This is a sad national story of neglect. Do you remember when Tom Carvel was all over the New York airwaves with spots for Carvel Ice cream products like Fudgie The Whale and Cookiepuss? Tom Carvel's commercials and voice were technically awful but, the franchisees benefited from all the promotion and Carvel had tons of successful franchises all over the New York area and in parts of Florida. Tom Carvel got old and sold the company. The current owner of Carvel nationally, Focus Brands Inc., has run Tom Carvel's legacy into the ground. They take franchisee's money and do almost no advertising. Because of this, all the Carvels are going out of business one by one. There was a Carvel on Mt. Pleasant Avenue in West Orange, New Jersey, that was in business for decades, that is now out of business. This is also true for most of the newer Carvel franchisees that Focus Brands Inc. has suckered money out of. Focus Brands Inc. takes the innocent franchisee's money and then does no real advertising for them in any market. It is a disgrace. If you have ever eaten a Carvel soft ice cream cone, you know it is the best quality out there. Soon Carvel franchises will all be extinct because Focus Brands Inc. could care less. If you wonder about the effectiveness of saturation radio and tv advertising for the right products, remember this sad story.
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THE POWER OF RADIO AND TV ADVERTISING AND DEATH OF A FAMOUS FRANCHISE
- Thread starter RADIO TRUTH
- Start date
RADIO TRUTH said:
It is sad to see an icon like Carvel disappear. For years, their ice cream cakes were the choice for my birthday celebration. That being said, aren't the franchisee's savvy enough business people, to question why Focus Brands didn't do advertising? From most of what I have seen in terms of franchise agreements, a certain percentage of the franchise fee was put aside for advertising. If Focus Brands wasn't doing any national advertising, wouldn't that have been grounds for a collective franchisee class action suit against the company? Why didn't they take action as all of these franchises started going belly up? I am in no way defending Focus Brands, but too many times, individuals or groups are quick to point the finger, when a little of their own diligence may have saved the day.
DToTheJ said:
Very Good, And from "The Critic"..."Cookie Puss, I Will Devour Your Soul! MWAHHHHH!"
You're a bit misinformed. The company that owns Carvel added 100 stores in the US last year. Underperformers loose their franchise, or give it up. Overall the ice cream business isn't as popular as it once was with Americans obsessed with diets, although you'd never know with all the other crap they eat. Just because you see your local store close doesn't mean Carvel is going out of business. The first Carvel is in Hartsdale, NY on Central Ave. It will close next year. Not because of bad business but because it is on prime land that will become a strip mall. And a new Carvel will open there. Sad to see the original Carvel go, but it's not going out of business. Carvel does pretty good numbers in the summer, not so good in the winter. A lot of folks of Arab ethnicity have purchased Carvel franchises only to find they aren't as profitable as other business so are slowly pulling out.
B
Bobby Cann
Guest
Wednesday is Sunday at Carvel!!
In response to the above.....
Focus Brands does zero national tv or radio advertising for Carvel and almost no local advertising on radio or tv in any market. That is why all the franchises are going out of business one by one. From the franchisees that I have talked to, they are naive, they are sold a bill of goods and only realize that they are screwed once they have paid Focus Brands their franchise fee plus paid to get a location and for the customization of the location to be a Carvel store. The few franchises that do succeed, do it because they luck into a good location because they get zero advertising help that under Tom Carvel, Carvel franchisees got. All Carvels nationally without any appreciable advertising will all fail. It is just a matter of time. Tom Carvel, Fudgie The Whale and Cookie Puss are all spinning in their graves.
Focus Brands does zero national tv or radio advertising for Carvel and almost no local advertising on radio or tv in any market. That is why all the franchises are going out of business one by one. From the franchisees that I have talked to, they are naive, they are sold a bill of goods and only realize that they are screwed once they have paid Focus Brands their franchise fee plus paid to get a location and for the customization of the location to be a Carvel store. The few franchises that do succeed, do it because they luck into a good location because they get zero advertising help that under Tom Carvel, Carvel franchisees got. All Carvels nationally without any appreciable advertising will all fail. It is just a matter of time. Tom Carvel, Fudgie The Whale and Cookie Puss are all spinning in their graves.
Focus brands does not do local advertising, only some national. But the company has taken a different approach than Tom did. They have to. They are not closing stores like the housing market as you surmise and in fact are doing well with their current approach. Tom was always a marketer. If it wasn't for his ability at selling his melting ice cream the day his truck broke down, Carvel would never exist today. Tom liked that and for years you knew his local ads. In fact he only did them after a station didn't read his copy the way he wanted it done. He was no different than Crazy Eddie commercials, they brought local customers. When Crazy Eddie expanded and tried the same NY ad tactics, he failed. At the end of Tom's career, when they had also expanded outside the NY market, his ads did not garnish the same results. It frustrated him. Tom told me that once during the many rounds of golf I played with him. He said NY'ers just understood better. When you are a national chain that does double digits in supermarkets as Focus does now, unlike Toms days, you don't waste money on advertising "locally". I'm glad your survey of stores has found you the results you need. But they are not accurate as the company goes, just longing for the old local commercials Tom Carvel once made.
RADIO TRUTH said:
Actually, the Franchisees are now allowed to use any Ice cream mix they want, and they no longer have to use Carvel's own proprietery freezer/ice cream makers which had no air pumps with which to increase the volume of the product by mixing air into it. The product is whatever the individual propretor wants it to be now. Most Carvel franchisees switched over years ago to Electro Freeze & Taylor Freezer/Makers because they could double the yield of a gallon of mix. Carvel is no better or worse than any other average Ice Cream.
You can promote the hell out of it, but ice cream is available everywhere, is now a commodity and the Carvel Store trip is no longer the unique experience it was in 1956. Electric costs today are resposnible for many Carvel locations closing. Those freezers run 24/7. Fuel costs mean people are not making a special trip for a cone or a shake... and have you seen the price of a real shake lately?!? Blockbuster video is next to go due to Pay Per View... everything has a lifespan. It wasn't just lack of advertising that killed Carvel... and Tom Carvel himself couldn't afford todays Radio Rates. Years ago stations competed for advertising dollars. Today, take it or leave the rates. There are only a few games in town, no matter what the call sign, the money goes either into the left or right pocket of a couple of operators.
Addressing the above.....
The next national tv or radio Carvel spot that I see or hear will be the first one. Focus Brands is spending zero money on national advertising. Let's look at another market's Carvels. Focus Brands suckered seven different franchisees in Dallas, Texas, to put up money for a Carvel franchise. How many of them are still in business? The answer is "zero". Why did they all fail? The answer is simple.....no franchise advertising, no promotion. These franchisees were doomed to failure as soon as they wrote Focus Brands the check. I do understand that the cost of electricity to run a Carvel is significant. Similarly, the cost of electricity has put many ice skating rinks out of business for the same reason. Having said that, Focus Brands makes its money from Carvel by suckering franchisees out of their franchise fees and when the franchise fails, they just find another sucker. Here is the better answer for Carvel. Sell all the rights to a major fast food chain like Mcdonalds, Wendys, Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut, Pizza Inn or Dominos. Any of these companies do plenty of national spots and with burgers and pizza being so competitive, for one of these companies to be the sole advertiser and distributor of Carvel, one of these companies could gain some market share over their competitors because people might specifically come to one of these fast food giant's for a Carvel, even if they didn't like their hamburgers or pizza. I hate fast food burgers and fast food pizza but, I would go to a Mcdonalds or Pizza Hut to get various Carvel products. Just think. the Mcdonalds clown could be replaced by people dressing up and talking like Tom Carvel. Now that is a promotion!!!!!!!!!!!
The next national tv or radio Carvel spot that I see or hear will be the first one. Focus Brands is spending zero money on national advertising. Let's look at another market's Carvels. Focus Brands suckered seven different franchisees in Dallas, Texas, to put up money for a Carvel franchise. How many of them are still in business? The answer is "zero". Why did they all fail? The answer is simple.....no franchise advertising, no promotion. These franchisees were doomed to failure as soon as they wrote Focus Brands the check. I do understand that the cost of electricity to run a Carvel is significant. Similarly, the cost of electricity has put many ice skating rinks out of business for the same reason. Having said that, Focus Brands makes its money from Carvel by suckering franchisees out of their franchise fees and when the franchise fails, they just find another sucker. Here is the better answer for Carvel. Sell all the rights to a major fast food chain like Mcdonalds, Wendys, Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut, Pizza Inn or Dominos. Any of these companies do plenty of national spots and with burgers and pizza being so competitive, for one of these companies to be the sole advertiser and distributor of Carvel, one of these companies could gain some market share over their competitors because people might specifically come to one of these fast food giant's for a Carvel, even if they didn't like their hamburgers or pizza. I hate fast food burgers and fast food pizza but, I would go to a Mcdonalds or Pizza Hut to get various Carvel products. Just think. the Mcdonalds clown could be replaced by people dressing up and talking like Tom Carvel. Now that is a promotion!!!!!!!!!!!
RADIO TRUTH said:
So basically, your telling us that the business plan of Focus Brands is to purchase companies for the sole purpose of taking the franchise fee and letting the franchise wither on the vine? Sorry, that's a bit hard to believe. It would be econimic suicide. Again, I have to put the responsibility back on the individual franchisee. If they are not smart enough to check out the track record of Focus in relation to their franchisees, then they deserve to go out of business. The whole attraction of a franchise is the NATIONAL exposure as you have put forth. If Carvel franchisees aren't seeing any national exposure on the part of the parent company, and they still get in bed with this company, then they deserve whatever fate befalls them. Again, a little diligence in research on the part of the franchisee goes a long way towards success. I'm not saying that Focus Brands doesn't carry some culpability here, but it is ultimately up to the individual franchisee to visualize the big picture.
I do agree with you 100% that the franchisee is responsible for his own actions and own stupidity for getting involved with a company with such a lousy track record. Maybe one of the reasons that they do is because they
are small business people, have never owned a franchise, don't know any better and are susceptible to being suckered. Maybe Focus Brands targets these kind of people as potential franchisees. Another possibility is that they are thinking romantically about the days Tom Carvel ran the company in a much more professional and ethical way.
are small business people, have never owned a franchise, don't know any better and are susceptible to being suckered. Maybe Focus Brands targets these kind of people as potential franchisees. Another possibility is that they are thinking romantically about the days Tom Carvel ran the company in a much more professional and ethical way.
"You can't get a Carvel for fifty-seven cents..."
(See Larry King's first book for the story behind the story...)
(See Larry King's first book for the story behind the story...)
RADIO TRUTH said:
Carvel opened a store here in metro Atlanta, (Cobb county specifically East-West Connector at South Cobb Drive in the Publix shopping center). From what the franchise owner told me on a visit this summer, his business is doing so well he didn't worry about advertising- he did mention that some local cable TV spots were running on both Charter and Comcast, though I have Charter and live in Smyrna and have yet to see a Carvel spot. My sister was delighted to see Carvel, as she lives in NYC (Brooklyn) and noted that they were as famous as Baskin-Robbins is down here. I guess they rely on word of mouth advertising.
As far as selling the brand to another fast food retailer, this has been done before. IIRC Yum brands even has "combination" stores such as KFC/Taco Bells. Arby's franchise system at one time had TCBY's (frozen yogurt) kiosks in their Arby's/MrsWinners. It didn't work for some reason, and they shut down the frozen yogurt stands. I am not sure the typical McDonald's franchise owner would want to hassle with promoting and supporting two product lines- how much would it benefit him/her?
Why make a separate stop at a Carvel store when I can now get a Carvel cake at my local supermarket? Convenience is as least partly responsible for the lighter traffic at the Carvel stores.
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