A MULO Brand Scales With a Shark
CEO and Founder of Crispý Cones Jeremy Carlson is on his way to a total of 300 stores across the country. Shark Tank Barbara Corcoran gave him $200K for a 20% interest in his company, which he runs with his wife Kaitlyn. Their back story is a true inspiration to other MULO (multi-location) brands that […]
10 Things We Saw in the Multi-Location Brand Space in 2023
Of course, we’ll be publishing predictions for 2024 and beyond, but here’s a brief recap of some of the major shifts (and tiptoes in new directions) in the MULO (multi-location) brand space in 2023. The pandemic is over…the virus remains…and some shopping and dining trends have forever changed. We’ll detail some of those evolutions (or […]
BOOM: Dina Mitchell Launches a Gluten-Free MULO Brand
Dina Mitchell was the brain behind The Tropical Smoothie Café brand in Nevada and Southern California. Starting with only 23 locations, the brand grew to 1,300 and Mitchell’s stores clinched several Franchise of the Year awards and she became the Area Developer of the Year. After fifteen years of growth (including a $22 million year) […]
Fire Sale: How Multi-Location Businesses Should Handle Downturns and Fails
This year alone, more than 2,000 retail locations have closed. The major casualties include Party City, Jenny Craig, and Bed Bath & Beyond. Some multi-location restaurants are also slimming down, shuttering locations in markets that aren’t performing well. That doesn’t necessarily mean the beginning of the end for the brands. They may simply reduce expenses to […]
How Brands and Publishers Are Thinking About Beacons
“The data and analytics is important but in the end, it has to be about improving the customer experience first,” said Jennifer Bordner, marketing manager at Old Navy, during a panel at SXSW Interactive in Austin Tuesday. “What can technology do that feels more natural than an extra burden. In the end, it’s about bridging that gap between the physical and digital [experience] in a way that feels natural.”
5 Things You Need to Know About Selling to Local Consumers [SLIDESHARE]
Toward the end of last year, american shoppers reached a remarkable milestone: consumers spent more in retail stores on products, which they had researched on the Internet, than those they had not. According to eMarketer, Web-influenced offline sales now account for the largest category of retail spending in the american economy…
Why Brand Names Matter Less and Less on Main Street
The “brand era” that gave rise to some of the tentpoles of the American economy may soon come to an end. The web, now reachable wherever and whenever through smartphones, can help consumers answer many of the questions that brand once answered…