1 of 1

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 2

or the cobranders don't have the same vision as the original company.

What does that mean? Well, think about Barnes and Noble. They understand that the experience of buying books is about more than that. So they partnered with Starbucks and people can sit and talk and eat and drink and buy books and they will come back for that experience. I completely read a book on investing in Barnes and Noble before I bought it on my fourth visit! As far as I know, they don't have franchises. And, they don't have anyone saying, "Hey, you gonna buy that? This isn't a library." I originally thought Amazon.com was really cool, yet I have to admit that most of my book purchases in the last two years have been from Barnes and Noble with a few at Borders or small book stores. But, the difference with a franchisee in any business may be that they don't see the value of the original vision of the company. They might not understand "selling the experience". I should mention that one of the books that helped me with this concept is Harry Beckwith's Selling The Invisible. He had the misfortune of using Arthur Andersen as an example before they went under. Nevertheless, legal problems for a particular company don't negate the value of "selling the experience". So the experience of doing business with them may be different. Nathan's needs to be careful who they do business with. If one of their co-branding partners isn't as clean or as friendly or as fun as Nathans, that could affect how people see the Nathan's brand. And that could eventually translate into lower sales growth.

I'll take a closer look at Nathan's in the future. We can only invest in so many companies, but in January, 2007, Nathan's looks like a good bet within the context of buying 15 or 20 stocks. We use Scottrade, but now that Zecco.com is no commission for the first ten trades a month, we may have to look there. We don't only invest in home runs, but we hit a lot of doubles and triples, a few singles and a few strikeouts. Every so often we'll hit a home run. I wish I hadn't missed Deluxe Checks [DLX]. Oh well.

Right now it looks like Timberland may be a loser for us for the year. Even Cramer recommended a couple months ago, but that's the way the ball bounces sometimes. If only we had bought it a few weeks later...Oh well, it's really about how a group of stocks do TOGETHER. Keep that in mind.

You may see this article as too short. I do intend to look closer at Nathan's Famous in the future. What's interesting about Helium is it makes the writer think about how to say what he says in a different way. So far, one of the things I seem to have noticed is that shorter articles do better. Maybe Helium will change the way they compensate people. If not, I'll keep trying to keep it short.

Learn more about this author, Charles Hicks-Moore.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

• << previous page
• 1
• 2

Add your voice

Know something about Investing in Nathan's Famous?
We want to hear your view. Write now!