Imagine you could buy Real Madrid as a franchise opportunity… It would be a ‘no-brainer’ right? A proven history of success, a clear identity, lots of happy customers, star quality and constant reinvestment of monies raised.
Sadly Real Madrid is a football club and not business franchise opportunity, but when you’re considering a franchise all of the above are things you should be looking for. The key to successful franchising is Return on Investment (ROI). The franchisee invests in the franchise opportunity in the belief that they will earn back their investment and a considerable amount on top. In order for this to happen the franchisor must consider ROI. Investing to not only to find new franchisees to grow the network and make the brand more powerful but also investing in business growing resources for the franchisee. Real Madrid do this every year. This year they took the money of their fans and used it to buy Gareth Bale from Spurs. The belief being that this will make the fans happy and they shall see a healthy ROI not only in monies raised but also trophies won. So when you are looking at franchising, ask yourself does the franchisor re-invest my Initial Investment and Licence Fees to buy a Gareth Bale every year. Good franchisors do. This is because they realise that in spending on ensuring success for their network they are securing the own future. FootieBugs re-invests £300 hard cash on every franchisee every month and invests half your Initial Investment on equipment you receive straight away. On top of this it invests hours of HQ time in producing new resources for franchisees.
Then we have the history. How long has the business been established. Who will speak on it’s behalf. Real Madrid can call on testimonials from Zidane, Beckham, Ronaldo, Raul, Figo, Puskas and so many more. These people are proof that the model works. FootieBugs already has franchisees making it work and a host of current star players have pledged their support to the FootieBugs mission including Gareth Barry, Ashley Young and Peter Crouch.
Real Madrid have so much star quality they now nicknamed the ‘ Galacticos’. This makes selling their product really easy. It also intimidates the competition. At FootieBugs we are in the unique position of having a former England international as our Technical Director; Aston Villa legend Lee Hendrie. FootieBugs franchisees work closely with Lee to ensure every franchise is touched with a little bit of star quality.From a business point of view, it really makes us stand out from the crowd.
Finally, identity; everyone recognises the distinctive all white kit of Real Madrid. I am sure that sometimes that wins games on its own. The Real Madrid brand is a powerful and global one yet it’s main identifier ‘the kit’ is one of the most simple. FootieBugs has a lovely clear brand a simple message and a great purple kit.
So when you are looking at franchise opportunities make sure you pick the one that is Real Madrid.
Written by International Franchisor & CEO of The Bugs Group Mark Goode
