Franchise QB

Episode 15: Brian Lowe- CEO and President, BML Public Relations

• Mike Halpern • Season 1 • Episode 15

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Summary

In this episode of the Franchise QB Podcast, host Mike Halpern interviews Brian Lowe, CEO and President of BML Public Relations. Brian shares his journey into public relations and how he started his own firm. He discusses his experience working with iconic brands and how he entered the franchise space. Brian explains the role of public relations in franchise concepts and the benefits it provides. He also highlights the importance of maintaining a positive brand image and leveraging PR for growth. The episode concludes with a discussion on ideal clients for BML Public Relations and the importance of consistency and social media in PR.

Takeaways

  • Public relations plays a crucial role in maintaining a positive brand image and attracting customers to franchise concepts.
  • Consistency in messaging and brand voice is essential for effective PR.
  • PR can be leveraged to promote franchise growth and attract potential franchisees.
  • In crisis situations, PR can help mitigate damage to a franchise's reputation and address negative publicity.
  • BML Public Relations works with franchisors and multi-unit franchise companies to develop proactive PR strategies and tell compelling brand stories.

Chapters

00:00
Introduction to Franchise QB Podcast

00:44
Brian Lowe's Journey into Public Relations

02:12
Working with Iconic Brands in the Agency World

03:10
Starting BML Public Relations

04:58
Entering the Franchise Space

07:22
Working with the Flynn Group

09:10
The Role of Public Relations in Franchise Concepts

10:05
Benefits of PR for Franchise Concepts

11:29
Maintaining a Positive Brand Image

13:26
Leveraging PR for Growth

14:46
Using PR to Attract Customers and Scale Business

17:39
PR in Crisis Situations

21:00
Ideal Clients for BML Public Relations

22:22
Leveraging PR for Franchise Growth

24:16
Consistency and Social Media in PR

26:11
Closing Remarks and Contact Information

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Mike Halpern, CAFC
mike@franchiseqb.com

This is the Franchise QB Podcast, where we empower entrepreneurs to win big in franchising. We huddle up weekly to educate our audience about the most successful small business model ever created – franchising. Welcome to the Franchise QB podcast. I'm your host, Mike Halpern, a 20 year industry veteran and entrepreneur. My mission is for listeners to achieve their American dreams of creating wealth and independence through franchise ownership. Every week we speak with franchisees, franchisors, or vendors that support the industry. Thank you for joining us and let's get started. Joining us in the huddle today is Brian Lowe, CEO and President of BML Public Relations. Welcome to the show, Brian. Thanks for having me, Mike, I appreciate it. Great, so how did you get into public relations? So, you know, I think I'm one of the lucky ones that sort of fell into my passion. You know, I went to a small undergrad in Vermont, and I remember, you know, I was a general communications major, and wasn't really sure exactly the path I was gonna go down. And my advisor came up to me one day and just said, you'd be good at public relations, and there's a PR chair vacant on the student government, so you should consider that. And from there, again, if I didn't have that conversation with him that day, God knows where I would have wound up. But definitely I fell into PR kind of accidentally, and right out of college, ended up grabbing a PR job at a couple agencies where I had short stints at, Until I found an agency that was a lot of fun and really where I cut my teeth in PR. Gotcha, very cool. Thanks for that background. So when you were doing the agency work, what kind of clients did you work with back in the day? Yeah, so back in the day, the place that I really, again, kind of cut my teeth on was a place where I was fortunate enough to work with some iconic brands. So I came up in the agency world, Campbell's Soup, Progressive Insurance, Verizon, and on and on. So I really got an opportunity to look inside some of the biggest, most iconic brands in America, if not the world, and see how they operate and see how everything works behind the scenes and then be part of that planning and be part of that strategy. So that was really interesting. But then when I started my firm, for me, I was... This was 17 years ago. So I was 26, 27 years old. I kind of burned out in the big agency world, to be honest with you, and started my firm with a $300 press release project. You know, I grew up in a family business and I knew that I wanted to be a business owner in something. I wasn't interested in the family business necessarily, but yeah, basically started this thing with a side gig for 300 bucks and have grown it over the years to represent a mix of national and regional powerhouse brands across a bunch of great categories that with franchising certainly being front and center. Yeah, I want to get to franchising in a minute. So I mean, it's really cool that early on in your career, you get to work with some of those names that are household names that you see on TV all the time. Everyone's familiar with those concepts and those brands. And then you mentioned that you started your own firm, which is BML. So What was the impetus to kind of go out on your own? You mentioned that $300 press release project. So like, what was the moment you're like, you know what, I'm all in, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna be self-employed. You and I happened to start our businesses at the same time. When my son was born in 06, that's when I left my employer and decided to give it a shot. And I'm like, hey, I'm all in because I have another mouth to feed. But what was the moment you're like, this is what I have to try out and see if it works? Yeah, so, you know, honestly, I was killing myself. for somebody else. And again, it was a great experience. That agency I'm still very closely connected with and all the senior guys over there and everyone was incredible. But again, more growing up in a family business, I think feeling like, again, although that was, family business can be a tough road to run down, it's very tough to manage family employees and non-family employees. And there's an interesting dynamic and challenging dynamic that takes place. But for me, I think it was, you know, hey, I'm 26, I'm not married, I don't have a mortgage, no kids yet. Good time to take a shot. Yeah, let's give it a go. In worst case scenario, I'll get a job somewhere else. And it just happened to gain some traction and work out for me. Good for you, man. That entrepreneurial itch kind of came through and has obviously been working. So you talked a little bit about franchise clients and obviously being on the Franchise QB podcast, that is our niche. How did that start? Did you start with repping local franchise owners? Did you start working with a franchisor? How did your PR business crossover into the franchise space? So that's one of the things that, it's a great question, and that's one of the things that I think is incredible about kind of the model of franchising. So yeah, so started out with a couple of small clients through friends of friends, met somebody, a company that happened to be a, the franchisee that was bringing Smash Burger to New Jersey. So through a lot of the work we did for that client, they ended up opening 13 or 14 Smash Burger locations and that brand was on fire at the time. It was on fire, I remember that quite a bit. I spent a lot of my career in food, so totally good. They were doing great, the concept was great, and the franchise partner was an awesome client, just a really good guy. And so through that, It was, I think, you know, it was one of those things where we started the kinds of promotions at the time, at least with the media landscape and with the vibe of the world, you know, was different than, um, we just took an approach of let's generate as much publicity as we can, not just for driving people through the door, but like, let's have some fun. Um, and so a lot of the fun promotions started getting, you know, we're this small agency in New Jersey at the time. And, and, uh, so, so the corporate team out in Colorado where Smash Burger was based. We're seeing all these Google alerts coming in with all these, you know, fun and creative kind of promotions that we were coming up with and great media coverage as a result of it. It eventually we got the knock on the door from the corporate office. So, you know, I'm always a big believer in as much as we love to work with franchise or as we work with a lot of multi unit franchise companies. And the reality is we've seen significant growth in our business because of not just working with a franchisee and a franchise or knocking on the door. but we're also working, we've done a significant amount of work and still do with the Applebee system. We picked up one of our largest clients because we were doing work for a smaller Applebee's franchisee and the big dog knocked on the door and said, we want you to do that for us. So, you know... That's really cool. Yeah. So yeah, can I ask about that? You know, you're referencing the Flynn Group, which is the world's largest franchisee period. They have thousands of locations in multiple states. They're in... many industry categories, clearly casual dining and other types of food concepts. So, what kind of services did you, or do you provide for them? And how did that relationship begin? It was basically, they saw the progress you were making with the smaller owner and they said, hey, let's give you a shot and kind of see how you can help us with public relations with our models. Absolutely. So, so one of their marketing people who has just since retired at the end of 2023, she was incredible to work with. We've been with Flim Group now, I think for about 10 years. And yeah, I mean, the services are really, you know, the franchise or level really creates a lot of different promotions and rollouts and launches and things. And, you know, those are launched at the national level. From there, what we really do is we try and take a lot of those And we then take them to the local markets. So we're pitching, you know, local food writers, morning shows, you know, regional business stories related to acquisitions. So we basically take it to that next level that hopefully reaches the consumers in the markets where our brick and mortar locations are, which in theory, you know, helps drive them or pull them through the door, depending on what the promotion is. Yeah. And just to kind of give context, some of the brands that the Flynn Group operate, you mentioned Applebee's, Arby's, Taco Bell, Panera, Pizza Hut, Wendy's, 44 states. So that's a pretty large operation. And it seems like the primary objective with, you know, a franchise owner is going to get, you know, bodies in the door. Bodies in the door, creating promotions that, you know, well, first of all, it's about generating publicity, right? To make sure we're looking to plant the bug in the consumer's ear that... Hey, don't forget we exist. Hey, don't forget, here's what we're doing. Because nobody's gonna turn off a TV, close a newspaper, close a browser and say, I need this right now. But the point is when the consumer is ready and they have a need, hey, we're gonna go out to dinner this weekend. Where should we go? In theory, we've just kind of planted a bug in their ear and ideally we become the option or at least in the consideration set if we're not the place they walk through the door. And the key with PR with that is consistency, right? So you don't get them every time, but you know you try and keep that consistency going so you get them most of the time Yeah, it makes sense So let's take a step back at a higher level and discuss what public relations is and how it benefits franchise concepts So yeah, you know public relations really means different things to different people But I think the simplified definition is it's really disseminating the information to the public to influence their perception, right or drive action. So You know, marketers, you know, we talk about influencers all the time. But, you know, from my seat, this is one of the things that I've been touting over the last, geez, handful of years is that PR people, we are the old school. We are the OG influencers. Right. So since, you know, PT Barnum, it's all about, you know, spreading the word, creating the perception, driving reputation, all of those things. Right. So the goal of PR in general really is to inform, educate or entertain the general public. tied to your brand or offering. So, that's how we significantly, it really can significantly benefit franchise concepts and enhance the brand visibility. It helps build trust among consumers. It helps attract potential franchisees and investors. So, we're always talking about, it's not just consumer focus. Everyone is a consumer, right? Whether you're reading trade, business, consumer. everyone is a consumer and is a target for the types of concepts that we work with. So it also helps. So we speak to multiple audiences. And in theory, we want somebody to see a business story about a client, as well as see a consumer story. And then if they're relevant in the trade, they see something in the trade. We're looking to hit them at every touch point that we can. PR is also one of those things that helps maintain a positive brand image. It fosters community relationships. It can also address negative publicity effectively. So, you know, I think for us, we're looking to project a brand, a brand image or, you know, information about a brand specific to what they're doing. We're looking to project that to reach our audience, but we are also in many ways looking to protect the brand as well. So, so there's a lot really going on under that umbrella, but it really is. It's a very cost effective. It's not just because it's what I sell. If you look across the board at like marketing tactics in the marketing mix, it's a really efficient, effective bang for your buck because you can tell stories all day long. You can constantly try and generate publicity that relates, you know, create stories that generates messaging, which hopefully creates that action and drives people through the door. Yeah, I think those stories help create momentum. And when you have a brand that has a good story and it has momentum. Whether you're looking to invest in that franchise system as an entrepreneur or you're a consumer that's going to frequent that establishment, I think PR plays a role in both of those sides, like you said before, and you mentioned consistency. That's gotta be a huge part of the mix because the message gets lost if it's not reinforced. So I can see, you know, if you have effective methods to kind of keep that brand top of mind and be creative with it, it can be great for the, you know, the franchise owner that's looking to drive traffic and sales, and then also, Franchise system that's looking to attract great owners to kind of build the build the brand You know when you look at franchisees as well, right potential investors, right? They these guys, you know, they're saying hey, I've got money and I want to opt into a system And how well is that system gonna support us? You know, is it or is it just I buy the rights to you know, talk to all the trademarked assets and then I'm on my own So that's where you know, I think that it's definitely a development tool significantly, we do a lot of developmental PR to make sure that, you know, if people are putting their toe in the water and considering buying into a franchise, that they see a ton of media coverage because it makes them at least realize, okay, great, these guys, these guys are moving, there's momentum and it's consistent. You know, and then the one last thing to your point, right, is the consistency of it. There's nothing that's a quick flash in the pan that is going to get you to the promised land in any way. Right. So. At the end of the day, that consistent visibility and media outlets that your customers consume, that's how you remain top of mind. And from a consistency standpoint, our strategy is always to put you where, kind of fish where the fish are, right? So, the exception of Vogue or maybe the Super Bowl, right? So like nobody's ever closed a magazine or turned off the TV and said, wow, those ads were incredible. PR is what gets you to where people are. going to find the latest and greatest. So New York Times, if you're a single restaurant in New York City, you're just one location, you're vying for the New York Times restaurant review because that's where people are going to figure out what's the latest and greatest to go. So it's very similar and it adapts to franchisees as well. Very cool. So yeah, let's drill down further on that. So, you know, a franchisee joins the system, they're looking to kind of be in the limelight. How do franchise owners at the store level leverage PR to attract customers, build sales and scale their business? What kind of methods do you use in your agency to kind of achieve those goals? Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, look, brand storytelling is really important. And that's really leveraging. Like, again, we started off this interview and I gave you the background on, which helped build my credibility, right? What's my experience? Where have I been? Where are the successes? Brand storytelling, you want to be able to craft compelling narratives about the franchise, either the franchise origin or the franchisee's story, the origins, the values, the achievements. You want to connect those with the audiences and build a positive brand image. So it's a way for you to showcase really successful franchises through PR efforts. You want to highlight those stories. You want to talk about those achievements and attract potential franchise partners and instill the confidence in the brand and continue to build it. So storytelling is great. You know a heart I think a thing that is also can be challenging for franchisers sometimes And and we've seen it work really well when you when you put in the right process is really listen There are incredible stories Happening in these franchise systems every single day that the franchise or is may never know about You know, it can be as simple of if we had an Applebee's manager who just in his free time He was a guy, he was an overweight guy at one point, decided to take up long distance running. And here at a location in New Jersey, he ran a hundred miles to raise money for kids cancer check. That's awesome. That's great. Yeah, I mean, so it was like one of those things where that story kind of bubbled up to the surface because we had, you know, we were kind of always trying to say, hey, listen, we need to, let's extract some of these things that are happening at the local level. And we've gotten some great mileage out of it, not just mileage for publicity. And not mileage is a pun because of how long you're on. But this guy was able to also raise a significant amount of money because of the publicity that we supported him with. And our client made a donation to support the cause as well. So there are great stories like that in every system. And it's really trying to leverage the different layers between the franchisor and the store level to really try and extract those. It's hard, but the rewards will be there if you're able to do it. Yeah, very cool. That's really neat. So we talked about the positive side of PR. Obviously, things sometimes don't happen that way. And there's obviously ways to leverage PR for growth. But what happens when things go bad? How can PR help in a crisis? So that's where you look. When a crisis happens, you want to, first of all, before a crisis happens, You really want to try and develop a proactive crisis communication plan to address any negative situations properly. You want to maintain that transparency and you want to mitigate that potential damage to the franchise's reputation. So, you know, a lot of systems will come in if they don't already have protocols in place. We try and put together, you know, a committee that everyone is activated when there's a crisis situation. That means everyone gets on a call. We review. We review all the available information, we review the status of injuries or damages, we look at surveillance footage. From there, we also cooperate with local authorities, assuming that they're involved, if they're involved, and try to support it any way we can. It's really important that you have to have those protocols in place when it hits the fan because what happens is people start running way too fast. So you want to make sure that there are effective protocols in place should a negative situation arise. How exactly from a blanketed standpoint do you manage it? That all depends on the type of situation. But the point is that, look, you never lie. You always want to cooperate. You want to be transparent. If you made a mistake, you acknowledge the mistake. You look at Starbucks years ago, had a great situation where, not a great situation, it was a horrible situation. But they handled it incredibly because they shut every location and decided to retrain the staff related to the situation, which I believe was a discrimination situation. You know, so when you look at how now that was a horrible situation that PR wanted to also protect the brand. And you get to a point where you say the best solution or the best option is to really step back and do the right things. Right. And that and to do that. They put. They put the right thing over profits. They closed for those days and they emphasized, you know, the training, which was, which was huge. And I think was something that really helped them get through that difficult time. Yeah. Demonstrates that they care about, um, you know, fixing the mistake, acknowledging mistake, looking it in the eye and making a change and putting their money where their mouth is taking revenue out of the system to fix the problem before they kind of fire operations back up. And. You know, to me, I spent a lot of years in the food space and I'm sure many of us that can think, you know, five, 10 years back, remember, you know, the issue with Subway and their spokesperson, Jared, and then the issues with Papa John's, with John Schnatter. And those things happen and they're terrible things, but they're still innocent franchisees that can have a lot of problems with their sales and revenues and being boycotted by groups. And you know, that's not what you want for your business. So having PR there, I can see it can be really effective in kind of riding the ship and getting these brands back on track So like who makes a good client for you I mean if I own one restaurant or one home service territory like am I a good client for you? Do I need to scale to a certain level of locations before it makes sense to engage your services? Who do you look for in a really good client that you think you'd be really effective at helping them get their messaging out and kind of? promoting their business and showing them some ROI? Yeah, so I think that, look, I think it varies. I think it depends on the concept. I mean, we typically work with multi-unit, either we either work with franchise or multi-unit franchise companies. Okay. Operators, because I think at the end of the day, just the single locations don't necessarily have the budget to do it, or sometimes it can be. They're still working with operations and smoothing out a lot of things, hopefully to kind of chart a growth path. So for us, I think it's definitely franchisors and multi-unit. However, for me, it's important to be a resource to people in general. So if there's anyone who needs a PR perspective, I'm happy to always discuss that with them, point them in the right direction, whether that means that we get them on board or not. You know simple things to right making sure that you know, like some of the things that we're talking about, you know You're on the podcast today We're just giving them some pointers to help them succeed because in theory Hopefully they grow that system when they grow that system and it's the right size for us We'd love to help them continue that trajectory. So for us, I think it varies but I think the great news in general is that Franchise concepts have so much news. I think there's more news than people realize there are master franchise agreements, there are now opening, there's this cadence of signing the lease, the master franchise agreement, the hiring, the grand openings, the various promotions, creative promotions, there's so much that can be packed into the calendar year. And again, which is great from, of all the industries we work in, that's one of the things I love most about the franchise space. There's so much news. And when we talk about consistency being key, there's never a shortage of things to promote in the franchise space. So, but back to your original question, you know, again, anyone who's looking for a perspective or needs a little hand or just needs, you know, we're not going to pull out the invoice and hit them over the head with it. I'm happy to have those conversations be a resource because we want to make sure people get it right, first of all, for the sake of their brand. And on top of that, there's a lot of confusion between what PR is and what advertising is. And we wanna make sure that we can show people some really great things. It doesn't always have to come down to an agency. There are great ways that people can leverage PR on their own. Some of the things we mentioned earlier, but creative as I mentioned, leaning into creative, while so many brands differ, connecting with your target audience differently than your category can typically be a way to stand out. Creative is a huge way, especially for brands that don't have the blank checks. Not that any early writing knows these days, but for a blank check, For any of those who don't have the blank check, creative is a great way to kind of get around that, right? To do something fun, do something smart, do something impactful, make people think something profound, that's another great tool. So again, we work with systems of all sizes, but like I said, I'm most interested in helping people just embrace PR, leverage it properly, and reap all the benefits. And I think there's, obviously when something opens up, it's a grand opening, there's a lot of kind of hype around it. It's kind of the new thing, but then that fades over time. And I think that's where PR really can step in. You've talked about the consistency of messaging and just kind of keeping top of mind. And there's so many ways to do it if you build out a calendar. And that's really hard to do for an operator, whether it's food or something else, where they're like focused on managing their team, making sure the quality is consistent a professional that comes in and kind of oversees that side of the business is a great way to leverage what you guys do to kind of have a great outcome, which is kind of more customers, more attention, more sales, and hopefully better margins. So that all makes sense to me. So we've covered a lot of ground here with public relations. I appreciate that, Brian. Anything else that we missed that you want to add to the mix before we wrap up? You know what? One of the last things I'll just say too is, as you mentioned, it can be challenging for those, for a lot of different... sized organizations, right? One of the key things though is leverage social as well. Social media and PR really go hand in hand, but also make sure you have consistency in voice. There's nothing worse than when we see a brand out in the media space, kind of communicating one thing, and then on social, you see kind of a different vibe, a different tone, a different voice. So just make sure as you're mapping all these things out, you've got consistency in brand voice. It's one of those things where You know, it's noticeable when you don't. So listen, I appreciate you having me on, Mike. It's been a lot of fun. And like I said, if anyone's interested or needs, it's just a little counsel, little point in the right direction. Don't hesitate to reach out to me and you can reach us through bmlpr.com and track us down. We'll be happy to help. Yeah, and also. If you want to connect with Brian, you can also contact me at FranchiseQB.com or on Twitter @QBFranchiseQB to discuss any franchise related PR services. And Brian, I really appreciate you taking the time to get in the huddle with us and talk about BML Public Relations. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you for listening to the Franchise QB podcast where you're at the helm of your future as a franchise owner. If you enjoyed the content, please rate the show and recommend it to anyone that might be interested in franchising. Make sure to visit FranchiseQB.com to subscribe to my newsletter and for an actionable playbook to go from walk-on to legend in your new business. Follow us on Twitter @QBFranchiseQB and join us every week for a new episode. See you next time. Visit FranchiseQB.com to take the next step of your journey towards wealth, independence, and franchise ownership. And remember. When working for the man gets old, you must do something bold. Thank you for listening.