Marketing Byte: AFMR Examines Size and Responsibilities of Franchise Marketing Teams

The 2024 Annual Franchise Marketing Report (AFMR) provides data-driven insights that marketing professionals and other leaders can use to measure and elevate their efforts. The franchise space is constantly faced with opportunities and challenges as marketers adapt to industry shifts, including the need to accelerate the digital transformation of their brands. Franchise CMOs, CEOs, VPs, directors of marketing, and other senior-level marketing leaders completed detailed questionnaires for the sixth annual AFMR.

The data and statistical findings were aggregated and analyzed to comprehensively examine the marketing practices, budgets, and strategies across a broad spectrum of franchise brands and sectors. The internal marketing team In the most recent AFMR Marketing Byte, we looked at who handles some of the franchise marketing responsibilities, specifically if they are outsourced to an agency or third-party service. In this report, we are examining the size and responsibilities of the franchise marketing team.

Nearly three quarters (74 percent) of the franchises surveyed in the AFMR indicated they had a marketing team of five people or fewer. It was an even distribution of responses, with the size of the team (1-5) each receiving between 14 to 16 percent. Staffs with seven or eight members each received six percent, while teams with 11 or more members received 12 percent.

Knowing when to add more team members is a question for any company, and it often depends on the current business and revenue being able to support additional employees. That is also the case with franchise marketing departments, as 78 percent of respondents indicated it was related to an increase in business. Thirty-six percent said that the decision to add to the marketing department came when there was an increase in the number of locations or units in the system.

That was followed by an increase in the number of franchisees (30 percent) and total sales volume (12 percent). Franchise marketing team – areas of involvement When asked if their organization has marketing team members dedicated to specific areas, respondents shared eight different areas, with overlap on multiple categories. Social media strategy received the highest response at 80 percent.

That was followed by digital advertising (66 percent), field marketing/franchisee support (61 percent), and franchise development marketing (57 percent). Thirty-four percent of the franchise marketing teams are involved with customer experience, 23 percent with local listings and reviews, and 14 percent with employee recruiting and retention. Only seven percent are involved in TV and radio broadcast advertising, which is often outsourced to agencies.