DMD have developed a Franchise Website Software product that provides a Brand site for the corporate or Franchisor and a local site for the Franchisees. Administration is made easy by giving the Franchisor access to all the sites whilst the Franchisee only has access to their own site. This allows the Franchisor to maintain brand guidelines and standards whilst giving the Franchisee the tools to grow their business. We have rolled out this product to Ray White NZ (147 franchises) www.raywhite.co.nz , Ray White China and Ray White India.
This model works well for Franchises because the search engine places significant weight on local presence. That is they will rank a local business web site much higher than they will a national brand with only a single page listing for each of it's franchises. Google is really trying to give business to the local guy and the only way Google can do that is by giving the ranking to a local guys web site rather than a generic site for a national brand.