Centralized franchise PR stopped working when social media learned every franchisee's first name. Why local empowerment beats top-down control, and the trust posture brands have to rebuild for.
George R.R. Martin turned a deadline problem into category ownership. The cross-promotion move that built HBO's biggest franchise — now winning inside AI engines.
EPR's canonical 7-Eleven reference \u2014 85,000 stores across 19 countries, owned by Seven & i Holdings. The iconic Slurpee and Big Gulp franchises, the 2021 $21B Speedway acquisition, the 2024-2025 Alimentation Couche-Tard takeover attempt, the franchise architecture, and the crisis cases.
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest restaurant chain by revenue. The history, the franchise architecture, the brand campaigns, the communications operation, and the major crisis cases — EPR's reference page.