Franchisee Advertising in Belarus: Rules to Set Before Launching Your Franchise

At a company-owned outlet, advertising is often approved verbally: the owner checks the design, and the manager launches the promotion. Once independent partners join the business, this approach becomes unreliable. To grow a franchise network without making conflicting promises to customers, define in advance which advertising franchisees may run themselves, what needs approval and who corrects mistakes. This is a distinct part of preparing an established business for franchising, not simply an exercise in defining your visual identity.

1. Categorise advertising decisions by risk

Start with the advertising your company already uses. Gather adverts, social media posts, leaflets, offers for regular customers and joint promotion materials. For each format, identify which elements must remain unchanged and which vary by outlet: address, product range, opening hours, stock availability or delivery terms.

Then give prospective partners three ways of working:

• No separate approval required: an approved template in which only designated fields may be changed.
• Subject to review: new copy, original photography, collaboration with a local content creator, a competition or a non-standard promotion.
• Not permitted under internal rules: unsubstantiated guarantees of results, fabricated reviews or the use of third-party materials without permission.

It is important to label the final category as network rules, rather than presenting the entire list as explicit legal prohibitions. The legal assessment of a particular piece of advertising may depend on its content and how it is distributed.

Test the system with a real example. If a partner changes only the address in a ready-made advert, there is no need for a lengthy review. If they add a promise of ‘guaranteed results’, the message has changed, even if the design follows the template exactly.

2. Align your advertising policy with the agreement and the law

In Belarus, franchising is specifically regulated by Chapter 53 of the Civil Code, ‘Comprehensive Business Licence (Franchising)’. The absence of a separate law entitled ‘On Franchising’ therefore does not mean there are no specific rules. The agreement must be in writing and registered with the National Centre of Intellectual Property; failure to register renders it void.

The Law of the Republic of Belarus ‘On Advertising’ also applies to advertising activities. Additional requirements may apply depending on the product, service, audience and placement method. Before developing templates, ask a lawyer to review the specific advertising formats you intend to use, rather than ‘franchise advertising’ in the abstract.

Keep two documents distinct. The agreement should set out each party’s advertising approval obligations, permitted uses of the brand identifiers made available to the franchisee, and the consequences of breaches. The advertising policy should describe the day-to-day procedure: where to submit materials, who responds and what constitutes approval. The policy must not quietly extend the franchisee’s contractual obligations.

Check the rights to photographs, music, illustrations and fonts separately. Permission for your own company to use an asset does not necessarily allow you to share it with independent partners. For every asset in your library, specify permitted uses and restrictions. Approval of a design does not, in itself, establish that the necessary rights have been secured.

Do not try to transfer all legal responsibility for advertising to the franchisee with a single clause. Allocating tasks between the parties does not override legal requirements or the potential liability of the relevant participants in advertising activities.

3. Organise approvals without holding up local sales

Appoint one person to receive submissions and arrange cover for their absence. Partners need a clear process, rather than having to find an employee willing to review a design in a private message.

Each submission should include:

• the final copy and image;
• the intended platform and publication dates;
• the target audience and geographical coverage;
• the full terms of the offer, including exclusions;
• confirmation that the product is available or the service can be delivered.

Set review times according to your team’s capacity and the complexity of the material. Make separate provision for urgent corrections to an incorrect address or opening hours. This is not the same as urgently approving a new advertising concept.

Record the outcome: ‘approved’, ‘changes required’ or ‘rejected with reasons’. Approval should apply to a specific version and its placement conditions. If a partner subsequently changes the discount, dates or promised result, the previous approval should not automatically cover the revised advert.

Keep a version history in a shared workspace. This helps resolve disputes and avoids wasting time reviewing mistakes that have already been corrected. It is best not to treat silence from the person responsible as permission to publish.

4. Check that a promotion can be delivered before publishing it

Even an accurate advert can cause problems if the outlet is not ready to fulfil its promise. Before launching a promotion, check stock levels, service capacity, staff readiness and the settings in your sales and stock management system. The advertised terms must match what customers are told at the outlet.

For example, a gift-with-purchase offer requires answers to practical questions: which outlets are participating, how long the promotion runs, which purchases qualify and what happens when the gifts run out. These conditions cannot be left to the discretion of the staff on duty once the advert has been published.

Establish a procedure for stopping incorrect advertising. Specify who takes the advert down, who corrects the information and who prepares an explanation for customers who contact you. Stopping an advert does not, by itself, resolve any obligations that have already arisen: these need to be assessed separately.

Before selling your first franchise, test the full approval process at a company-owned outlet. Ask the manager to prepare a local promotion without verbal guidance from the owner. If the process works only through personal intervention, the rules still need refining.

Practical takeaway: prepare a library of permitted materials, a clear submission form and a correction procedure. Your advertising rules are ready to hand over to a partner when they can run a routine advert independently, while the owner’s team has time to review genuinely risky claims.