Celebrity endorsements are a classic marketing move, but plenty of franchise businesses have celebrity franchisees, from Kanye West’s Fatburgers to Papa John’s Pizza with Peyton Manning and Venus Williams and Jamba Juice. Owning a franchise, or more often a string of franchise locations, has become downright trendy for actors, athletes, and entertainers of all stripes.
It makes good business sense. From the point of view of the franchise, celebrity franchisees are great. It’s nice to have a celebrity eat your hamburger or visit your gym, though consumers will suspect they were paid to do it (and they often have been). It’s much better to have that celebrity buy into your business. Whether celebrities have the same terms as the rest of the franchisees or not, it’s a much stronger vote of confidence.
Some celebrity franchisees do nothing more than let it be known that they’re owners, but others step up with extensive endorsements, ads, special offers, and charitable works in the names of their franchises.
What’s more, while celebrity restaurants and nightclubs that tank are legion, plenty of people in the public eye — and perhaps especially those who have the common sense to invest in franchise business opportunities — have very savvy business managers. Franchises have to appreciate prospective franchisees with useful amounts of capital and people paid to help make the best use of it.
From the point of view of the celebrity, a franchise can be a terrific investment opportunity. Being able to play football or sing doesn’t guarantee any business skills at all. A good franchise system that works well for an absentee franchisee lets today’s teenage pop idol get settled into a successful business for the future, when opportunities for many celebrities will be slimmer. A well-capitalized franchise with a competent manager can be a very stable income source.
For some celebrity franchisees, franchise businesses have the additional appeal of being the places where they and their peers found jobs back in the day. That may help to explain why so many of the celebrity-franchise hookups are for fast food, a popular teen job venue. Several celebrity franchisees have spoken of the satisfaction of knowing they’re providing jobs for people in their hometowns.
Here are just a few of the celebrities who have become franchisees.
- Jimmy Buffett= Krispy Kreme
- Kevin Faulk, Caron Butler, Marcus Allen, Donnie Edwards, Michael Strahan, in partnership= Burger King
- Hank Aaron= Popeye’s Chicken
- Magic Johnson= Starbucks
- Shaquille O’Neal= Auntie Anne’s
Fast food industry journal QSR reports that franchise businesses expect celebrity franchisees to go through the same approval process and training as all other franchisees. They quote Bill Dunn, CEO of Aunt Annie’s, saying, “We have to make sure that we’re consistent on our training and our support, so we want to ensure all of our franchise partners are successful, and their profitability is important to us, too.”
Should celebrity owners influence you in your choice of a franchise investment opportunity? Maybe. Is the celebrity financially stable with evidence of a good business manager? It can be easier to tell with a celebrity than with random franchisees with a higher level of personal privacy. In that case, that celebrity endorsement in the form of investment could be persuasive.
