The gap of marketing mindset between franchisors and franchisees: How to cope with it from the viewpoint of franchisees

Soochow University

Global Business Program, School of Business

The gap of marketing mindset between franchisors and franchisees:

How to cope with it from the viewpoint of franchisees

Student：Miracle Hsin Lee

Advisor: Dr. Hsuan-hsuan Ku

The gap of marketing mindset between franchisors and franchisees:

How to cope with it from the viewpoint of franchisees

A Thesis Submitted to Soochow University

in partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Business Administration In

Global Business Program

By

Miracle Hsin Lee

Global Business program, School of business, Soochow University

June 2016

Acknowledgement

Finally the day has arrived. Every day and night reading articles, finding resources finally comes to the end, it is complicated to say goodbye to this strange but also familiar thesis, and also my graduate life in Soochow University.

Study master degree is one of the best decisions that I have made during my life. I was once lost while I was majoring in English literature at Wenzao, but thanks to my boyfriend at that time, which encouraged me to try in different area. Luckily, Global Business Program from Soochow University became my second family during my graduate life.

This thesis has been many help by so many people, especially thanks to my parents who always backed me up and supported my decision of studying master. I am very lucky to be Prof.

Hsuan-hsuan Ku’s student during my master degree. She is a considerate professor and an inspired woman. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. CL Jan and Prof. JS Roan that always encourage me during lessons and support my thesis. Thank you my committee Prof. YC Michael Lin and Prof. SL Wei for giving me advice and encouragement. I would like to thank our secretary Yi-ching Serena Chiang for helping my thesis from the start with many paper works and correcting the format of my thesis.

Thank you Wenzao and Soochow University, the wonderful and spectacular student life that I ever had in my life.

Happy Graduation!

Miracle Hsin Lee 2016/6/22

Abstract

Franchise is an easy and popular way to enter a business. Especially in Asia countries we can see many kind of franchise business around us. Similar store compete with each other in order to attract customers’ eye, in other words, attract customers to purchase.

Marketing strategy becomes a very important part in a business. Most of the theses focus on how to draw up the marketing activities, but few of them discuss from the angle of franchisees. Therefore, this study aimed to reveal the thought from franchisees in order to give better understanding for franchisors, and hopefully to maintain harmoniously relationship between both sides.

This study and the interview questions is designed base on trust-commitment theory by Morgan and Hunt (1994). Five categories, which are ability, integrity, benevolence, communication and trust, are the grading standard for franchisors. Through these designed questions in order to reveal the thought of franchisees.

Keywords: Franchise, Franchisor and Franchisee, Mindset, Relationship, Marketing activity

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... I ABSTRACT ... II TABLE OF CONTENTS ... III TABLES ... IV FIGURES ... V

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ... 1

1.1RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND PROBLEMS ... 1

1.2RESEARCH OBJECTIVE AND PURPOSE ... 4

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ... 6

2.1FRANCHISE SYSTEM ... 6

2.1.1DEFINITION OF FRANCHISE SYSTEM ... 6

2.1.2TYPES OF FRANCHISE SYSTEM ... 7

2.2FRANCHISE MANAGEMENT ... 11

2.2.1FRANCHISE MANAGEMENT ISSUES AND RESEARCH ... 11

2.3RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN FRANCHISORS AND FRANCHISEES ... 13

2.3.1DEFINITION OF FRANCHISOR ... 13

CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 18

3.1METHODOLOGY ... 18

3.2RESEARCH MODEL ... 19

CHAPTER 4. RESULTS AND FINDINGS ... 22

4.1RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ... 22

CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION ... 27

APPENDIX 1 ... 31

Tables

Table 1 Comparison of franchised system ... 10

Table 2 Trust-commitment theory ... 20

Table 3 Designed questions based on the trust-commitment theory ... 21

Table 4 Interview extract about franchisor’s ability. ... 23

Table 5 Interview extract about franchisor’s integrity ... 24

Table 6 Interview extract about franchisor’s marketing activity performance ... 25

Table 7 Interview extract about franchisor’s communication performance ... 26

Table 8 Interview extract by franchisees’ in the category of trust ... 26

Figures

Figure 1 Different type of franchise system ebb and flow of corporation's control power and branch's autonomy ... 10 Figure 2 Cause of conflict ... 12

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 Research Background and Problems

Franchise system is an easy and common way to join a business nowadays, we can see many franchise business around our daily life now, such as 7-11 convenient store, Family-mart, and 85°C café. Based on the reasons of sharing resources and reducing competition, companies have developed many cooperative ways and the franchise chain is one of very popular ways (Ting, Chen & Wu, 2004). According to Association of Chain and Franchise Promotion (2012), Taiwan has the highest density of franchisors over the world, and more than 50% are catering service corporations. Also, Taiwan retail and catering business has turnover of NT$ 3.6 trillion and the number includes franchise system of NT$ 1.75 trillion, accounting for about 48% of total turnover in retail and catering industry. This shows franchise industry plays an important role in Taiwan’s economic activities. “Franchising today is one of the most innovative, dynamic and effective systems for distribution of good and services the world has ever known.” (Friedlander & Gurney, 1990)

Franchise chain is a vertical marketing system (VMS), very differ from the traditional marketing. Expanding store to increase the turnover is the target of every franchise brand. To expand stores but without tasting or feeling differently, the common way is to establish an Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), so every stores will be alike, taste alike and also looks alike, it follows that the marketing plan should be the same

too.

Franchisor and franchisee are coexistent in relationship of the organization, and also the trading relationship: the franchisee helps the franchisor to sell the products.

The more recognition towards franchisor, the more opportunities to re-contract and will also lead more contribution to franchisor. But also, franchisee must follow the rules that franchisor formulate, from the chocolate for decoration to the marketing launching activities.

Franchising companies face strong pressure due to competition (Velissariou &

Chadou, 2013). Marketing skills is how a brand expands their notability and promotes their products. To achieve the sales goal, the company will use different strategies to attract people to buy from them, for example: 85°C café launched the “Thank God Its Friday Coffee Day”, (a.k.a. TGIF Coffee Day). This event gives customer a discount on the second one of coffee they purchased, which is 50% off, and only on Friday. Other example: Taiwan FamilyMart and 7-11 launched the point collecting activity, people can use the point to exchange limited gift. The marketing strategy seems a big success:

people buy more on Friday for the coffee at 85°C café and people is desperately to collect whole set of limited gift from convenient stores. This condition repeats again and again, and people are used to having little discount when shopping. The good intention of stimulating buying power seems to become more priceless.

When something goes from special to normal, it becomes priceless, because it is not scarce anymore. Taiwan has the common failing that merchandise never learned the

customer is fleeting interest people. Some marketing event went viral because it is a new launched event that customer never seen before, but when every shop follows up the similar event, the sales drop tremendously. Organizing activities, selling in special prize, using media for exposure…all of these can be called “promotion tactics”, but this is not “marketing strategy”. Tactics are short-term activity, used to enhance the achievement of a one-time task. Strategy is a long-term activity, talking about how the company achieves the goal (Lin, 2012). Lin (2012) also mentioned that promotion is just how to attract new customer, but marketing is a system that how to give value to the customer and receive reasonable profit from the customer. The company cannot rely on promotional event forever to attract customers; they should form a cycle to control the money costs and activity lasts time, in order to keep the customers and produce a positive return investment. Most franchisor in Taiwan uses promotional “tactics” too much and spoiled the customers, so the sales become steadily ineffective every time.

Franchisee is not happy to see this situation because customers do not shop on the days that without discount. This is the reason why and how the marketing thinking is different between franchisors and franchisees.

Not only the marketing thinking is different, other ideas or aspects are also different, sometimes is because feeling “unfair”. The relationship in the franchising should be based on mutual trust and cooperation between the two parties to ensure the successful operation of the business venture (Velissariou & Chadou, 2013), feeling unfair and led to conflict can be seen frequently and even cause the termination of franchise relationship. The failure is because both sides could not reach a consensus of

marketing mindset, or thinking, but seldom of thesis discuss from franchisees’ side. So this gave me an idea of making a research of standing in franchisees’ shoes instead of franchisor’s to see what has been missing between both sides.

I believe the problems have occurred in every franchise business. In my experience of working part-time in 85°C café, it becomes an example that I observed. 85°C café is a good example of franchise chain brand in Taiwan started from 2005. Ten years has gone by, the brand did not washed away by the currents of the time, but I believe has been through many tough time and is a good example to be discussed. There are lots of thesis discussed franchise businesses in the past; many of them mainly give credit to the company itself (franchisor), some of them discuss from franchisees’ point of view, but more likely from conceptual angle, or an abstract aspect. Hence, this thesis will based on franchisees’ point of view, discussing the essentially way of communication with the franchisor, especially in marketing area.

1.2 Research Objective and Purpose

Trust and reliability is a variable in relationship marketing. To enhance the relationship between both sides is homework for every franchise chain brand. The mindset of 85°C café (franchisor) can be reveal from the periodical every month they sent to the store, so the mindset I would like to discovered is the franchisees’ mindset.

This thesis purpose is to:

1. Distinguish the different mindset between franchisor and franchisee.

2. How to maintain, or cope with the relationship within the gap between.

Chapter 2. Literature Review

2.1 Franchise System

2.1.1 Definition of franchise system

The word “Franchise” was originally from French, meaning freedom from slavery. Thereafter in English franchise means “special right”, and now we can interpret it as “license”, which is the binding contract between franchisor and franchisee, it provides an opportunity for people to have their own career. Franchising offers opportunities for individuals and business firms who wish to expand their business and is an important market strategy in world market for economic development, job creation and business growth (Hoffman & Preble, 1991).

Japan Franchise Association (JFA) thinks franchise is the cooperation and franchisors conclude a legal, written contract that authorize other to use its logo, slogan, and selling techniques to sell its products in similar cooperate image. Relatively, franchisees pay an equitable fee to the cooperation. Running a franchise business is a coexist relationship between cooperation and franchisees. International Franchise Association (IFA) defined “Franchise is the agreement or license between two legally parties which gives a person or group of people (franchisee) the right to market a product or service using the trademark or trade name of another business (franchisor).”

The franchise system is treated as a distribution channel, using the dimensions traditionally used in the literature on distribution channels - conflict, power, and

relationship (Stern & El-Ansary, 1988).Kotlor (1988) proposed that franchise system is a combination of principal (manufacturing wholesaler, services industry organization) and agent (franchisee, independent entrepreneur) by signing contract. Su (2002) defined franchise system as two or more stores that shared the same name, logo, cooperate identity to sell products. Headquarter gives the authority to operate the store, and help the store from training, purchasing and managing. As Mendelsohn (1999) states, franchising is a method of distribution and marketing goods and services in almost every business segment.

To be brief, this study defines franchise system as a long-term business relationship with headquarter, to sell the products by sharing the same name, logo, cooperation identity, and technology of operations.

2.1.2 Types of franchise system

1. The U.S. system

First launched “Products and franchising”, the store gets only the products and the icon. The relationship of franchisor and franchisee in this system is not close, so most of the research does not take this type of franchising into account. New type of franchising in the U.S. is called “Business format franchising”. Business format franchising provides not only the tangible icon but also the intangible managerial assistance, accounting assistance, such as McDonald as example.

2. The Japanese system

Japan has very complex distribution system, so they develop a special way of

classification. The classification is based on the rights and obligations on the contract to formulate the categories. It can be categorize in four category: Regular Chain (RC), Voluntary Chain (VC), Franchise Chain (FC ＆ FC2). At the moment, Taiwan has various types of franchise system, which is closer to Japanese style of franchising system. Based on Japanese franchise system, there are four categories that Taiwanese corporation are more familiar with:

(1) Corporate Chain (RC)

In a narrow sense, the company itself owns the store.

(2) Voluntary Chain (VC)

Franchise Association defined VC is a “ Joint system of a scattered retail stores that seeking to modernize its retail business. They want to have the advantages that chain system provided, which is sustainability, but not to effect its own independence.” Usually franchisor only requires the unified image of the store, and some help on managing the store. Therefore franchisor has low control ability to VC franchisor. Unified purchase to lower down the costs is the most important part of VC, and it is the main reason why traditional grocery store cannot compete with convenient store nowadays. Many grocery stores have chosen to join the higher autonomy of VC system, also it is the major factor that franchise system grow rapidly in the early times.

(3) Franchise Chain (FC)

Lai (1999) called “Franchise Chain” is the authentic franchise system, because

“Franchise Chain” is the only word for franchise system in the United States, there

is no “Regular Chain”, or “Voluntary Chain”. JFA defined franchise chain is a

“contractual behavior between Corporation (franchisor) and stores (franchisee), the corporation provide their own trademark for stores to use, and also provide business know-how, same business design and merchandise to sell. The stores that obtaining these rights need to pay a certain amount relatively. Under the guidance and assistance of the franchisor, the relationship is coexisting and will be continue until the end of the contract.”

(4) Franchise Chain II (FC II)

FC II is a new term in franchise system, the term usually goes with regular franchise chain. FC II is a changed form of regular FC: Instead of finding place by franchisee, the company (franchisor) find a place for the store, and hire a manager, which is also the franchisee to run the store. The autonomy of FC II is low, because the shop owner is franchisor, not franchisee. Some corporation even required the franchisees to be a couple, so they can put in 100% of effort to run the store. The corporation has great control in FC II, so accordance with the traditional literature review, FC II cannot be counted in franchise system.

In summary, the various forms can be explained in Figure 1 that the corporation has higher control power in RC, then FC, FC II, and the last is VC, while franchisee’s autonomy is the opposite way.

.

Figure 1 Different type of franchise system ebb and flow of corporation's control power and branch's autonomy

Reference: Su (2002).

To show more details, Table 1 explained more details about which part is different.

It is a comparison of four categories of Japanese classified franchise system.

Table 1 Comparison of franchised system

Corporate Chain Franchise Chain Franchise Chain II Voluntary Chain Capital Corporation Corporation Corporation or

Mutual Franchisee Decisions Corporation Mainly by

Corporation

Mainly by Corporation

Mainly by Franchisee Capital

Ownership Corporation Corporation Mainly by

Franchisee Franchisee Capital

Operation Corporation Franchisee Franchisee Franchisee

CIS Unified Unified Unified Basically Unified

Purchase Unified Unified Unified Basically Unified

Net profit Corporation Shared Franchisee Franchisee Price Uniform Pricing Uniform Pricing Uniform Pricing Elasticity Pricing Education &

Training By Corporation By Corporation By Corporation By Franchisee

Promotions Unified Unified Unified Free to access

Reference: Wu (2001).

Corporate Chain (RC) and VC is clearly in an opposite way, the only two similarities are the CIS and the Purchase, which means the store may use same logo and sell the similar products, but maybe in different prices. The main concern about Table 1 is to compare FC and FC II. In regular FC, the corporation gives the capital and owns the capital. This means franchisee do not get the net profit, but you will get paid by the company. In FC II, both of franchisor and franchisee share the capital. This means in the net profit part, both of them can share the net profit by percentage of capital given out.

2.2 Franchise Management

2.2.1 Franchise Management Issues and Research

Management is defined as “getting things done through people”. The success of the franchise system depends upon the ability of the franchisor to resolve or minimize any potential conflict between the two parties (Lashley & Morisson, 1999). In franchising, management may be the most crucial and unstable element in the franchise system, because the main reasons for failure in business are (1) poor management (2) loss of key personnel (3) lack of capital (Luangsuvimol & Kleiner, 2004). Problems and conflicts also happened in any commercial relationship, and franchising is no different.

There are lots of issues occurred in franchising business, especially in management part. It is not an easy thing to manage or control all the franchise stores to the same direction, some issues might occur from franchisors or franchisees. Griffith University (2009) has made a survey on the findings of Australian Franchising Excellence. Part of

the study was conducted to obtain information about the major causes of conflict in franchising from franchisee perspective. Listed below are the issues occurred towards conflicts between franchisors and franchisees:

 Lack of support from the franchisor (16 percent)

 Compliance with the system (11 percent)

 Franchising fees (10 percent)

 Communication problems (9 percent)

 Misrepresentation problems (9 percent)

 Marketing issues (9 percent)

 Profitability (7 percent)

Figure 2 Cause of conflict

Reference: Frazer (2009).

Strong and prosperous relationship is based on trust, “Although franchisees may

trust their franchisor that may question the accuracy of information presented to them, which highlights the need for franchisors to be more transparent.” Said Professor Frazer.

The finding points out lots of reasons that cause conflicts, these questions will also be part of my interview questions, in order to find same issues of our participants.

2.3 Relationships between Franchisors and Franchisees

2.3.1 Definition of Franchisor

International Franchise Association defined as below: “The person or company that grants the franchisee the right to do business under their trademark or trade name.”

MSA worldwide, a franchise consultant in the United States, shared that a successful franchisors has some common attributes: “franchisors are motivated to share their experience and know-how with their franchisees, they provide their franchisees with tools needed to operate their businesses to brand standards and, are focused on ensuring that each franchisee operates to system standards.” Also they shared the knowledge or mistakes they are franchising that is the greatest value to franchisees: franchisees get benefit from the franchisor’s proven experience which hopefully allows them to avoid some of the minefields that plague many start-up businesses.

Besides giving the knowledge and assistance, franchisor also needs to provide materials and products for franchisees to sell in the store, for example coffee shop needs to provide coffee beans and milk; bakery store needs to provide dough and packaging

materials. These are part of marketing behavior between franchisors and franchisees.

2.3.2 Definition of Franchisee

International Franchise Association defined as below: “ The person or company that gets the right from the franchisor to do business under the franchisor’s trademark or trade name.” Joining the franchise system can be rewarding and profitable, but this doesn’t mean franchisee can do nothing but enjoy the fruits of others’ labor. To be a qualified franchisee still has responsibility to report the day-to-day management of your business to your franchisor. To be a successful franchisee, you need to develop organization relationship to function effectively (Luangsuvimol & Klenier).

Franchisees typically require more assistance at the early stage of the relationship (Nathan 2000), Other prominent benefits of franchising to franchisees include training, national advertising and promotion, product/service research and development (Mendelsohn, 1999).

2.3.3 The relationship between Franchisor and Franchisee

“Franchise is about relationships”, this is how IFA introduce franchise business,

“the core of franchising is about franchisor’s brand value, how the franchisor supports its franchisees, how the franchisee meets its obligations to deliver the products and services to the system’s brand standards and most importantly – franchising is about the relationship that the franchisor has with its franchisees. The long-term survival of a franchise system depends on the willingness of the franchisees to pursue the relationship with the franchiser (Morrison, 1997). ”Relationship needs to be maintained, but many reasons can cause friction in franchisor – franchisee relations. Nevin, Hunt

and Ruekert (1980) have identified two major areas of conflict, first the deception in the selling and granting of franchises and also the unfair practices in the operation of the franchise systems.

Franchise Council of Australia (FCA) first introduces franchising by understanding the franchise relationship: “The relationship between the franchisor and franchisee must involve regulations and standards to define and protect the quality of the service or products to be provided by the franchisee to the consumer. “ FCA declare that any bad franchisee can have adverse effect directly on their own business, and indirectly on the whole of the franchised chain and its other franchisees. FCA describes the relationship between franchisors and franchisees have often been termed as

“commercial marriage”. The only difference is that in this relationship there must by definition “be a senior partner“ – the franchisor. Also FCA emphasizes “the franchise agreement that defines the basis of the relationship up front, so that both parties know their rights and obligations to the relationship.“

It is important to maintain good relationship with the franchisees. A positive cooperation in the relationship could help enhancing the brand. In a 2014 survey by Franchise Business Review on franchisees’ relationship with their franchisors: 88 percent of franchisees enjoy being part of their organization, 85 percent feel positive about their affiliation with their franchisor, 78 percent would recommend their franchise brand to others, and 73 percent would “Do it all over again” if they had the option.

If the relationship is negative, it might cause the end of the brand. Termination

clauses are applied to the contracts to force or to suppress the franchisees and threaten them to terminate the agreement. These clauses give the right to end the agreement if the franchisee does not strictly follow all the terms and agreements. Using this clause as a threat, the franchisor does not promote long-term feelings of security (Hall & Dixon, 1989). Sanghavi (1990) also states that certain clauses in the contracts are very unfair for the franchisees and those who often sign the agreement without having looked at the operating manual.

Feeling unfair usually relates to money, or profit, so people feel imbalance.

Company gives out promotions or discount to attract more customers and receive more business and also more awareness, but it may also affect the relationship between franchisees. Trust has been conceptualized as a feature or an aspect of relationship quality (Moorman, Zaltman & Deshpande, 1992): first, Dwyer and Oh (1987) have described that trust as a feature of relationship quality, along with satisfaction and opportunism. Second, Anderson and Narus (1990) view trust as a determinant of the amount of cooperation and the functionality of conflict between parties. Lastly Mohr and Nevin (1990) model trust as a determinant of communications between parties.

Trust can affect more than the company can imagine, so maintaining a good relationship should let franchisees feel positive to the company (vulnerability).

But marketing activities includes many aspects, Chou (1999) pointed out the there are twelve key successful factors of:

1. Company Image

2. Brand Image 3. Timing

4. Product Attributes 5. Product Qualities 6. Core Technology 7. Effects of Advertising 8. Sales Promotion Effects

9. Purchase Discounts and Allowances 10. Price Competitiveness

11. Channel 12. Others

One of them is “Purchase discount and allowances”. This means the company (franchisors) can give more favorable price to the middleman (the franchisees). The famous Taiwanese dessert store “Meet Fresh” (鮮芋仙) was closed numerously in Taiwan few years ago, and the main reason of its failure is because the franchisees is not satisfied with their purchase discount, so the relationship cannot reach the balance, and the cooperation goes to the end.

Chapter 3. Research Methodology

3.1 Methodology

I am using qualitative research to investigate more about the relationship between franchisor and franchisee. Qualitative method can dig in more while interviewing, and this is the purpose of this research. In order to get answer directly, face-to-face interview could be capable. Also, interview can observe the face or sound expression while recording, these details could not be replaced by using questionnaires.

This research mainly discusses from the viewpoint of franchisees, so the target participants will be franchisees, not the franchisor. I will invite four franchisees of 85°C café to be my participants, they are the investor and also the employer in the store, they contact with franchisor the most, and also contact with the customer as well.

Age or gender does not affect this study, so I will invite both to be my participants.

The only requisition is the time cooperating with parent company (franchisor) should more than 5 years. This requirement is to make sure that franchisee have enough time cooperating with franchisor, to ensure that they do know every activity the parent company launched, and do understand how the parent company worked with franchisees.

The list below is my participants:

 85°C café Zhongshan Shop Mr. Lee （楊梅中山李店長）

 85°C café Zhenxing Shop Mrs. Lee （中壢振興李小姐）

 85°C café Yuanhua Shop Mrs. Yang （中壢元化楊小姐）

 85°C café Longgang Shop Mr. Roan （中壢龍崗阮先生）

3.2 Research Model

Based on Ting, Chen and Wu (2004) the franchisor should contain ability, benevolence and integrity to become a reliable company. Social exchange theory stands that using reciprocity to explain trust and reliability, if the exchange relationship is attractive by both sides the relationship will keep going, not the other way around.

Follow the trust-commitment theory by Morgan and Hunt (1994), Ting, Chen and Wu (2004) stand that “trust” is the core that explores the impact of trustworthiness (including ability, benevolence, and integrity) and communication on trust, table 3 explain more about the core value on trust:

Table 2 Trust-commitment theory

First I am using the questions designed by the table above to see if 85°C café is the trustworthy franchisor in franchisees’ mind. Second, I am going to ask questions listed in Table 3, using these five categories to know more about the relationship between both sides, and how do they communicate with each others, what problems has occurred, and how do they solved the problems.

• The franchiser have the ability to help create value for the franchisee.

Ability

• The franchiser would do what they promised.

Integrity

• The franchiser would not hurt franchisee.

Benevolence

• The franchisee can participate planning marketing activities or strategies.

Communication

• The franchiser is able to be trust.

Trust

Table 3 Designed questions based on the trust-commitment theory

• Do you think the company have enough ability to create value for the franchisees?

• What kind of ability that you think you cannot do without the company?

• Do they support what you need?

Ability

• Do the company make their guaruantee count?

• What guarantee they hasn't reached yet?

Integrity

• Do the company consider franchisee when making the marketing decision?

• What was the most serious marketing decision that you cannot accept?

• Does the conflict resolved?

Benevolence

• Could you enumurate some problems that have occurred when your idea is against the

company, and how were the problems solved?

• Do you support/ discourage the marketing activities? Why or why not?

• How would you like the company to do in the future for marketing plan?

Communication

• Do you think the company is able to be trust?

• Will you keep cooperate with this company in the future?

Trust

Chapter 4. Results and Findings

4.1 Results and Discussion

I have mentioned in chapter two that I’d like to distinguish the different mindset between franchisor and franchisee, which using the five categories that Morgan and Hunt designed base on the trust-commitment theory.

1. Ability

For sure the franchisor has ability to create value for franchisee and its own, all of my participants agree with it. Except participant D, all of my participants said although they still earn the money, the profit shrank drastically these years. Participant A indicated the first three years they earned more money than the years after, due to the stagflation and raised salary of employees. Participant C said due to some incidents such as tainted milk powder event and tainted oil event, these events gives 85°C café a terrible blow, customer do not trust any company, even a famous company. People cook themselves, because they trust only themselves, so the demand of eating out goes down, and the profit of restaurant service industry, like 85°C café, goes down too. Participant D indicates the company only cares their own value, but not franchisees.

Table 4 Interview extract about franchisor’s ability.

Ability

A “We used to have pretty good profit, but the labor costs and the ingredient costs make our profit shrink drastically. ”

B “The hour pay went from NT$80 to NT$120 in decade, but the selling price only adjust one time, which is NT5 only. ”

C “The food safety crisis, especially the tainted oil by Ting Hsin International Group (頂新油品風暴) inflicted food industry in Taiwan heavily. ”

D “I believe they have the ability to create value, but they only care for its own value, not ours.”

2. Integrity

Integrity means honest, be able to trust. One of my participants agree the idea when the company voluntarily recycled the moon festival gifts back to the company, due to the slow sales of food safety crisis.

Participant A- “Usually we need to buy the remained moon festival gifts after Chinese moon festival, but this time the company voluntarily recycled all the gifts, because general franchisees did not sell well due to the food safety crisis.”

Participant B- does not trust the company because they always change the rule of granting. Franchisee believes the company will not harm the company’s own benefits, so they keep changing the rule.

Table 5 Interview extract about franchisor’s integrity Integrity

A

“ Usually we need to buy the remained moon festival gifts after Chinese moon festival, but this time the company voluntarily recycled all the gifts, because general franchisees did not sell well due to the food safety crisis.”

B “ Company keep changing the rule of granting, I don't think a great company should be like this.”

3. Benevolence

This is how much the company cares the franchisees; do they value, or respect the franchisees? My participants said the company makes most of the decision, especially in the early period. Later on, the company does ask suggestions from the franchisees, but my participants doubt the impartiality, because the company does not take the suggestions into account. For example:

Participant D- “ The Company gives out three choices of packaging the moon festival gifts for franchisees to vote, but the outcome is three of the packaging are all

published to the customer, so why asked our opinion? ”

Moreover, participant B is not happy with the marketing plan by using media.

Participant B- “ We have paid the media fee every months, but we see nothing that is qualified was shown on the television.”

All of my participants are not happy to the marketing part especially the TGIF coffee day; because the event is company’s own idea, and it lasts too long.

Table 6 Interview extract about franchisor’s marketing activity performance Benevolence – Marketing activity

A “This marketing activity is a good intention, but it lasts too long. The effect seems worse and worse every week. ”

B “Marketing activity is a must, but keeping the second cup to the next time should not be allowed. ”

C “The policy of keeping cups should in accord with all the stores, or the marketing activity will sink down to a vicious circle. ”

D “Marketing activity is good, but I don't let customer to keep cups, this will effect our performance on the weekdays. ”

4. Communication

Communication is a very important part when cooperating a business. 85°C café has assigned consultant to help or to assist every store, each consultant may manage 5 to 10 stores depends on the district and the ability. The most important work for the consultant is to convey the thought and instruction from the company, it is like the bridge between franchisor and franchisees.

None of my participants respond awkward with their consultants, they all get along with the consultants, but problems between franchisor and franchisees still exist, and mainly because of the different opinions. The consultants do pass the message or suggestion to the company, but the problems sustained, my participants point the target to the company itself.

Table 7 Interview extract about franchisor’s communication performance Communication

A “We have told the consultant to pass the dissatisfied to the company, and they only listen to the problems, but not solving them. ”

B

“They do pass the suggestions to the company, but saying is one thing, doing is another. The company may listen to our opinion, but not accept, that is the problem. ”

C “ The problems is delivered by the consultant, but to accept or not is the decision by the company.”

D “ Try hard to cooperate the policy by the company, there won’t be problems then.”

5. Trust

Trust in this category means more than believes, this part contains the credit, whether your partner is a reliable company or not in the future. All of my participants do want to cooperate with 85°C café again if everything starts over. Although problems still occur, but they think 85°C café is a company that is stable and make money steadily nowadays.

Table 8 Interview extract by franchisees’ in the category of trust Trust

A “I will still cooperate with 85°C café because it is a stable company and make money steadily.”

B

“I will still choose 85°C café but not the bakery part, because there are too many variable factors when cooperate the bakery part with the company, and the speed of payback is too slow.”

C “85°C café has not only one brand now, it shows its ambition in food and service industry area, so I think it is still a good choice to be the partner of them. ”

D “I worked well with 85°C café now, so I will still cooperate with them in the future.”

Chapter 5. Conclusion

Base on the trust-commitment theory, the first four parts of the trust-commitment theory will affect the last part, which is to keep cooperate with the company or not. My participants in this case of 85°C café is not satisfied with the company on average, but the result of keep franchising is positive. The reasons of this result are complicated, not only because of the marketing plan. Marketing plan is a blasting fuse that leads to the result of today’s situation.

The widest gap between franchisor and franchisees is marketing plan of coffee day on Friday. All of my participants agree the thought of coffee day, the main purpose is to attract more customer to buy 85°C café’s coffee. However, keeping cups is not necessary, because keeping cups will affect the sale on other normal days. The company only sees the outstanding achievement on Friday, but ignored the dismal performance on other days.

Aside from abovementioned findings, the unrevealed part from the conversation is that franchisees feel the company does not care for them. “ Company should not see us as one of their employee; they should see us as a partner or symbiosis, because the success of 85°C café is originally from franchisees hard working.” Said by my participant, and I believe this can represent the thought for all the franchisees.

“If the company care about us, they would not have opened so many stores near us.” This is what my participant told me after the interview, my participant is not happy with the company that agree to open new stores around the old ones, and

without any discussion. The feeling is like a Chinese idiom saying: The wolf has a winning game when the shepherds quarrel. Open new stores in the same area will take over the market share, which means profit earned will drop from the old store, also the performance of new opened store will not be good, but only the company will earn the royalties and the purchase from franchisees’ stores.

Still, all kinds of problems is occurring, the gap between franchisor and franchisees is still there, but the only request for the franchisor is to keep the value for the franchisees, and to carry on the ambition to different territories. The purpose of this thesis is to alert franchisors that do not see the problems, the problems between franchisors and franchisees. Small problems may cause failures, franchisors must be aware of these small problems between their closest partner, which is all the franchisees.

The hope of this study is to make contributions to the franchise system, especially the relationship of franchisors and franchisees. Knowing the thought from franchisees in order to make better cooperate relationship. In spite of the findings previously mentioned, there are still some drawbacks of this study. This study applied five participants that came from the same area, which is Taoyuan City. Therefore the findings may only fit in this area. Besides, the only observed business in the study is 85°C café, the problems from other business may not be the same.

Therefore, this study suggests that more participants from all areas should be included. Through interviewing more franchisees from different areas, the findings will be more precise and more reliable.

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Appendix 1

Participant A

受訪對象：楊梅中山店 李店長

Miracle(以下簡稱 M)：哈囉！李店長你好！

李店長(以下簡稱 A)：妳好！

M：上次有跟您提過我想來訪問您關於加盟的狀況，那這個訪問只會出現在這個 論文，不會另作為其他用途。

A：好的，有什麼想瞭解的？

M：第一個問題想請問店長，您覺得總公司有能力為加盟主創造利潤嗎？

A：這是一定的，如果不賺錢那它加盟這塊就不用玩了，只是利潤好壞的問題。

以前利潤不錯，現在什麼都漲就偏偏我們對消費者只調漲過一次價格，加上 人事成本每年不斷增加，所以利潤越來越差。

M：以前利潤不錯？大概是多久之前？

A：大概剛開店的前三年都還可以，我們這家快十年了喔！現在新開的店家利潤 更差。

M：是喔，越賺越少的意思！

A：對啊，現在要賺錢不太容易！

M：那公司有沒有什麼能力是您覺得無法取代的，就是如果公司沒有這個能力您 也可以繼續生存？

A：應該不是說能力，85 度 C 產品的多元化我認為是一個很大的優勢，如果 85 度 C 沒有這些產品支撐，我想就很容易被取代吧！

M：所以您的意思是如果不加盟 85 度 C，這些產品不容易自行開發製作嗎？

A：也不盡然，但要投入更多成本才能發展咖啡又發展蛋糕或麵包，規模不夠大 成本也一定比 85 度 C 來得高。

M：喔～瞭解！那公司會盡可能幫忙加盟主的需要嗎？

A：要看是什麼需要欸，當然公司基本上都會幫忙啦！因為你經營得不好對公司 的形象也不好啊！

M：嗯哼，也是也是！那公司部分對於“承諾”這件事還算守信用嗎？有沒有曾經 承諾過的事情卻沒做到？

A：其實還好，公司還算負責任啦！雖然到了過節時會有禮盒的壓力，就是公司 會強迫塞貨讓加盟店推銷禮盒，推不完的就要自己吸收。但有一年中秋節吧，

剛好遇到食安問題，雖然 85 度 C 的禮盒沒有問題，但整個買氣不好，那年 沒什麼客人要買禮盒，大部分的店家禮盒根本推不出去，公司那年有主動回 收沒賣完的禮盒。

M：回收是指公司吸收回去嗎？

A：對啊，以前賣不完我們要自己買下來的意思，那次公司知道因為食安風暴大 家都賣不好，所以主動回收沒有讓加盟主承擔。

M：噢～所以店長覺得公司還蠻有誠信的？

A：至少那次有看到公司有誠意啦！

M：嗯哼！那對於公司設計的咖啡日行銷活動您覺得有沒有讓店家的生意更好？

A：生意好是一定有，但是付出的成本好像更多。

M：恩？意思是生意有變好，但是賺得沒那麼多嗎？

A：對啊，活動一定有折扣嘛！那我們變成薄利多銷囉！

M：那公司沒有補助的政策嗎？

A：補助門檻很高，要達到才有補助，所以有些時候吃不到那些所謂的補助。

M：那店長有沒有什麼意見，對於禮拜五咖啡日的活動？

A：我是覺得應該要有一個期限。

M：噢？所以這個活動已經持續一陣子了？

A：對啊，已經兩年有了，偶爾的促銷活動可以刺激一下，但是變成長期的活動 客人就沒感覺了，畢竟第二杯半價真的沒什麼賺。補助吃不到就算了，至少 要做到真正“刺激消費”的行銷啊！

M：了解，那這個情況跟你們的意見有跟公司反映過嗎？

A：反映過啊！但是公司不接受啊！

M：看來蠻多不滿在這方面的喔，公司給您的理由是什麼？您能接受嗎？

A：公司比較強硬，所以這方面是一直沒有共識的，一切都還是沒變啊。公司有 說因為現在競爭大，像 city cafe 啊，也是蠻常有第二杯半價的，所以公司就 一直持續咖啡日的活動。

M：所以店家可以接受這樣的說法嗎？

A：不接受也還是得接受啊！就只好薄利多銷了。

M：那您還會支持公司提供的行銷活動嗎？

A：很無奈啦！因為這些由不得我們，我們的意見公司會參考，但最終決定的結 果不是我們能掌握的。

M：您覺得公司在行銷這方面沒有替店家著想？

A：活動當然可以推，但我覺得需要有一個期限，而不是無限期延長。一來客人 新鮮感消失，二來這不應該是常態活動。希望公司替店家著想嘛，說真的我 們已經不期待了。

M：看來是真的很無奈，那您覺得這家公司還是值得信任的嗎？

A：信任啦，雖然說在大公司底下賺錢有限，但現在要賺錢真的沒那麼容易，我 相信已經比很多其他加盟店家好得多了。

M：所以如果給您再一次機會，您還是會加盟 85 度 C 嗎？

A：會，因為總觀現在的市場來看， 85 度 C 還是一家有利潤然後算是蠻穩定的 一家公司。

M: 嗯哼，好的，我的訪問到這邊結束，謝謝李先生撥冗接受我的訪問！

A: 不用客氣！希望對你論文有幫助！

Participant B

受訪對象：中壢振興店 李小姐

Miracle(以下簡稱 M)：李小姐妳好！

舒店長(以下簡稱 B)：嗨！妳好！

M: 上次有跟您提過我想訪問的方向，那我們就從第一題開始囉！

B: 好的。

M: 請問你覺得總公司有辦法為加盟主創造利潤嗎？

B: 有啊，公司做活動也是為了吸引消費者，創造更廣的行銷面。大環境差，景 氣當然有影響，越賺越少也沒辦法。

M：那什麼部分影響最大？

B: 主要是人事成本跟物料成本。我們開超過十年了嘛，十年之間，時薪從 80 塊 漲到現在政府規定的 120 塊，每個人每小時差了 40 塊！這個漲幅非常大，

而且我們十年了只調漲過一次價格，只有小漲 5 塊！

M: 恩，這樣聽起來落差的確蠻大的。

B: 差很多啊，中間成本都是我們加盟主在吸收，總公司給我們的進價照樣漲價 喔，但我們賣給消費者端的售價卻不漲，我們也不能自己調漲售價。

M: 恩。那公司有沒有哪些方面妳覺得是無法取代的？

B: 無法取代喔，品牌魅力吧！很多人都說既然越來越難賺，乾脆不加盟 85 自己 開一間自創品牌經營啊，但其實自己開一家默默無聞的店要經營是蠻困難的，

因為我覺得品牌價值很重要，打著 85 logo 一開幕，它的知名度、品質穩定 度、法規的相關事務你都不用費心，如果是自己經營，你要熬過初期知名度 不高的危險期，因為資金會一直投進去但暫時可能還拿不回來，當然如果你

的資金夠充裕是可以自創品牌啦，但我認為現在越來越難做。尤其是食安風 暴以後，用哪家廠商的牛奶都是問題。又像再前陣子的三聚氫胺毒奶粉事件，

你自己要去檢驗物料什麼的，檢驗完還要承受消費者的不信任，妳說如果是 自己經營的話這生意還做不做？

M: 聽李小姐這樣講，對於公司還是有一定期望跟信任，那公司方面對於加盟店 的幫助夠不夠？

B: 公司很仰賴區顧問，也就是店輔導員，公司透過區顧問來督促我們，而我們 也透過區顧問幫我們反應事情給公司。算是有幫助，但畢竟區顧問是公司請 的人，他們還是比較站在公司立場做事。他們該轉達或是反映給公司的還是 有幫忙，但公司有聽沒到。公司會聽意見，但不一定採納，妳懂我的意思嗎？

M: 恩我了解，那公司對於“承諾”這方面守信用嗎？

B: 當然公司說過的事情一定會做到，因為它必須做到，大公司嘛！但不輕易給 承諾，一旦公司發現好像有損它利益的事情，它會馬上喊卡。例如補助的門 檻，一開始可能很大方，大家只要成長 8％就補助咖啡豆 3 箱，結果大家都 達到了公司卻開始緊張了，馬上換了新的政策變成成長 10%補助 1 箱。所以 妳說它守信用嗎？它守信用，但是常常變來變去，這是問題所在。

M: 那李小姐認為公司的行銷手法滿意嗎？

B: 我覺得很不好，像我們每家店每個月都規定要繳交媒體的費用，但卻看不到 任何 85 的廣告。曾經在中秋節或是過年有推一些電視廣告，但廣告質感及 水準差人家好大一截。我覺得 7-11 的廣告就做得蠻好的。

M: 所以李小姐比較不滿意的是媒體行銷方面。那就我知道的是星期五咖啡日的 活動，李小姐怎麼看？

B: 那個活動一樣是我們自己吸收折扣啊，一如往常。我是覺得活動可以做，但

不應該開放寄杯。有些店家不讓客人寄杯，因為寄杯的意思就是客人每天都 喝 75 折，加上有些地區沒有其他競爭者，它獨大才能不開放寄杯。但我們 這家店無法不寄杯，因為短短 600 公尺外就有另一家店，人家開放寄杯而你 不開放，客人就通通跑光光了。

M: 所以有點被逼著寄杯的感覺？

B: 對，要不然店家當然希望賣原價。

M: 那賣回原價生意會不會變差？

B: 這是一個好問題，妳想喔，如果大家都不寄杯，平常日每家店都賣原價，就 沒有生意變差的問題，因為咖啡需求還在。附近 7-11 的寄杯還限一個禮拜要 兌換完，我們是無期限耶！客人如果寄 500 杯我們也要接受的意思。但如果 有一家店開放寄杯，我們其他店家勢必會被客人要求寄杯，這就是問題所在。

因為加盟店每家老闆看法不同，所以如果有一家店破壞了行情，其他通通跟著 完蛋。

M: 噢，所以李小姐認為行銷活動可以做，但不應該開放寄杯。平常日還是維持 沒有活動這樣。

B: 對，因為我對 85 的品質有信心，85 的咖啡品質真的很好，可能比星巴克還 好，以研磨咖啡來說它的價錢很便宜。客人如果覺得平常日沒活動不划算，他 可以去喝 7-11 的機器咖啡，或是用更多錢去買星巴克我也覺得沒關係。可是 對於每天都有咖啡需求的消費者來說，喝 85 的絕對划算，而且好喝。

M: 所以總括所有來說，李小姐認為公司值得信任嗎？

B: 不是不信任，但我們必須相信它。妳懂我意思嗎？有點無奈，但我們加盟它 就必須信任它。

M: 哈哈我了解，如果給您再一次機會，您還是會選擇 85 度 C 來加盟嗎？

B：會，但可能不會投資麵包部。

M: 怎麼說呢？

B: 因為麵包坊是拆帳的方式，因此回本很慢，不論是包材、人事和水電都是加 盟主這邊要負責，連機器也是，妳也知道機器非常貴。公司只負責報廢以及麵 包主廚的薪水而已，加上如果遇到不好的團隊，很多事根本無法溝通。85 麵 包部公司的設計是半開放式的，因此顧客可以看到新鮮出爐的麵包，也可以看 到麵包師傅在烤麵包的樣子，而我所謂不好的團隊就是麵包師傅有嚼檳榔的 習慣，嘴巴紅紅的在烤麵包，光是那個形象顧客就不會上門了

M: 哇噻，觀感真的蠻不好的，之後有向公司反映嗎？怎麼處理的？

B: 公司換了一批人，但新的團隊總是需要磨合，換新團隊期間加上新團隊磨合 期，這中間就會流失掉非常多顧客，要再把顧客拉回來並不容易。

M: 所以單純的咖啡蛋糕飲料您覺得就可以了？

B: 對，85 的定位對於麵包坊其實不太合適，因為它主打高品質低單價。低價要 做高品質烘焙比較不容易，雖然跟飲料一樣，大量叫貨成本可以拉低，但真 的非常好的原物料價格不可能太低，我們只能抓中價位的原料來製作。我認 為 85 的麵包應該要走高品質中高價位。

M: 那請問蛋糕呢？蛋糕的原物料不是更高？

B: 對，蛋糕其實我們根本不賺錢，因為 85 的蛋糕品質真的很好，原物料都是進 口的，非常貴。好不好吃是其次，畢竟它是中央工廠製作出來直接冷凍送來 加盟店，一樣新鮮，但不是店家自行製作熱騰騰的放涼後就擺進冰箱，標準 無法跟小店做比較。但蛋糕這塊我們是靠飲料去補虧損的。

M: 嗯哼，原來如此。我的訪問到這裡問題結束，謝謝李小姐分享這麼多給我！

B: 不會不會，希望妳的論文順利喔！

Participant C

受訪對象：中壢元化 楊小姐

Miracle(以下簡稱 M)：哈囉！楊小姐！恭喜恭喜！改裝開幕了！

楊小姐(以下簡稱 C)：謝謝妳！現在還有一點亂。新 POS 真的不太好用。

M: 還好啦！員工很快就會上手的！你們大修嗎？

C: 對啊！帶妳們參觀看看啊！

M: 噢～這邊整個擋起來比較好，比較整齊，蛋糕房歸蛋糕房不讓客人看進來。

你們這樣花多少啊？有破 100 萬嗎？

C: 有啊！我們大修欸！

M: 可是我看修改得不多啊！是一百初還是一百多很多？

C: 因為我們還有遷大電！聽說大電就幾十萬啦！然後我的冷凍冷藏整個從二樓 換到一樓欸！是大改！廠商是估 110 萬左右。

M: 哈哈他估價不一定就真的是準的喔！要再加個十萬。

C: 什麼！怎麼會！

M: 中山店原本估 66 萬，結果最後實付 76 萬。

C: 天啊！他都沒說啊！

M: 因為磁磚那些現說時都是說依實際用量來算價錢啊，他預估的都不準啦！可 是妳這樣其實很便宜欸！又遷大電然後又搬冰箱。公司有送咖啡機嗎？

C: 有啊！中山也有送吧？

M: 那時候說超過百萬的才有，現在又說年底前裝修就送。

C: 哎呀公司常常在變！都嘛這樣！我已經習慣了。

M: 店輔都很幫忙你們欸！那時候幫中山店沒這麼勤勞！

C: 就丟給他們做啊！

M: 我們都自己來，半夜包裝小八蛋糕弄到腰酸背痛。

C: 好辛苦喔，我都讓他們幫忙！哈哈哈哈！

M: 我想知道你們有沒有寄杯？

C: 妳說禮拜五的咖啡日？

M: 對啊！

C: 我沒有欸！不讓客人寄！這活動很好可是也持續太久了吧！

M: 那生意有差嗎？我看還好欸！你們這邊人潮夠多。

C: 我覺得還好欸！而且寄杯我不划算啊！平常日都讓客人買 85 折那我要賺什 麼？現在又不好賺！

M: 我知道啊！可是我們那邊無法選擇不寄，唉！

C: 對喔！附近有埔心店還有新成店！其實應該大家要聯合起來都不開放寄杯，

這樣每一家政策一樣就不會有困擾，要不然根本在惡性競爭。

M: 對啊，但我們不得不寄。如果突然有一家開放那我們就大受影響了。

C: 真的是辛苦了！毒奶粉之後業績就不好，接著頂新風暴更慘。

M: 對啊，我們都是受害者。你們的客人有很強烈抵制林鳳營嗎？

C: 有啊！不過也沒辦法，我覺得其實林鳳營品質還是最好。

M: 對啊，我們自己都要喝林鳳營，有些客人也指定要林鳳營。

C: 只是公司賺很大，明明外面林鳳營那麼便宜，卻還是賣我們跟以前一樣貴。

M: 是啊！有什麼辦法，我們加盟它就只能聽它的。

C: 也是。

M: 好啦，妳先忙，改天再聊！

C: 好喔！拜拜！

（以下為電話訪問）

M: 嗨，楊小姐，上次聊到一半，我還有一些問題想問妳！妳現在方便講電話嗎？

C: 好啊好啊，我現在有空！

M: 上次問到咖啡日寄杯嘛！然後妳說了妳覺得大家應該聯合起來不寄杯。

C: 對。雖然公司拼命開放加盟但我真的覺得大家要團結。

M: 哈哈這有點困難，有些新開店家根本搞不清楚狀況，有客人上門寄杯都很開 心接受。那楊小姐覺得跟公司溝通上有沒有什麼障礙？

C: 溝通上都是透過店輔，就是現在的區顧問，其實他們也只是公司派來傳遞消 息的人，畢竟還是公司的人，是不會站在加盟主這邊想事情的。

M: 但我遇過有些區顧問還不錯欸，蠻幫加盟主去反映問題的。

C: 是沒錯，其實跟區顧問保持好關係，溝通都不是問題，問題是在於公司聽到 加盟主的心聲之後，是否有採納與接受。

M: 所以溝通的問題都不是來自於區顧問，基本上還是公司。

C: 對。

M: 那如果給妳再一次機會，妳覺得妳還會加盟 85 度 C 嗎？

C: 我會欸，因為我覺得 85 有想要永續經營的感覺，目前它不只賣咖啡阿，還賣 火鍋，燒烤，應該是不會擺爛啦！

M: 嗯哼，了解，所以楊小姐覺得 85 是有能力的，也願意繼續相信它。

C: 可以這麼說，雖然公司很多政策讓加盟主有苦難言，但總體來說還是值得投 資啦！

M: 好的，那我想問的問完啦！謝謝楊小姐！

C: 不會不會，有幫忙到就好！

M: 謝謝妳，祝你生意興隆喔！

Participant D

受訪對象：中壢龍崗店 阮先生

Miracle(以下簡稱 M)：阮先生你好！我是李欣，上次有電話跟您提過要來訪問您 關於 85 度 C 加盟問題。

阮先生(以下簡稱 D)：是是是！妳好！請坐請坐，想知道什麼？

M: 阮先生把龍崗店經營得越來越好，大家有目共睹，第一個問題想要問阮先生 你覺得 85 是一間有能力的公司嗎？

D: 85 能力是有，但他不是一家只靠能力才壯大的公司，它靠很多幸運跟機會。

它有能力讓你賺錢，但要賺大錢要靠加盟主自己。

M: 那公司值得依靠嗎？

D: 我個人不太信任公司，但生意上還是要依靠它，基本上損害到公司利益的它 都會拒絕或避免，不論是否因此而損害到加盟主的利益。

M: 近幾年的食安風暴您覺得公司處理得如何？公司有什麼實質上的關心或幫 忙嗎？

D: 公司處理的我只能說剛好及格，因為對消費者來說不信任就是不信任，你不 管努力多少都還是差不多，因為每間賣吃的生意一定下滑。只要我們不是故 意賣黑心商品給消費者我們就行得端坐得穩。但公司對我們加盟主不夠關懷，

因為在承受風暴跟面對第一線消費者的是我們，公司應該要替加盟主想更多。

加盟主不應該只是公司底下幫忙賣東西的人，公司應該把加盟主當成生命共 同體來對待，因為沒有我們就沒有 85。

M: 嗯哼，還有其他的嗎？

D: 有，例如公司曾經徵求過我們對於中秋禮盒包裝的意見，並且給了三個選擇，

但最後竟然三種款式公司都發行，那又為何要問加盟主的意見呢？

M: 做做樣子尊重的感覺？

D: 對。

M: 那您認為星期五咖啡日這個行銷方式好不好？為什麼？

D: 我覺得 ok，可以接受，因為現在大小廠牌都玩這招，7-11、全家、星巴克都 一樣啊！只是我不提供寄杯而已，會影響平日的銷售。

M: 您跟區顧問相處得還好嗎？

D: 不錯，我跟顧問沒什麼大問題。

M: 所以溝通上都沒什麼問題？

D: 對，主要是公司的政策盡量配合就不會有大問題。

M: 了解，那再給您重新選擇還會加盟 85 度 C 嗎？

D: 會，我跟他們合作得還 ok，所以應該還是會選擇 85。