d Vicinity which is described below. The purpose of the marketing study we were involved in was to determine ways to maximize the relationship with Vicinity to create a logical and strategic marketing program that could be flexible enough to quickly adapt to new marketing challenges.
The International Franchise Association (IFA) was founded in 1960 as a voluntary network of businesspeople who wanted to use franchising as a method of growing their businesses. It is the world's oldest and largest trade organization that is devoted entirely to representing the business strategy. It has a membership of 30,000 members (franchisees, franchisors and suppliers doing business in some 75 industries and more than 100 countries. It calls itself the "Voice of Franchising" and purports to speak for more than 300,000 franchised small businesses in the U.S., which pump an estimated $1 trillion into the economy each year and provide jobs for some eight million Americans.
The IFA is run by a hired staff of 68 people, but all of the key strategic decisions are guided by the board members, of which there are 37, only five of which are franchisees. It is helpful here to understand the difference between a franchisor and a franchisee. Franchising is nothing more than a distribution system, wherein an entrepreneur pays a fee to a successful company to set up a franchise in his or her own area.
Until 1980, franchising law was basically a one-way street with the attitude "What is good for the franchisor is good for the economy" (Aggarwal,Cha & Wilemon, 1998, 360). When the IFA speaks, its official statements always include the fact that American franchising contributes more than one
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