The KFC Ad You Can See from Space
Think you've seen some awesome franchise advertising in your day? Figure that annoying Arby's guy is top of the charts? Think those Ronald McDonald and Hamburgler spots of your youth were out of this world?
Think again, friend. The KFC franchise has quietly outdone the competition -- with an ad that can be seen from space.
Yes, according to a report on space-visible ads by NPR's Mito Habe-Evans, the Kentucky Fried Chicken gang has paid the ultimate tribute to their late leader, with a tile portrait of Colonel Sanders, out in the middle of a dry expanse of dirt in Nevada, that's visible from beyond our atmosphere.
View the Colonel in all his desert glory (via Google Maps):
In fact, the portrait of this white-haired wizard of the deep fry was created back in 2006. It was spotted by Alex and James Turnbull, who run the Google Sightseeing blog, which catalogs this crazy stuff that the brothers find using, well, Google Maps. (Yeah, there went the rest of your afternoon, spent clicking away on their blog).
Despite the fact that it cost the FranchiseHelp.com staff hours of browsing time, we're glad the Turnbulls found this ad, whose discovery should sell a few more KFC franchise opportunities for proud parent Yum! Brands...
The Importance of Setting Clear Expectations
So my recommendation is as follows: As early in the relationship as possible, invest the time necessary to clearly describe the shared expectations for how you will work with your customers and, and how you will work with your employees. If you do this well, everyone will be on the same page and when you deliver something a little bit better than they expect, the will see you as someone they trust, like and want to be loyal to – a strong driver of success for any business.
Franchise Buying Tips: Purchase Without Passion
Yet that is exactly what most franchisees do. It's good to be enthusiastic about your future business plans. It's bad to fall in love with the deal and let your emotions take the lead. Think that won't happen to you? If you talk to a hundred franchisees you will find that few knew exactly what they were getting into. Most are sensible people with plenty of information who selectively twisted the facts to support an emotional decision.
