title: Exploring Brand Management in Australian Franchise Systems
Creators: name: Kuhne, Sarah
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Brand Management
subject: Australian Franchise Systems
subject: brand meaning

description: Applying a social constructionist lens, this thesis explores the brand meaning making processes used in franchise networks. Specifically, initial theoretical exploration of this research gap conceptualises the franchise brand meaning as a socially constructed phenomenon involving interaction between the franchisor and franchisee. The resultant meaning is unique to each individual stakeholder and can accommodate change through language. The brand meaning is simultaneously constructed, consumed and reconstructed, ensuring that the brand is in a constant state of flux. These constructions are not temporally bound, and occur in the geographically disperse multistakeholder ecosystem. The resulting fragmented brand meaning results in new roles for the franchisor and franchisee, ruling the role of the brand manager obsolete, while the new position of franchise brand curator has emerged. These new roles hold significant importance for the franchisor, traditionally being the manager of the brand. Therefore, new research opportunities emerge for the brand meaning of franchise networks to be investigated. Building on this foundational layer of contributions to franchise branding theory, the empirical stages of the thesis investigate the interactions between the franchisor and franchisee that form the franchise brand. The empirical research question guided the elicitation of actions and processes that continually reconstruct the franchise brand meaning. An integrative research methodology mixing paradigms, methods and analytic approaches allowed the researcher to create a rich, comprehensive and sensitive account of how the phenomenon of social media management in franchise networks is experienced. The variety of methods afforded opportunities to unearth rich, diverse data and thus further illuminated the franchise brand meaning making process. A rigorous analysis combined inductive and deductive methods to achieve maximum conceptual and theoretical insight. Concepts were recursively unearthed, focusing on how individual themes and concepts were linked together to make sense of the whole. This resulted in a comprehensive understanding of how franchisors and franchisees interact to constantly recreate franchise brand meanings which are open to individual interpretation, simultaneously constructed and consumed, inherently unstable, and which challenge the boundaries of traditional brand ‘management’. Together, the conceptual, theoretical and empirical dimensions of this thesis advance marketing knowledge by enabling a more nuanced understanding of franchise network interactions, and a holistic view of brand meaning making processes in franchise networks. As the first study to empirically investigate the process of brand meaning making in franchise systems, new knowledge has been unearthed on how internal iii stakeholders recursively construct the brand elements. These findings offer the first discovery of this detailed and nuanced process, and highlight the opportunity for multiplicity of brand meanings to occur. Crucially, while franchisors use structure, processes and procedures to enact control over the network, the participatory nature of the franchise network encourages synergistic outcomes. This multi-layered phenomenon brings to the fore new relationship realities which must be considered in any franchise network. With respect to advancing franchise brand management practice, this thesis contributes avenues to foster common ground between the franchisor and franchisee, with the key result being a brand meaning that maximises value to the franchise network as a whole. While the franchisor should provide a foundation for an enduring brand identity, the brand value is ultimately operationalized through network interactions which constantly destabilise and reformulate the brand. By understanding the impact of these interactions, the franchisor can maximise opportunities to curate the brand through strategic training, operations manuals, online intranets and franchisee conferences. Specific strategies are suggested that will allow the franchise network to curate the brand meaning making process, allowing a negotiated brand meaning to emerge. This thesis contributes methodologically by observing franchise brand meaning making through a social construction lens. Further, a novel approach combines both inductive and deductive Computer Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) techniques in a two-step technique to produce organic, complex, rich insights into the franchise brand meaning making processes. To build on this new foundation, new research directions are suggested which incorporate consumers into this co-constructed brand meaning making process, elucidating a more holistic view of the franchise brand meaning making process.