Franchise Update Magazine Issue III, 2015 | Page 19

ANATOMY OF A BRAND

When my brother and I saw the jubilation that guests displayed in welcoming
us back to their town, we decided to take a
serious look at making something more of
this once-formidable brand. The concept
wasn’t getting the attention it deserved.
We felt we could change that.
And so, when Hardee’s parent, Imasco,
announced they wanted to sell the Roy
Rogers trademark, we decided to buy it.
We saw the potential to expand beyond
Maryland through franchising, finding
others who shared our passion, had solid
business experience, and who would be
driven to make their operations and the
system a success.
We already were doing a lot of things
a franchisor typically does: marketing,
training, product development, renovating restaurants, and creating brand standards. And so, in 2002, after about a year
of discussions, my brother and I acquired
the Roy Rogers trademark and the right
to franchise.
Overnight, we went from being
franchisee to franchisor. It was a new
frontier, but we had a number of assets to work with: our affinity for
and knowledge of the concept, an
experienced team of operators (we’d
been in bus