*4.3. Product*

The respondents emphasized that they must ensure that they offered a higher quality product while being more marketable and more attractive. Additionally, respondents stressed that good product differentiation provides goods or services advantage. Therefore, it is important to clearly communicate why their products offered better quality, lower prices, or a more effective experience than their competitors in the international market.

#### 4.3.1. Product Differentiation

Product differentiation by franchisors is a marketing strategy that involved the respondents in making different changes in the goods or services offered in the international market to make them stand out from others. For Malaysian franchisors, the different features of their products and services were the key to attract the attention of their customers. This is because the products and services offered by the Malaysian franchisors themselves have begun to be known in the international market because of their uniqueness, such as their food and beverage products. Thus, product differentiation is a strategy designed to differentiate their products or services from other industry players that are already available in the international market. According to them, successful product differentiation demands for them to identify and deliver the qualities of a product or brand while highlighting the differences. Moreover, product differentiation goes hand in hand with developing strong value propositions to allow their products or services to become attractive in the global target markets.

"Our products are very different from other brands because they use secret recipes that are passed down from generation to generation ... Because that's how it tastes, the texture of our products is different from other sellers ... ... that's why we have to control the quality"—P1

"To tailor our food to the global market, we try to diversify the menu and products available. We come up with variations on the menu and variations on the taste of the products where customers have a variety of options and menus to try"—P3

## 4.3.2. Product Uniqueness

Offering unique products by franchisors in the international market is an effective strategy in increasing customer's response by providing a variety of attractive product features. Franchisors developed unique products to impress customers, appeal to various market segments and diversify the types of goods to choose from. For franchisors, they must offer unique and differentiated products and services to enable them to remain relevant so that they can penetrate the global market. Product uniqueness is critical to building a strong franchise business, especially in the highly competitive international market for the food and beverage industry.

"We have our own unique products ... we try to maintain the concept of uniqueness by offering rice -based menus as staple foods even in the international market . . . this differentiates our products from other competing brands. Uniquely, our outlets offer Nasi Lemak menus. Usually, people eat Nasi Lemak for breakfast but in our outlets, customers are free to order at any time, that's the difference we bring to customers"—P4

"The uniqueness of our menu is the taste and texture of the products offered ... we want customers to taste our menu and want them to like and enjoy it ... the taste of the food is different from where they tasted before ... . every customer has different demands, so we try to meet by offering a variety of unique menus"—P9

#### *4.4. Advertising and Promotion*

The respondents emphasized that active advertising and promotional activities allow franchisees to reap benefits while promoting a brand. As a marketing strategy, franchisors often submit many advertising programs to the franchise system when spreading the marketing and promoting their franchise brand both in the domestic and international markets. In addition, the advertising activities planned and implemented by the franchisor also benefit the entire franchise system.

#### 4.4.1. International Exhibition

The respondents revealed that exhibition was identified as one of the approaches in general inquiries used by the franchisors in order to introduce their businesses and look for a potential business partner. International franchise exhibitions, which are organized by most countries around the world, served as powerful platforms for franchisees, industry experts and potential business partners to gather, share information and build business relationships and opportunities to penetrate into the market. At the same time, international franchise exhibitions have vested interests in observing good business partners and achieving the goals of franchisors for various marketing and advertising activities conducted during the exhibitions. These happen because franchise businesses provide opportunities to communicate with potential business partners. In many countries, franchise exhibitions were integral for respondents in marketing their products and services, and, most importantly, they were able to look for potential franchisees in their quest to open their franchise business outlets in the international market.

"To advertise our brand globally, we are actively involved in international franchise exhibitions, trade missions and business matches. We are always active in

doing marketing for the purpose of creating awareness of the products we offer as well as finding potential franchisees"—P7

"We participate in international franchise fairs as this is a good platform for us to disseminate information about our products, as well as find potential business partners to become our franchisees"—P10

## 4.4.2. Celebrity Influencer

Promotional activities played an important role in providing awareness about the products or services offered by the franchisor in the market. For some franchisors, they adapted marketing methods and promotional activities based on the culture and market trends of a country. The trend nowadays is to use celebrities for promotional purposes; the average customer is more interested in trying a product due to the images and influence brought by the celebrity.

"For promotional purposes, we diversify our marketing methods ... in each country, the culture and interests of customers are also different. We use ambassadors or celebrities for promotional purposes. Customers nowadays like celebrity attractions, so we must be creative. We have to see what which customers like and how interesting it is to try our products. We also invite celebrity to visit our outlets as one of the promotional activities"—P5
