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“As McDonald’s goes, so to does franchising.” This might be an extreme overstatement, but nonetheless, the Golden Arches has had such a defining role in the evolution of franchising that many entrepreneurs and analysts will use it as a bellwether for how the industry is faring as a whole.

Those insiders will be have taken positive news from the McDonald’s recent gathering for analysts and journalists at its corporate headquarters in Illinois last week. According to the Wall Street Journal, the attitude of the McDonald’s corporate executive was typically bullish, with the company extremely optimistic about the way it has positioned itself for the time beyond the recession.

“This is also as much about changing the perception of our brand in the consumer’s mind that allows us to stretch both the price and products you can serve in a re-imaged restaurant,” McDonald’s Chief Financial Officer Peter Bensen said.

The confidence is a direct result of the investment in new stores and technology, as well as the unveiling of popular new products.

Restaurant profits are down in the last year across the industry, but McDonald’s market share has remained steady. The WSJ reports that some of the products coming down the pipeline are new wraps, smoothies and frappes and possibly a $1 breakfast menu. Clearly the challenge for McDonald’s, and indeed everyone in the QSR sector, is balancing the surge in consumer frugality brought on by the recession with the constant demand for a high-quality product.

As the year goes on, McDonald’s seem like they’re in a great position to retain the top ranking in Franchise Direct second Top 100 Global Franchises.

When you are a franchisee, you are not at the bottom of the corporate food chain. Far from it. You are the eyes and ears of your business, responsible for instituting the innovations that will drive the franchise forward.

This is not just corporate cheerleading. These are established lessons. Consider the story of Subway franchisee Stuart Frankel, which was recently featured in Business Week magazine. You wouldn’t expect a man who owns two South Florida franchises to institute one of the biggest eating crazes in America, but Stuart had a big idea.

He’s the guy, who realizing that business slowed substantially on the weekends, cut a dollar off the foot-long sub at his restaurants. He tells Business Week it’s because he likes round numbers. Whatever the reason, you can now buy a $5 foot-long sub in every town and city in America these days. It has generated $3.8billion for the company. For this genius innovation, Subway has to thank not its armies of market researchers nor its well-paid corporate executives, but a franchisee at a grassroots level who sensed a new niche for his business and had the courage and inventiveness to satisfy it.

“The whole thing took on a life of its own,” Jeff Moody, CEO of Subway’s franchise-owned advertising arm, the Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust, told Business Week.

Business Week’s story is quite insightful as to how franchisees can bring about huge profits for a franchisor – sometimes in the face of skepticism from the franchise itself. It’s essential reading for any franchisee looking to make a greater difference in their franchise organization.

We begin this blog post with a personal anecdote.

We were recently visiting Stockholm, the Swedish capital. It’s a very hip city with a keen eye to modern design trends, which you might expect from the home of Ikea. But it was shocking to walk by a McDonald’s in the heart of the city and glimpse the interior design: there were plush cushions and round, comfortable-looking chair and lamps that hung down from the ceiling. It looked like a very fashionable place to sit down and have a meal. It couldn’t have been further from the sterile interior of the McDonald’s in Garwood, NJ where I used to go for Happy Meals years ago.

Recently, Burger King has announced that it is about to roll out its new ‘20/20’ units. Burger King CEO John Chidsey described these stores as “contemporary, edgy, futuristic”. Sixty of these stores will be opened around the world and feature “rotating red flame chandeliers, brilliant TV-screen menus and industrial-inspired corrugated metal and brick walls”.

Burger King is clearly trying to reposition itself to compete alongside ‘sit-down’ restaurants, not just McDonald’s. But it poses a serious question for franchisees: you can upscale your unit and broaden your profile but you will do so at a substantial cost. New units are estimated to cost between $300,000-600,000. The question, I suppose, what do people expect when they go into Burger King? Is it modern design or is it an affordable meal? Or do the two overlap?

There is something clearly masculine about the design of these stores, which makes sense when one considers the meatier aspects of Burger King’s menu. Another QSR franchisor that is looking to make younger men feel at home is Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, who is profiled in the newest issue of Franchise Times. Their “hot chicks eating burgers” ad campaign has raised eyebrows among both franchisees and customers. But the story provides a fascinating profile of one man’s efforts to bring a franchise group to the next level.

Many people tracking developments in the domestic economy are examining the state of the franchise sector. Franchising has lead the economy back during past recessions and some experts are using franchising as a measuring stick for the economy’s progress as a whole. Which is interesting, because the word that many are using to describe franching at the moment is Momentum.

QSR magazine is a great resource for comprehensive reporting on affairs pertaining to the quick-service sector. They’ve published an honest story that charts some of the lows of the economic downturn for QSR franchises, and hints at a growing optimism among franchise owners. Most importantly, they say that new franchise applications are up.

Sandella’s Flatbread Cafe CEO Mike Stimola tells the magazine that he has received 30 franchisee applications this year and says that he has “definitely sensed a change” in the mood around his franchised business.

This positive sentiment is also shared by the head of Penn Station East Coast Subs.

“From April forward, franchisees started to become aggressive again,” company president Craig Dunaway says. “I think franchisees reached a conclusion that the worst was behind us.”

This is not simply an attitude of wishful thinking on the part of franchisors. They’re witnessing an upsurge in interest. That said, a mood of pragmatism continues to rule, with more franchisees looking to open single-unit franchises, as opposed to multi-unit franchises.

April seemed to be the tipping point, the month where franchisees decided the economy had reached rock bottom. As the story suggests, progress is slow. But this is positive news from the franchisors side, especially as it comes from one of the most vibrant franchise sectors.

The ice cream franchise sector is displaying strength despite the economic challenges of the moment, the latest franchise report by Franchise Direct states. Franchise Direct, one of the world’s top franchise portals, has assessed the ice cream market after examining the UFOC’s of 18 franchises and in its ice cream franchise report, it found an industry overcoming seasonality to provide a truly affordable luxury during hard financial times.

Franchise Direct brings great expertise and knowledge of the franchise industry to these studies. It has published a number of reports on various franchising industries this year, assessing the pizza, coffee and automotive franchise industries as well as the recently released rankings of the Top 100 Global Franchises.

Ice cream franchises, like all businesses, are dealing with challenging economic factors at the moment. This is simply another hurdle for ice cream franchises, which exist in an industry which is, by nature, seasonal. But Franchise Direct found that ice cream franchises have displayed a knack for innovation in recent years that makes them somewhat immune to both changes in the weather and the economy.

Industry-wise, the study found an industry that is consolidating. While revenue across the industry has slipped 4% since 2004, total sales among the top ten percent of ice cream franchises is up 32% over the same period. The Franchise Direct study found that the main consumers of ice cream are families and children, with the African-American community particularly loyal to this industry. Of the 18 franchises assessed here, 8 have been franchising for four years or less, which shows a developing industry.

While the quintessential image of the 1950’s ice cream parlor continues to exist in the minds of many consumers, today’s ice cream franchises come many shapes and sizes. The classic ice cream stores like Ben & Jerry’s and Carvel now compete with specialist ice-cream franchises like Marble Slab or Maggie Moo’s or mobile ice-cream franchises like Coolcycle.

Ice cream franchises have a proven track record of innovation which prepares them well for these uncertain economic times. With a range of healthy, low-fat products and an interest in green technologies, ice cream franchises have proven adaptable to changes in consumer taste. They have responded accordingly to the recession, marketing ice cream as a tasty and cheap treat.

Thanks to a perennially popular product and a range of franchise concepts, ice cream franchises are displaying resilience in what continues to be difficult economic times.