News and Analysis
The MULO Dozen: January in Review
January, the first month of 2025, was jam-packed with announcements of leadership changes, innovative new store designs and menu items, and game-changing technologies. Brands are suiting up for the Super Bowl. The TikTok “pause” created mass panic among influencers and agencies. As the 2025 progresses, watch this space for the trends, perspectives, and data that […]
Consumers Do This 69% of the Time
Do what? A new study by Salsify revealed that 69% of consumers now make purchases while doing other things — scrolling through social media, browsing YouTube, or even watching shows on Netflix. The days of someone saying, “Let’s go shopping” still exist, but multitasking is now the norm for close to 70% of the population, […]
Just Salad Tosses in AI & Personalization
We know that consumers are okay with personalization and targeting, providing it adds value to their lives and saves them time. A whopping 64 percent of consumers report liking custom-tailored experiences. Just Salad was founded in 2006 and now has more than 90 locations. I remember being excited when the fast-casual chain opened in New […]
Commentary
Marketing Agency Perspective: Improving the Franchisor-Franchisee Relationship
The relationship between a franchisor and a franchisee is … unique. Given the franchise business model and the fact that a franchisor is in a relationship with hundreds or thousands of franchisees, it’s especially important to nurture a better corporate and franchisee relationship. Here are five ideas to do just that, from a franchise marketing […]
Put a Pin in It: The Definition of a Place is Transforming
Domino’s just launched a new product (and is running campaign ads), enabling consumers to have pizza and other treats delivered wherever they “drop a pin.” It’s aptly called Pinpoint Delivery™. The definition of a “place” is transforming. Pre-Internet, it was simply a physical brick-and-mortar location. You went to those places to shop, dine, stay, meet, […]
BOOM: Maxwell Bonnie Creates a New Industry for Smaller Manufacturers
Restaurants and retailers are “traditional” MULO (multi-location categories). But the business world is changing, and different types of brick-and-mortar enterprises are emerging as new industry. We’ve covered several MULO (multi-location) business categories that are appearing in response to business/consumer needs — like podcast studios, IV locations, and boutique gyms. Inventors and manufacturers are now proliferating. […]
Latest Posts
Apple, McDonald’s, and Disney Lead Rise in Q1 OOH Ad Spend
As the upfront presentations wound down, and negotiations began in earnest this month, it’s worth noting that a recent news report signaled a distinct set of diminishing media spending returns in linear TV. The article also said the beneficiaries of TV’s decline are social media spend and OOH ad spend. The Out of Home Advertising Association […]
Weight Loss Centers Firm Up
The weight management industry in the U.S. generated $90B in revenue in 2023. Fed by demand for weight loss drugs (contributing close to $12B in sales), trimming down seems timeless, although brick-and-mortar centers have evolved over the years. Weight Watchers was founded in 1963 by Jean Nidetch and grew to thousands of locations worldwide. In 2018, […]
Raptive Connects Brands to Diverse Creator Media
When Raptive, which describes itself as a “creator media” company, launched Raptive Represents earlier this month to provide direct access to premium, diverse creator media at scale, it was also part of its partnership with Media Framework’s Media Advertising Vendor Encoding & Nomenclature (MAVEN). MAVEN helps buyers understand which media are majority-owned and controlled by diverse owners and supplies certificates so […]
“Momentjacking” is the New Holiday Promotion
You may have heard of “newsjacking.” It simply means that brands and influencers plan their social media posting and content around current events and consumer trends. However, as the world (and social media feeds) move faster than ever before and people jump on a wide range of “fauxlidays” (contrived holidays meant mostly for marketing purposes), reality […]
Pizza Industry Tech
“Let’s order a couple of pies!” … “Let’s grab a slice!” … Those suggestions are alive and well, as evidenced by Americans eating an average of 156 slices each year. The pizza industry is estimated at $46B. Local single-location pizza shops still exist, but the MULO (multi-location) giant Domino’s tops the list in terms of […]
MULO Outposts are In Vogue
What do we mean by a MULO (multi-location) outpost? It’s a brand that’s located within a “non-traditional” venue. For example, Hudson News is a standard airport tenant that sells magazines, treats, and travel-related incidentals for travelers to grab en route. They have more than 1,000 stores now in 37 states. Imagine this writer’s surprise when […]
Why Granular Voter Data Matters for Ad Buyers
Comscore, which plans, transacts, and evaluates media across platforms, is for the first time, sharing its Congressional District CTV Index data for some Congressional Districts in New York, California, Nebraska, and Alaska. With transformative data science and vast audience insights across digital, linear TV, over-the-top (OTT) and theatrical viewership, Comscore is a third-party source for […]
Who is Today’s Franchisee?
The answer is, “It could be anyone!” Among the new breed of franchisee (in addition to celebrities and private equity firms) are what we call “corporate refugees.” Experienced business professionals are burning out and aging out of big businesses and seeking autonomy, ownership, and creativity; they seek ways to operate and scale businesses without some […]
Is Bankruptcy the New Normal for MULO Brands?
Over the past year, we’ve featured many articles about multi-location (MULO) brands that declared bankruptcy (BUSTs). But we’ve also seen brands emerge from bankruptcy, become part of other companies (like Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock), and/or change their business model to be online-only (as Lord & Taylor did with its iconic brand). Some other […]
BUST: No-Booze Retailers
Although the alcohol-free cocktail market is on the upswing (over $162B in revenue this year), MULO (multi-location) retailers devoted to booze-free beverages seem to be struggling. Boisson was founded in Brooklyn in 2021 and expanded to Miami and Los Angeles. Although the company was planning on international expansion, it recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy […]
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