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ABC’s Shark Tank is halfway through its first season and it’s been enjoyable thus far.

Over at the UK’s equivalent, The Dragon’s Den, one of the franchisor’s on Franchise Direct’s British portal recently made an appearance and solicited the tough-talking millionaires for funding for his mobile food franchise.

Michael Lea owns Earle’s Direct, a forward-thinking mobile sandwich and ice-cream franchise. He took a big step appearing before national British television and the notoriously-prickly Dragons. Michael gets a tough time from some of the Dragons but, when all seemed lost, he negotiated with Peter Jones, one of the Dragons and got the cash he went on TV for.

There’s so much that potential franchisors can take from the videos linked below. You’ll learn the difficultly of convincing and winning over investors, for one. But there is a silver lining if you’re willing to negotiate.

Michael explains his concept:

Michael gets down to negotiating:

It’s great to have shows like Shark Tank and the Dragon’s Den, not to only to provide investment to aspiring entrepreneurs, but to promote entrepreneurship to the public at large.

Ben and Jerry’s are a franchise that’s never been afraid of taking stands on divisive political issues.  In the past, the Vermont-based ice cream manufacturer and franchise has taken stands over nuclear weapons, children’s rights and global warming and it has now come out with a (tasty) defense of gay marriage.

To honor the first day of legalized gay marriage in Ben and Jerry’s home state, the ice cream hippies announced that they are changing the name of their Chubby Hubby ice cream to Hubby Hubby. It’s a brave thing to do, but then again Ben and Jerry’s have never been afraid to wear their politics on the side of their ice cream container.

“At the core of Ben & Jerry’s values, we believe that social justice can and should be something that every human being is entitled to,” said Walt Freese, Chief Executive Officer of Ben & Jerry’s. “From the very beginning of our 30 year history, we have supported equal rights for all people. The legalization of marriage for gay and lesbian couples in Vermont is certainly a step in the right direction and something worth celebrating with peace, love and plenty of ice cream.”

They say it make a while for the Hubby Hubby ice cream to make its way into stores around the country. Whatever your stance on the issue is, it’s clear that ethical matters are becoming more and more prominent to a franchise’s profile. Our recent Top 100 Global Franchises list factored in many ethical issues into its final rankings. There are clearly benefits to this, on top of the global publicity that Ben and Jerry’s have gotten in the past 24 hours. Ben and Jerry’s have taken a stand and it’s likely they will attract a sizable group of people who support them for it.

As the economy has tightened up and competition has put the squeeze on businesses, we’ve seen franchises in the quick-service restaurant sector really get ruthless in trying to attract new customers. This year, we’ve already had the coffee wars and we’re about to witness an exciting new front in fast-food competition: the burger wars.

Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., which are both owned by CKE Restaurants, Inc, have announced they will be taking on the world’s #1 Global franchise, McDonald’s, in September. Their plan is simple. They are offering any customer a mail-in rebate if they honestly believe the McDonald’s Angus Burder tastes better than the Carl’s Jr. Six Dollar Angus Burger  or a $3.49 Hardee’s Angus Thickburger.

“After they so blatantly copied our burgers, we felt it was fair play,” Andrew Puzder of CKE told the Wall Street Journal.

It’s an interesting tactic. If beef is the only issue at stake here, then the CKE franchises have a valid argument to consumers: The Big Carl, for instance, boasts more than twice the amount of beef compared to its Goldern Arches rival.

But the competition is tight.  The WSJ reported that “combined same-store sales at its two burger chains declined 3.6% in the four weeks ended Aug. 10.” Clearly Hardee’s and Carl Jr. feel the need to fight back against McDonald’s, so much so that “one day next month, the company will park a Carl’s Jr. mobile diner outside McDonald’s restaurants in Los Angeles and offer to swap McDonald’s customers’ Big Macs for Big Carls.”

The problem for these franchises is that they’re competing with the world’s  #1 Global Franchise. We’ll be watching the burger wars closely over the coming weeks and we’re curious what McDonald’s next salvo will be.

Whether we realize it or not, we’ve spent our life with franchises. I remember taking long drives down from New Jersey to South Carolina and Florida as a kid and one of the things I remember most is the different franchises—restaurants, motels, etc — competing for attention on roadways and rest-stops. Some of them succeeded, some of them failed, but all of them fought passionately for the consumer’s attention.

Now, there are hundreds of factors that dictate a franchise’s success. Master your franchisee training but fail to maximize the right territory and you’re as likely to fail. That said, the branding of a franchise continues to be one of the most essential ingredients in a franchise’s profitability. I can still remember walking into an Arby’s in South Carolina once. There was just something authentic about it. Clearly, someone in their corporate offices had gotten all the small details right and the result was a memorable franchise experience.

Branding is often the difference between whether a franchise rises into the public consciousness or drifts away unsuccessfully. Janet Muhleman, the president of re:group, has pooled together her thoughts on branding in the latest edition of Franchising World. Here are her seven tips to improve your franchises branding:

1. Listen to your customers, but lead with your heart.
2. Tell your brand story, what you believe in, why you do what you do.
3. Create a brand personality that people relate to and want to engage with.
4. Make believers out of your franchisees and their front-line staff so they can live the brand.
5. Engage your customers consistently and openly at every possible touch point.
6. Measure your performance and be prepared to embrace change and innovate to stay current and relevant.
7. Return to No. 1.

Do you have anything else to add?

Yesterday we wrote about the benefits and risks of multi-unit franchise ownership. With a bit of research and pragmatism, multi-unit ownership can work for you. That said, business can be difficult sometimes and sometimes franchises fail.

Especially given the state of the economy at the present, failure is something that every franchisee and franchisor must confront. There’s no point in tip-toeing over the truth. Times are tough in the small business world. Only by acknowledging the chance of failure can we overcome it.

For a thoughtful meditation on the causes of failure in franchising and ways of overcome the stigma of watching your business collapse, we’d like to recommend the writing of Paul Segreto, who has a run multi-unit franchise and now blogs at franchiseEssentials.

We recently came across Paul’s thoughts on the subject of franchise failure and thought they were illuminating.

In this blog post, Paul frankly discusses how his franchise failed, and does not avoid pointing the blame at himself.

“Let me clarify something. I failed as a franchisee. Not because of anything the franchisor did or didn’t do but because I put and kept my head in the sand and did not face reality. I could go on and make excuses about things that happened around me but at the end of the day I could have turned things around if I got my own head out of the sand, made some difficult decisions and took full, immediate responsibility.”

Ultimately, though, having experienced the ups and downs of franchise ownership, Paul states that failure is something that he has learned from and the experience has inspired him in business.

“Yes, it was a tremendous learning experience but not one I would bestow or wish on anyone. Now, all I can do is to offer my experience to anyone in the franchise industry that needs assistance. As we’ve entered 2009 in the realms of economic uncertainty, I’m certain already difficult situations have been compounded but I’m confident a snap back to reality could only help. If just one franchise business is saved from the consequences of failure, then we’ve made progress. Progress we’ll continue to build upon.”

A dose of reality can prove quite beneficial when considering buying a franchise.