New awareness campaign prepares franchising for changes ahead.

"Voters don't decide issues, they decide who will decide issues."--George Will, U.S. journalist for the Washington Post, Newsweek and ABC News.

Regardless of who wins the presidential and congressional elections this fall, one thing is certain--there will be a change in Washington, D.C.

Political pundits predict a change of party in the White House and stronger democratic majorities in the House and Senate. However, even before then, a softening economy and rising fuel prices will force the leaders to scrutinize existing policy and make new ones that could put the franchising business community at risk.

"The changes coming in 2008 may dwarf the last election and may be very bad for business," said David French, vice president of government affairs. "There is a lot at stake in the election and the business community's opponents will spend enormous sums of money to ensure their supporters win."

French explained that the business community is up against some powerful foes in this election. "Big Labor and trial lawyers have been losing market share for years," he said, "and like lots of failed competitors, they want to use Congress to reverse their long-term decline."

Big labor and the trial lawyers have big plans for your future, he says: more unionized workers, more regulations, higher taxes and a legal climate that will make lawsuits against businesses more likely and more costly.

If these groups are successful, issues such as affordable health insurance options, sensible immigration reform and a pro-growth tax policy that includes low capital gains taxes and a repeal of the death tax may not find a friendly reception on the Hill or the administration, both before and after the election.

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"The IFA policy agenda is a commonsense, straight-forward agenda to help America's small-business entrepreneurs create new jobs and new opportunity," French said. "We need to make sure that government gets out of the way of the franchising sector and allows small-business owners to continue creating thriving businesses and strong futures for families and employees. One way to do that is to educate policymakers how franchising works and why certain policy changes would harm this important economic sector."

Three-Pronged Effort

To enhance IFA's ability to educate policymakers and influence legislation, French says that the IFA is putting special focus on three fronts: targeted grassroots efforts, increasing funds for the political action committee FranPAC, and the newest effort, raising awareness among policy elites about franchising.

The new awareness effort is the result of foresight among IFA leaders about potential changes in Washington, and the need to strengthen the association's leadership in the business community. The IFA board of directors directed staff in 2007 to begin the development of an awareness campaign to position franchising among policy elites as an important contributor to the nation's economy, and to better illustrate the impact of certain business policy decisions on franchising.

"To form the basis for our approach, we conducted opinion research to measure the attitudes of D.C. policy elites--those leaders in Congress and the administration who decide or influence policy outcomes," French said. "Since these are the people we want to influence, we wanted to find out what they knew about franchising and the IFA."

From March through June 2007, an independent research firm conducted two rounds of focus groups and a 20-minute phone survey with policy elites. The research measured the opinions of IFA members to help support our message development. The research helped IFA understand:

* Which business advocacy organizations in Washington, D.C. policy elites find most influential--and why, * Where IFA fits in as an advocacy group,

* If franchising has a distinctive message,

* How franchising is perceived, and

* If policy elites think franchising benefits society and communities in any distinct way.

The research showed that policy elites like IFA and the concept of franchising, but that they did not know a lot about the franchise model and the foundation it provides to build businesses. The research also found that policy elites appreciate the fact that franchise businesses are comprised of local owners who support communities all across the country, and they acknowledge that franchising is distinct because, through product support and training, it provides many diverse options and opportunities for people to own their own business.

A Unifying Theme

The next step in the development of the campaign was to use the research to develop specific messages and a unifying theme that would quickly communicate the importance of franchising. Through focus group testing, one theme stood out among the policy elites: Franchising: Building Local Businesses, One Opportunity at a Time.

"The new theme will be the centerpiece of our government affairs efforts," said French. "It is featured in a new Web site, www.buildingopportunity.com, where the economic impact of franchising is featured and it will be the theme of a print and online advertising campaign in Washington, D.C."

Additional focus group testing showed that testimonials from IFA members made the strongest impact. This approach was illustrated in the first of a series of advertisements that appeared in National Journal and Roll Call last month (see previous page). The advertisement featured Dunkin' Brands CEO Jon Luther and Duke Carvalho, a Dunkin' Brands franchisee in Boston. Future ads are planned to feature other IFA members to show the broad array of franchise concepts, as well as the diversity in the sector.

The messages and theme will be used to unify all components of IFA's government affairs efforts, including testimony and other communications to Congress and Franchise Appreciation Day in September. But French says that success will not come from communications alone.

"Politics is a war of ideas. But great ideas alone are not enough. We need support from real people to put a local face on franchising," French said. "We also need financial resources--the ammunition of politics--to ensure that our ideas are heard loud and clear."

How You Can Help

Take IFA's messages and concerns to Congress as part of the annual Franchise Appreciation Day in Washington on Sept. 15-16. This event will soon be reinvented as the "Franchise Congress," with a local franchisee and franchisor representative in each of the country's 435 congressional districts.

Learn more about FranPAC. Money raised through voluntary, personal contributions is invested by FranPAC in the political campaigns of pro-franchising, pro-business candidates for the U.S. House and Senate.

Grow the IFA membership base by encouraging franchisees and franchisors in your area to join the association. Strength in numbers is key to being successful in Washington, D.C.

RELATED ARTICLE: IFA member survey preparing to launch.

By John Reynolds

The International Franchise Association's Research Committee re-convened in April to begin work on developing a three-year research plan. The committee, chaired by IFA Immediate Past Chairman Michael Isakson, president and COO, ServiceMaster Co., is working on several projects that are currently underway, including a new membership survey.

IFA has engaged Supplier Forum member Services Management Group to conduct the survey. The Web-based survey will be distributed this spring to all IFA members. The purpose of the survey is three-fold: to update the last IFA member survey which was conducted in 2004, to gauge the "importance level" members attach to the association's strategic goals and priorities, and to measure members' "satisfaction level" with a wide range of IFA programs and activities, from conferences, to publications, to government relations efforts.

"The 2004 Member Survey provided big insights into how IFA members view their association, and on what our strategic goals and priorities should be," said IFA Chairman Steve Greenbaum, CFE, CEO, PostNet International Franchise Corp. "This feedback helped IFA's Board of Directors in establishing goals and priorities in the five-year strategic plan."

Several initiatives were direct outcomes of the member feedback to the 2004 survey: the IFA Diversity Institute, a comprehensive public affairs campaign, and changes in governance structure to increase opportunities for member participation, Greenbaum stated.

The Research Committee's main focus is to develop a three-year research plan, linked to IFA's strategic plan. It will identify specific research projects and the resources and capabilities needed. Work is also underway on an annual Franchising Industry Economic Forecast which will be completed this fall with an outlook for the coming year. Work will begin next year on Volume 3 of the Economic Impact of Franchised Businesses, which will be the first report based on the U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 Economic Census.

"Knowledge is power--whether it's knowledge about our members' interests and needs or knowledge about franchising's role in the economy--we want to put this knowledge to work on behalf of our members," Greenbaum added.

John Reynolds is president of the IFA Educational Foundation. He can be reached at 202-662-0764 or jreynolds@franchise.org.

Alisa Harrison joined IFA in April as vice president of communications and marketing for the International Franchise Association. She can be reached at aharrison@franchise.org. Read more about her on page 50.

Research Highlights

(Conducted by APCO Insight May-June 2007. 250 policy elites with
a margin of error plus or minus 6.3 percent, 95 percent confidence
level)

Health Insurance Dominates the Issue Agenda

When asked to name the biggest issues facing small business in the
United States, policy elites said:

36%   Health insurance/cost of health care
22%   Tax issues/high cost of taxes
17%   Government regulations/over regulation
11%   Quality of employees/skilled workforce/educated workers
11%   Providing benefits to employees

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Most are favorable toward franchising

When asked if they have a favorable
or unfavorable view of franchising:

38%   Strongly Favorable
45%   Somewhat Favorable

Note: Table made from pie chart.

Of favorable views, reasons why were:

28%   Name recognition/company is
      already established/has expertise
14%   Higher success rate/more likely to be successful in
      business/less risk
14%   Good way of getting into business

13%   Growth opportunities/more opportunity for small
      business
11%   Low cost/cheaper than developing a new business/less
      investment/frees up capital
10%   More opportunity for ownership

Note: Table made from bar graph.