1. What is a franchise? What role does franchising play in a distribution channel?
2. Why would the owners of MetroPaint consider franchising the business?
3. Why would a franchisee want to own a MetroPaint franchise?
4. What is required to make MetroPaint a franchise a success?
5. If you were Mary Anderson, how would you structure payments for the rights to own and operate a MetroPaint franchise?

Mary Anderson has decided to leave her employment as a pharmaceutical sales representative and join her husband Bruce and brother-in-law David in a new franchise operation. Mary would be in charge of sales, and managing franchisor-franchisee relationships. Mary’s first challenge was to make a recommendation concerning the structure of franchisee payments for the right to own and operate independent franchise locations. She had been discussing a number of alternatives with Bruce and David, and she was hoping to provide a recommendation they could all agree on as the two brothers currently had different views concerning how pricing should be established. There was some pressure, however, to decide the pricing structure as David was currently in his least busy period of the year, and Bruce was planning to launch the promotion campaign to attract potential franchisees at a national franchise trade show that was quickly approaching.