Flame, the official publication of the National Franchisee Association (NFA), has been in production for over 20 years. The quarterly magazine is packed full of insightful information for NFA members and their restaurant teams. From industry news to best practices to vendor information, Flame has been a useful resource for BK® franchisees for two decades.
Recently, the NFA communications team wrapped up production on 2020 Issue 4 of the publication to close out the year. Read on to get a behind-the-scenes look at how Flame is produced from start to finish.
Step 1: Brainstorm
To kick off the process, the team puts together a list of story topics in a “story budget,” which helps us keep track of which parts of the publication have been written and finished, and how many pages each story takes up.
The team considers what challenges franchisees might be currently facing or what might occur soon when planning content. This issue highlighted best practices for drive-thru and hiring/retention, both of which were relevant to BK owners as the coronavirus changed the restaurant landscape in 2020. The issue also featured a recap of the awards given to NFA members during the annual BK Convention and a tribute to former NFA Chair Emeritus Steve Lewis.
Step 2: Create and Curate Content
To write the content for Flame, we gather input from BK franchisees. For this issue, Associate Director of Communications Sean Ireland reached out to several NFA members via phone call and email to collect comments for each feature story.
He asked questions revolving around trends, shifts and challenges that franchisees have faced in their BK restaurants with regard to hiring and retaining talent and drive-thru operations. He also reached out to friends and colleagues of Lewis to ask them about their personal experiences and relationships with him.
“It’s been neat to meet and talk with members of the franchise community over the last year,” said Ireland. “I love exploring issues and telling stories. With Flame magazine, I get to write about the people and things that matter to the BURGER KING® community. Hopefully, it helps people learn something new that will help their businesses or get to know someone a little better.”
Savannah Daly, communications coordinator, is responsible for the member news section of Flame, which reports on good news going on in the franchisee community, including new restaurant openings, community outreach and other special celebrations.
“I always love talking to different franchisees and hearing what good news they would like to share,” said Daly. For Issue 4, she spoke with Ghai Management and Ocedon about their community involvement. “During the pandemic, it has been especially inspiring to see how franchisees have been supporting their communities with meal deliveries or financial contributions, even though restaurants have been facing their own struggles,” she said.
Step 3: Bringing the Pages to Life
As the communications team finishes stories, they get sent to our designer, who makes pages come to life with photos and illustrations chosen by the team. Files and images are uploaded to Box, and the designer will work on each section of Flame pages at a time and send them back to the NFA team.
Many do not realize just how many times the team proofreads Flame before it is finalized. From editing the content for grammar and style before it goes to the designer, to seeing the pages as they come through with photos and design elements, we look over the pages countless times.
“My favorite part of the publication process is getting pages back and going through them,” said Rachel Jackson, communications manager. “I love seeing everyone’s hard work come together to form something awesome that we can share with our members and vendor partners.”
Daly, Jackson and Ireland pass around the pages for review and changes until everything looks good. After all the pages are finished, the final version is read cover to cover twice to be sure it is ready.
“Some days we feel like we are going cross-eyed after examining lots of pages,” said Daly. “But seeing the final product in the end and knowing that it will be a useful resource for franchisees makes the process rewarding.”
Step 4: Publishing
The last step is making Flame available to our members to read. We always create a digital version of the publication and put it online, allowing for easy access from a desktop or mobile device.
In this time when restaurant owners are busy focusing on operations, it can be hard to communicate with each other and exchange ideas. That’s why the NFA publishes Flame – to put information all in one place and to allow franchisees to keep up with one another. If you haven’t already, check out the final issue of Flame for 2020 here.
The communications team is already working on 2021, Issue 1. If you are a franchisee or vendor that would like to contribute to Flame, contact us at communications@nfbk.org.
Savannah Daly is the NFA Communications Coordinator. You may reach Savannah at 678-439-2288.