"Selling" to the Thai market

[oogster8]

No offense but dont people who buy franchises want a sure thing?

[farang000999]

I mean, generally franchises offer the franchise an established brand. for whatever reason, customers like going to the same places. it's funny cause you take the biggest franchisers, SUBWAY, and their product is total garbage (I guess in Thailand you have very limited options for subs), your local American Sub Shop is sooooo much better.... yet people pay and arm and a leg for the SUBWAY brand name and it's completely inferior product.

If subway sold SHIT there wouldnt be a subway! 49 baht for a ham sanwich isnt an arm and a leg. 113 baht for tuna meal deal also isnt an arm and a leg.

the franchisee pays an arm and a leg not the customer you dolt.

[brucetefl]

Then the definition of "sure thing" in Thailand is ANOTHER coffee shop. LOL

No offense but dont people who buy franchises want a sure thing?

[brit1984]

To really make this work (in Thailand), I think you need to get a musical celeb (or celebs) involved - give free equity in holdco (and/or a share of franchise fees) in return for helping you to the market the brand (and sell franchises). If they can accompany you to the 2 big franchise expos I mentioned in my previous post and/or come with you to visit uni business schools and/or the top uni music schools I think there should be no problem finding people interested to open franchises, assuming the numbers and business case all make sense...

First priority though should be getting the business case clear - e.g. what is the market value per city/area?.. what is the expected market share (with supporting evidence from existing operations and other justification of assumption)?... how will the teachers be recruited and trained (and how much do they need to be paid)?... exactly what support will you give the franchisee on operations and marketing?... (and why is the value of that combined with the brand offer a good return on the franchise fee portion of the initial investment)...

There are plenty of people in Thailand with money to invest (often without a huge amount of planning/diligence/forethought) in commercial enterprises (and many are particularly keen to be involved with interesting/cool industries like yours) but there are also many amazing investment opportunities available (and unfortunately even more not so good opportunities designed to target those who splash their cash on a whim) so you will have to work hard to stand out but should be easy if you get a celeb "face" involved and get the numbers in order.

Good luck.

[brucetefl]

Many have given some very sound advice. Arrogantly (and I have certainly been accused of being arrogant before) I have already thought of most of this. However, this being a forum, its likely very good information for the next person who comes along.

I have already met with one of the major franchise-marketing organizations now. I am preparing the information they want but they seem confident this will be a hit. Time will tell.

[oogster8]

Of course a firm that markets franchises will say its a hit. How much are they going to make if they say forget about it.

I am arrogant...........lol. The reason you say the info given will be good for the next guy but not you is because its all shit!

What am i missing. Do people buy Franchise concepts or do they want to see one in operation before buying one.

[brucetefl]

What are you missing? After reading your posts, probably quite a lot my friend. All I asked was for some info on targeting the Thai market.

Edited October 3, 2013 by brucetefl