Equipped with an MBA in marketing, he's experienced in a range of industries, from technology to financial services, but it wasn't until he became a partner at a digital agency that Tony was first introduced to the world of franchise marketing. It was in this client-facing role that he learned how franchise relationships work from both an operational and marketing perspective. Fast forward to 2021, Tony's career presented him with an opportunity to move back to his hometown of San Antonio, Texas, to join salon suite franchise company Salons by JC as the Senior Vice President of Marketing. Image shows a typical JC Salons storefront ( source ) A salon suite is a private, individual salon room that solo beauty professionals can rent and run their businesses from. Salons by JC gives franchisees an opportunity to own a salon building and earn multi-unit rental income from salon tenants. A Meta ad communicating the value to salon tenets Coming from a more traditional marketing background, what have been your biggest learnings about franchise marketing since joining Salons by JC? What are your biggest learnings about franchise marketing? You've got to think through all of these dynamics and layers, because you've got a very fragmented system with people of different backgrounds and different levels of understanding. you've got a very fragmented system with people of different backgrounds and different levels of understanding." When you launch new initiatives or campaigns, how do you communicate and collaborate with franchisees? In our franchise agreement, franchisees are required to offer anything we put out in terms of products. These are usually people who own multiple locations, who are actively involved in the corporate business, and are on one of our councils, like our marketing council. We have a marketing council, a branding council, and a couple others, and the councils help franchisees have a voice and give them an opportunity to shape the company. A franchise council gathering ( source ) Essentially, the council members are bought into the brand because we listen to them and they're actually helping us drive the vision of the company. Branding is critical, and it's much more delicate in the franchisee world because you're trying to manage all of these different backgrounds and people who also have their own ideas and who may need to adapt to their own marketplace. When a franchisee is getting onboarded, we take them through what we call Salon Fundamentals, which is a training course that includes marketing training. It's much more delicate in the franchisee world because you're trying to manage all of these different backgrounds and people who also have their own ideas. As a salon franchise, I imagine your target customers are both franchisees and salon suite renters. The salon tenants are our focus. ( source ) The salon tenants are our focus. We had to wise up to the fact that most people don't know what a salon suite is. When they drive by a Salons by JC location, it just looks like a salon. We encourage salon tenants to use the booking system, and we've made it easier to adopt by offering them a program where they don't have to pay for the software. By building this centralized system, it's going to allow us to create a more connected feeling for people who walk by or call a salon. It's a scary thing to go out on your own, so when salon suite owners have someone they can go to day after day, it's a comforting feeling.