they'll fall into. All of these three elements are crucial to the success of the campaign. If you miss one, you're not going to be successful with Front Dev. So really knowing who you target, number one.

Number two, making sure that you have a very ⁓ well-optimized, dedicated landing page or website for the franchise opportunity. And three, what happens after? What is the nurturing stage of the lead? Because a lot of franchise brands expect, once they get the lead, to jump on a call and sell them the franchise opportunity.

But realistically, that's not what happens. And you have a three to six month stage of nurturing that lead before they're even ready to commit. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: ⁓ absolutely. And then you have to go through the discovery day process and the communication.

And ⁓ yeah. So your your franchisee might send you an email in January and maybe by June or July they might be signing and then six months later they might be opening. So I mean it's definitely a a process. And you know, they might not they might just be in the inquiry stage.

They might not even be ready to sign as a franchisee. So ⁓ a hundred percent. So What happens, where do you see the most successful marketing leads? So where do you see them coming from?

Do you see them from the internet? Do you see them from you know targeted social media? Because everybody talks about now social media and TikTok and you know all these different ways of securing leads through social media. But where do you see the most success?

Targeted ads? I mean, where from your standpoint, where are you really pushing these, this marketing campaign out? Dani | Franchise Fame: So everything that you do contributes to your brand presence, especially in modern times when ⁓ search has completely changed and the game has changed when AI came and wiped off everyone from their feed. Google is now almost like number two because ⁓ especially new gen Z'ers and new generations of potential franchise prospects, they would go on.

their phone on chat GPT and start researching who's the best brand or who's the what's the best business to to invest in and so on. So that has completely changed the game. So it's not only a matter of you running ads to secure those leads, but every single touch point a user has with your brand makes a difference. And AI mimics human behavior and how AI works is it creates a bias about your brand.

And you can influence whether AI creates a positive or a negative bias about your brand. And that is usually done through social media campaigns, YouTube, everything that you post, your online presence, your online reputation in terms of reviews, what people say about you, your website for the franchise opportunities, your website for aim towards the clients or for products and services. So everything that you do digitally contributes to that bias and contributes about this. online footprint of your brand.

So whenever someone is ⁓ searching ⁓ in AI mode or on chat GPT, what the franchise restaurant opportunity is, your digital footprint is compared to all the other brands and AI decides whom to recommend. So it's no longer a matter of let's just launch a very good meta campaign. to ⁓ attract leads. And of course, we still do a lot of paid ads campaigns on Meta, Google, and LinkedIn, all the platforms.

Meta is a big part of it still. But again, if you don't really look into your digital footprint and how AI perceives your brand, how a user perceives your brand online, from all the touch points that I mentioned, blog content, video content on YouTube, your organic social posts, your websites, what clients say about you, what franchisees say about you, you wouldn't ever be successful because you have to now look at it into this holistically. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah.

It's so crazy that you brought up AI. Every show that I do, AI is just it doesn't matter what industry, it's like taking over the world. I mean, and it's funny because that was one of the questions I was gonna ask you because there's two things that come up every show. It's COVID and AI.

And we already know you said during COVID and the shutdown you wrote a book, which we're gonna talk about in a minute. ⁓ but AI is the other big one. And you know, it's like they're two life-changing, ⁓ ⁓ things that happened and AI is just affecting every industry and and you're right, it changes how everybody thinks. It changes how everybody buys, how everybody looks online and now how people sign up for franchisee franchise locations.

It's crazy. Dani | Franchise Fame: It is. the most common service that we now sell in the agency is generative engine optimization, or can I appear in AI searches with my brand, whether that's for clients and clients to find your franchisees or whether you want your franchise opportunities to be on there. You need to optimize actively so that your brand and your digital foot is positive and creates a positive bias and AI starts recommending you over competitors.

Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah, wow. Very interesting. So let's jump right into your book because I can't wait to hear about it. ⁓ I know you held it up.

It's so exciting. And the reason I'm saying that, I I've been working on this is horrible, but I'm so busy and I'm pulled in so many different directions. I've been working on my book for like four years. And I keep saying this year is the year I'm gonna finish it.

My book's a little different because I'm writing about my life and the perfect recipes that go with each area of my life. So it's a little play on a cookbook, but it's not really a cookbook. But so when you said you wrote a book on franchise, now I have to hear about I have to hear why and your key lessons and practical takeaways. So just talk to me about franchise fame and and everything about what you're doing in your book.

Dani | Franchise Fame: So working in franchising for over 18 years, I thought, well, we've got a method, we've got a proprietary method, we've got a lot of wisdom, why not share it? Especially in times of turmoil when, you you've got a lot of free time on your hands when lockdown happened. And I was like, I might as well make myself useful. ⁓ Well, if this did not happen, I wouldn't have had the book.

So do not... ⁓ to be too harsh on yourself. I know how busy it can be to be running a business and yeah, managing everything, it's impossible. So yeah, I had the idea just because I wanted to share what we've learned from working with so many franchise brands internationally.

we've had presence in over 50 countries, which means that we've worked with franchise brands that are present in over 50 countries. So there was a lot of learning. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah. Dani | Franchise Fame: I wanted to systemize that learning because franchising is all about systems.

So this is how the idea about the 5Fs franchise marketing was built. And this is the model, the proprietary model we were using the agency to diagnose and assess how a franchise brand that comes to us, ⁓ what it needs and what it needs help with and what their blind spot is almost. The five Fs of franchise marketing ⁓ consists of five main pillars that address all key players in the franchising ecosystem. Number one is a fantastic reputation, and that addresses your end clients and what they say about you, almost your online reputation for your brand across online and offline spaces.

And something I read recently ⁓ in a study that's very relevant here, I think it was a study by Harvard Review. I was saying that if you have one more stars on your Yelp stars, that means an uplift of 9 % in revenue. So that's just insane. I mean, just from a 3.

5 star result to 4.5 on Yelp, that gives you almost 10 % more revenue in the restaurant and hospitality sector. you're having a fantastic reputation is in the core of any business. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Wow.

Mm-hmm. Dani | Franchise Fame: more so franchising, more so hospitality and restaurants, because it's incredibly important what your clients say about you. Number two, yeah, sorry. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Do you work with now you say reputation, obviously?

Do you work directly with Yelp or Google? I mean, is there a difference between the two? Cause I mean, there's so many different platforms now, because I mean everybody out there is all about reviews and where they can post their stars, whether it's three stars, five stars. ⁓ do you see a difference in reputation based on different platforms?

Dani | Franchise Fame: In the days before the age of AI, was all Google because Google was the dominant player. So the more reviews you have on your Google My Business profile or your Google Business listing, the better for your SEO. This is still the case. However, when AI came and disrupt the industry, now AI can see every single review in every small directory.

So it doesn't really matter. Yeah, it just consolidates your online reputation from all channels. So whether it's TrustPilot, YellowPages, Yelp, ⁓ whether it's a local directory only for the restaurant sector, it's very important to make sure that you safeguard and protect your reputation, regardless of where customers leave the review, because AI can see it all, not only Google. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah.

Dani | Franchise Fame: Okay. Number two is a franchisee network in the model. Why franchisee network? Because I touched upon this earlier, because I'm a firm believer that you're only successful as a franchisor when your entire network of franchisee is successful.

Almost like franchising is like a chain and the weakest brink of the chain. Whenever it breaks, your system is not working and it's not functioning properly. So Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Gotcha. Dani | Franchise Fame: really focusing on your franchisee network and making sure that they're successful through local marketing, through giving them the national brand campaign support, local marketing toolkit of what they need to do locally, supporting them, training them, onboarding them, and continuously making sure that you keep track of KPIs and so forth.

That contributes to your whole success. And as I said, you are in the royalties business. So having a successful network. It means more money for you as a franchisor in simple terms.

Number three was, and still is, focus team. I had to write a chapter in the book and dedicate a chapter and a pillar in the model to the team. And that is the corporate team you surround yourself with. It's a very important point because whenever you're starting out as a franchisor, you're usually completely self-reliant or you're used to work with one person the most and you've been running your own business successfully, you don't realize that you need an entire team.

The more you scale up, the more the need of a very focused ⁓ team of A players, really good people around you are going to be very important for the success of the network. So who you surround yourself with in corporate, your marketing manager, vice president of franchise development, your operations manager. you know, with time and the more you scale up, the more you're going to need those people to support you. So having that focus team is very, important.

And number four and five of the model are dedicated to having a full funnel and finding the right fit for your franchise. Of course, both of them are dedicated to franchise development, essentially because if you don't have a full funnel of leads that you nurture, you won't be able to find the right fit as a franchisee and a partner. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: So with these systems and pillars that you created, ⁓ where do you feel that the franchisor has the biggest struggle?

You know, where do you see the biggest area of growth that they can focus on? Because I mean, obviously taking these pillars and now putting them into a real life model, where do you feel that you have the most opportunity when you're working with the franchisors? Dani | Franchise Fame: Thank feel the franchisee network pillar, the second pillar where every franchisor knows that they need to sign up new locations. Every franchisor from the start of it is almost ready to start doing friend dev.

A lot of those brands, however, forget about the basics and forget about supporting their franchisees. And ⁓ you said it yourself, sometimes the noise is too much. Sometimes you feel like you're babysitting your franchisees. But all they're saying is that either there's not enough transparency as to where they're marketing contribution is going or they're not seeing the benefit of those campaigns.

And once you make sure that your franchisees are happy and they're getting a lot of lead flow and a lot of benefits from their marketing contribution, you lower the noise and you focus the entire system on making money. Essentially, you manage the systems and you focus on front of and national brand campaigns. Franchisees are focused on running their business and everyone's happy because As a franchisor, you want to make sure that everyone is a winner. It's a win-win game.

Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah. So do you see a difference from country to country? I'm sure you get this all the time, you know, being based in London, ⁓ working with US franchises versus European franchises. I mean, obviously the models, the core franchising is the same.

I mean, everybody at the end of the day wants to open stores and they want to make money and they want to be profitable. But you do see different models and different expectations, I'm sure, country to country. How does that affect your processes as well as you know, writing this book and coming up with your core ⁓ you know, system and operations. Dani | Franchise Fame: So the principles of marketing and franchise marketing are always applicable, regardless of where you are.

You just need to localize the message and you really need to know who your local audience is. So we always make sure that we localize the message and we stay locally relevant, but the strategy in franchise marketing always stays the same. You want to make sure that you're investing in brand dev, you want to make sure that you're making your franchisees successful, you want to make sure that you're staying aligned and adhere into the corporate brand guidelines. and strategies.

everything stays the same, but the markets are different. So the expectations of your end client are different. The messaging should also be different. We work with global brands that have presence in the UK, US, and down under in Australia.

So that would mean that you would have different messaging based on who your client is. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Franchise or that has stores globally, how does that message then change? Right. Because obviously there has to be a different message per country.

Dani | Franchise Fame: Exactly. That's right. So as long as you localize the message so that it suits and fits the local audience, you're good to go. But the global strategy or the five principles of franchise marketing, they always stay the same because they are targeted towards how franchising operates.

Franchising is based on systems and it has to value every single player in the dynamic or the ecosystem of franchising. Everyone needs to be happy and everyone needs to be a winner. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah. Do you see a challenge?

And and this is kind of digressing a little bit, but you know, like certain countries they might not be a fan of a certain food. Like for example, we're Italian. ⁓ you know, we pre we protected our brand in India. You know, we actually worked when we did all of our marks through Venerable Beitra and Howard, we protected everything here.

We also worked with the ⁓ office in India and and the Emirates to make sure that we were protected over there because at one point Italian was very popular and they were looking for pizza concepts. But I'm sure in certain countries, certain brands, whether it's chicken or certain brands that are very specialized within a very certain niche, they might not be welcomed in that country. And what happens if a franchiser comes to you and says, these are my challenges. How do I market to this country?

⁓ What's your takeaway there? I mean, what's your suggestion? And ⁓ you know, how do you put together a whole focus? I mean, I'm asking out out of personal experience, because we did we dealt with this, and that was one of the challenges that I said, you know, what do you do?

You know, obviously, even for Italy, you know, yes, our brand, my husband's from Italy. ⁓ I know Starbucks had a a challenge in Italy because obviously coffee's so amazing. So how do you work through that process and in a marketing standpoint to find that ideal candidate? Dani | Franchise Fame: So from a marketing standpoint, ⁓ one of the low-hanging fruit is always to market ⁓ whenever there's searches for that or demand for that particular brand.

So if someone is really a fan of Italian food, to take up on your example, you market that. But what happens in markets where this is not necessarily the case, or there isn't enough sufficient search, or people are not familiar with that type of food or that beverage? ⁓ Well, then you start to create the demand. So you start from not even marketing or trying to convert, but you start by creating the demand for that.

And that is normally done through brand campaigns, through educating your audience. Very often we talk about educating your audience or creating a trend and creating this hype about something new that's penetrating the market. So you have to start at least two or three moves before where you create that hype, you create that demand and people start searching and adopting. this thing, whether that's new food or new product or a new service and so on.

We live in a a global village nowadays with the AI and in the internet. If something is ⁓ very trendy in one country, it will probably be adopted despite the cultural differences of another country. If you know how to create that demand and that hype. So making sure that you plant the seed and you nurture that seed and you create that hype and demand and then you reap what you sow.

⁓ In marketing is very, very, very important. Even when we talk about a concept that's very common in a country like Italy, let's say we're talking about coffee or pasta, you still need to make sure that you spend a considerable investment and time on brand awareness to nurture really and ⁓ for that brand to become very well known before you start even doing conversion campaigns. try to attract potential candidates. In marketing, we have this theory about the five to seven touch points, which means that a user or an ideal client should interact with your brand at least five to seven times before they even decide to make an inquiry or submit their details somewhere, which means five to seven touch point.

That means that they can see your social media post, then they can see a billboard or they can walk past your physical location if you have presence there. then they see a flyer or they land on your website or they see an ad or someone tells them that they ate at your restaurant the other day and the food was fantastic. really having those five to seven touch points with the brand before you even make an inquiry or you become a customer. That really puts things into perspective because it shows you how omnipresent you need to be on multiple channels, offline and online.

for you to really be able to reach your audio target audience. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah. Marketing is so powerful. I mean, I have to use the example of raising canes.

Here's a perfect example. My nieces are in Italy in Monster d'Aprocito, which is a small town outside of Naples, and there's no there's no raising canes in Italy. So it just shows you how far marketing reaches. They came to visit and the first thing they said is we need to go to raising canes.

And we're it we also own chicken concepts. We own Vivi's chicken and mag. My husband was like, No, you need to go to Vivi's. They're like, No, we need to go see Raising Canes just because of the hype of, you know, the the marketing reach and how powerful it is.

So, you know, that's just an example of not even having a location, brick and mortar, or even a place for them to see it and taste it. But they saw all the videos, they see all these stars and all this national marketing. And, you know, the first thing they want to do when they come to the US is go to raising gains. You know, it's just amazing.

⁓ anyway, but for those that are listening ⁓ and you know haven't had a chance to pick up your book, obviously We want them to go to Amazon and order the book, but what's the one major takeaway that every brand, every franchiser should understand from what you're writing about? What do you want them to take away from your book? And and what lesson would you want them to learn? Dani | Franchise Fame: think essentially no matter how good you are, you're always going to have blind spots.

The book is there to help you identify those blind spots and merge the gap. Not necessarily work with us, but reading the book and going through the chapters and the model, you will identify small blind spots in your own strategy, whether that's operations or marketing or sales, and it will help you bridge those gaps. In every single chapter after at end of the book, you see a summary of the key takeaways. And also it's packed with the QR codes and downloadable references to things that you can download for free on our website that can help you implement those strategies, whether those are checklists or ideal buyer personas that a lot of franchisors haven't necessarily taken the time to sit down and really write down who their ideal franchisee candidate is.

We've got the template there that's linked to the book and excuse me, you can download for free. So the book is not a sales tool. It's a... It's something to help you navigate through times of uncertainty or challenges and identify those blind spots and where's those gaps.

Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Wow. So what do you see in digital marketing trends? I know we're gonna run out of time. There's so many questions.

I'm gonna have to have you back. Like we didn't even cut cut on half the stuff I want to talk about. But before we get into my fun lightning round, quick questions that I have for you. What do you see in terms of franchise trends for 2026?

Because I'm sure every year you're seeing different Dani | Franchise Fame: So, bye. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Trends they go up and down and ebbs and flows, but what what are you seeing right now in terms of franchise marketing and digital marketing trends? Dani | Franchise Fame: So I can't not mention AI, of course, because AI is here to stay and change the way we live and we buy and we experience everything. So as I said, brands are really fighting for not only first page on Google right now, but they're fighting for those three or four recommendations AI would give.

So making sure that you work on every single touch point that you have digitally, your footprint, reputation, social media profiles. YouTube channels, websites, everything that represents your brand is very important. We see a rise in the short form content again. So short form videos on Instagram, on TikTok, on YouTube, even YouTube shorts are on the rise at the moment.

And a lot of franchise brands are leveraging very successfully by creating pill form, small shaped content that will generate thousands and thousands of views. So especially when you're in the hospitality and restaurant businesses, there's so much you can record and leverage on this food, there's operations, the kitchen, there's the customer service, there's client reviews and testimonials. You've got a lot to you can choose from and the type of content that you can create to really promote your restaurant organically.

You don't even have to go paid. Just having those short videos, whether they're going to be anecdotal and funny for your TikTok channel. or they're gonna be more serious for your YouTube shorts or for your other social media platforms, you can really leverage the power of that. And at the moment, algorithms are really rewarding short form content.

So grab your phones, you don't need to get it perfect. You've got the camera in your pocket and you can start recording ⁓ real lifetime, non-directed, actual genuine videos that your clients would love to see and that will drive them through your door. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Yeah. ⁓ it's funny you said that because we did this whole campaign when we launched VV's Chicken a Mac and you know, we worked with a couple marketing teams and they wanted videos and they were like scripted and they had me do these little ads.

And Steve, who helps produce my show, he did this bloopers video and the it went viral. They the bloopers and the natural of my husband and I just saying, ⁓ my god, like we can't we had to do Dani | Franchise Fame: So. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: I'm not a scripted person. So they kept putting a script up and I must have had to say the script at least 10 times.

And by the fifth one, I was like, God, all right, I'm done. But the bloopers were so funny that that it went viral. We had more views on the blooper video than we did on the actual marketing videos. I mean, the TikToks were just flying out there.

And ⁓ and YouTube, you brought up a point about YouTube. Even with my podcast, you know, my PR team that I work with out in New York, I wasn't doing any video. They're like, ⁓ you need to put your video on YouTube. YouTube is huge right now for marketing.

So whether it's I mean, look, and and that's for podcast and and PR, it's not even restaurant. And I'm in hospitality. And you know, it's balancing hospitality and social media and TikTok, and then the PR with the YouTube and the podcast. So it's like, you know, my balancing act.

So yeah, ⁓ a hundred percent. So let's get into the my lightning round questions before we run out of time because we're already over time and this happens every week. But tell me the most common marketing mistake that you see across all your brands that you've worked with. Dani | Franchise Fame: Forgetting to cater for your franchisee.

Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: That's a good one. I'm sure the franchisees love you for saying that. Everybody listening is gonna go, yes, Danny. ⁓ one word that you would say for scaling a brand.

Dani | Franchise Fame: Incremental. Take it one step at a time. It doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't explore like this, but you have to be consistent and incrementally grow.

Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: marketing or operations? Which one do you think drives more growth? So I'm gonna say operations because we're more of the operator, but I figured you would say ⁓ marketing. That's why I had to ask it.

and national or local marketing? What do you think matters more when you're trying to expand your brand? Dani | Franchise Fame: Marketing. ⁓ Oof, that's a tough one.

I can't pick either because remove one, the other one doesn't work as efficiently and effectively as it should and vice versa. So they only work together as a team. And very often we see one being done and the franchisee is entirely relying on the national brand and it doesn't bring them anywhere. And if the franchisor is not supporting the franchisees and expecting them just to do loco, it doesn't work either.

So I'll say a marriage between the two. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Okay. Well, everyone that's listening, another amazing show, another amazing guest. DMs are open as always.

You can always reach me at restaurantdeva.com. We're on LinkedIn. We always love to hear from you.

That's what's creating these amazing topics every week and bringing my guests back. And Danny, thank you so much. This has been your knowledge and your expertise, and what you brought to the show is just so valuable for everybody listening. And where can they find you if they want more information?

If you can tell them how to reach you or your company or for any of more information, that'd be great. You can share with us. Dani | Franchise Fame: I'm everywhere on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. My name is Dani Pelleva.

And if you just search for Dani from Franchise Fame or come on to www.franchisephame.com, you're going to find us. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: And they have to download your book and learn about the the famous Fs, the good F's, not the bad F's.

Dani | Franchise Fame: Yes, I started recording. No comments in there. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: To leave everybody with today, if you have to give them your number one piece of advice for scaling and growing, ⁓ what would you like to leave us with today? Your final piece.

Dani | Franchise Fame: Go back to the basics. Sometimes you really need to go back to the basics and work on the foundations to be able to scale up and grow because very often we're so busy and the chaos and the noise in operations and running a successful franchise brand might be ⁓ blindfolding us and going back to the fundamentals and making sure that you're really doing the basics might actually help you. scale up and sometimes it's just down to the basics and making sure that you start small and go back to the roots and you'll be successful.

Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: Wow. Well, amazing advice. And I agree. I mean, being in this industry for thirty years, I mean, the restaurant industry is probably one of the toughest industries.

And to be successful, you have to have the right systems, the right basics, the right base to grow on. ⁓ especially if the franchise or can't make it, how do you expect the franchisees to make it? So growth doesn't happen by accident, it happens by design. You need strong partners, just like Danny told you, ⁓ whether you hire a national marketing firm or you bring in, you know, a a franchise or salesperson that knows exactly what they're doing, you need to have the support to be able to grow smart and effective and efficiently and to be able to be profitable across all levels.

So ⁓ you know, thank you so much. And I hope to see you in London. You know, I love London. I went to I took Again, digressing for a minute.

I took my daughter two years ago and we love shows and we love Devil Wars Prada and it opened in London. So for her birthday, we flew out and we stayed at the Savoy and we went to see Devil Wars Prada. ⁓ went on the opening weekend and I c and I have very good friends in ⁓ London, a a an artist and a play director and a producer, and we went, we spent the weekend with them, and we had the best time. And I left and I said, I'm moving here.

And I came home and I said to my husband, We're moving to London. He's like You are crazy. We are not moving to London. It's such an amazing place.

So hopefully I will be there soon to visit. Dani | Franchise Fame: I'm a huge fan of The West End, so if you're ever here, call me and we're gonna see a show together and I'll show you the best restaurants in London because we've got a great, scene. Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: ⁓ I love it there. The best food.

I mean, we went to sketch. We did so many amazing things. So I am coming to visit you. And the next time you're in the US, I would love to hook up as well.

How come ⁓ come to New York and come visit us because we're moving up to New Jersey and New York. Dani | Franchise Fame: Thank you. And thank you so much for having me. It's been a wonderful conversation.

Michele DiMeo Restaurant Diva: ⁓ thank you so much. And again, everyone, another amazing show as always. And Danny, such a pleasure. And I can't wait to get your book.

I'm actually going to order it now. Can't wait to read it because as a franchiseur, more information the better to make us all successful. And as always, we'll be back next week for another great show. And that's another episode of Dine and Dish.

Thank you, Danny. Talk to you soon. Thank you again. Dani | Franchise Fame: Thank you.