Franchise Update Magazine Issue III, 2012 | Page 36

Grow Market Lead

By Kerry Pipes

Transparency and
Disclosure
Denny’s relies on communication, mutual respect,
and continual franchisee feedback

J

ohn Dillon is a straight shooter
in describing what he’s been
doing as vice president of marketing and product development at Denny’s. “I’ve spent the last
five years working to drive the overall
marketing strategy for the brand and
spearhead compelling marketing campaigns that will help drive sales in our
restaurants,” he says.
Dillon is no newcomer to franchise
marketing. Before joining Denny’s, he
was vice president of marketing for the
NBA’s Houston Rockets. He also spent
10 years with Yum! Brands, where he
held various leadership positions in brand
marketing, national product launches,
menu development, consumer insights
and strategy, product innovation, field
marketing, and finance.
We asked him about Denny’s approach
to franchisee relationships and collaboration, and what role strategies like “full
disclosure” and “transparency” have had
had on sales, customer satisfaction, and
system growth.
Describe your role at Denny’s. As

vice president of marketing and product
development, my role includes developing new products, optimizing the core
menu, creating the marketing calendar for
the year, and ensuring that our franchise
partners have the support they need to
succeed. We are very proactive in sharing
our marketing plans with our franchise
partners and include them in the development process. Our franchisees are our eyes
and ears to the field, and their contributions and opinions are invaluable. They
are on the front lines every day with the
guests and have a very good sense of what
will resonate best.
What role do terms like “full dis-

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Franchiseupdate Iss u e III, 2 0 1 2

closure” and “transparency” play
in your overall marketing scheme
for reaching prospects and for
assisting existing franchisees?

Transparency and full disclosure are
imperatives for a successful franchise
partnership. As far as working with exist-

want the relationship to succeed. Franchisees are the operators of our business
and need full disclosure to successfully
run their business.
How is Denny’s reaching prospects
today? What’s changed about the
“openness” of the processes? We

continue to reach prospects through a
variety of channels. We are fortunate
that as a nearly 60-year-old brand, we
are well known in the franchise community. We are currently placing an
emphasis on growing the brand outside
of the U.S., so we’re focused on finding
well-qualified franchisees to help us grow
Denny’s internationally. Being open with
prospective franchise partners continues
to be essential to find the right match
for the brand.
Doesn’t it just make sense to
come right out and be as open
as possible with prospects? Ab-

solutely. We have a very collaborative
relationship with our franchisees