Inta Juice cleverly received a lot of PR by asking NFL football player Randy Moss to be a shareholder and board member. Celebrity involvement at the management level may help increase brand recognition, and brand recognition generally should be a prerequisite for franchisees before they buy into a franchise system. The buzz will probably occur for the first few franchisors that engage celebrities in this way.
I don’t like the name “Inta Juice”, though.
The company claims
Fuller said the company has received more than 50 calls about opening franchises since the company announced Moss was joining them.
“There are (currently) over 30 locations in eight states, and with the amount of leads we are getting, we’re looking to have at least 50 by the end of July,” Fuller said. “It’s due to Moss and strategic marketing and advertising. But the biggest reason is the media buzz coming from Randy’s involvement.”
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Ryan is an attorney and valuation specialist residing in Chicago. He chronicles his thoughts and research on FranchisePundit.com. You may reach him by email ryanknoll@gmail.com or mobile telephone 312-715-8115.
I wonder what the deal was. Did Moss get equity? If so, in exchange for what? Did Moss buy a stake in the company? I bet the deal was some cash upfront to Moss, and then a percent of future profits based on some agreed upon formula.
Remember Doug Flutie? Actually, the restaurant outlasted his popularity here in NYC.
Celebrities can be a double-edged sword. If you were the execs at Pepsi back in the late 80′s, signing Michael Jackson looked as good an idea as Payless Shoes signing Star Jones recently. Celebs may get a bit of buzz, and that may pull in franchisee purchasers, but I doubt it would have much influence long-term. At least if there is some incentive (as Eddie suggests in the post above) the celeb might be more inclined to push the brand name.
Restaurants named after celebs as Paul said is probably a different situation. Whatever celebrity PR can be generated is probably good for attracting customers, but I doubt it will in any way help franchisees from an operations standpoint.