Joel LibavaFirst off, a little franchise trivia;
Which hot franchise in the 1980’s had Mickey Rooney as their spokesman?
I remember when my dad arrived on the franchise scene in the 1980’s. He was the franchise development director for Akron, Ohio based Physicians Weight Loss Centers, an up and coming franchise that was starting to get known for it’s cutting edge marketing ideas-having actors that were portraying physicians, in it’s television commercials. (Hence the name, Physicians Weight Loss Centers.)
I’m not sure, but I think that the Federal Trade Commission came down on them for that, and that, along with the FTC coming down on that entire industry in the late 80’s, almost put them out of business.
Anyway, I remember my dad talking about a certain food-related franchise that was hot back then, a lot.
TCBY was a hot franchise in the 1980’s. I mean hot! In Northeast Ohio, there was a lot of buzz about them. New franchisees were opening several locations, and frozen yogurt was in…
TCBY, at one time, had 1,582 franchises across the US. Times were pretty good.
Mickey Rooney was the pitchman, and reportedly the folks at TCYB
headquarters were getting almost 500 franchise inquiries a week.
Then all of a sudden it was out. I really don’t know exactly what happened, but that “buzz” started to turn pretty negative. I think that competition may have had something to do with it…
Read about who that competition was, and how frozen yogurt is making a comeback-a huge comeback, right now.
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