Bad Franchisee, Good PR

Sometimes, an ill-fated decision can lead to a crisis. Other times, something positive can spring from its ashes.

Our good friend, The Franchise King, has been inundated with emails about how the actions of one single franchisee can affect a brand as a whole. The scenario: during the last Cleveland Cavaliers and Washington Wizards playoff game, a Papa John’s franchisee in the Washington, D.C. area took it upon themselves to make up t-shirts featuring Lebron James’ number with the word “crybaby” etched above it instead of his name. This could simply be seen as the actions of an irate fan – except for the fact that said t-shirts were emblazoned with the Papa John’s logo.

So what does this mean? That ALL Papa John’s franchisees think Lebron James is a crybaby? That Papa John’s HATES Cleveland? No and no, but fortunately for Papa John’s, the incident led to some great PR for the company as a whole. Not only did Papa John’s apologize for the erratic actions of the franchisee but they are donating $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund and will be offering 23-cent large one-topping pizzas for pickup at all Cleveland locations. Just goes to show that a positive result is possible even in the direst of situations.

Comments

[Jason]

My best team of NBA is Washington Wizards and I always follow them wherever they go if only have some time. I do not care if Wizards tickets are always a little bit pricy but prices mean nothing to me when the matter is related to my favourite team. Washington Wizards tickets are pricy but we should never mind when we want to watch our favourite teams. Without doubt there are other NBA teams that are great teams too but I have a special love for Celtics and always do my best to attend their games.