Clicks 2 Bricks

Today we speak with Marcel Nahm, Senior Vice President of Marketing for the restaurant category at Focus Brands. Marcel is a marketing whizz who has worked with big household names like Schlotzsky's, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Mcalister’s Deli, and Auntie Anne’s. In today’s show, we ask him about his new role, discussing his career to date and the differences between the restaurant and specialty categories. We first hear about the ins and outs of Marcel’s role at Focus Brands. As he shares what it takes to fulfill his role, we find out why it’s important to have a small ego, to be a strong collaborator, and to have trust in others. Diving deeper, Marcel walks us through the three brands that have his oversight, namely Schlotzsky's, Moe’s Southwest Grill, and Mcalister’s Deli. He details the unique experience each has to offer, and why it’s important to maintain individuality and separation between brands. 

Overhauling a business takes a willingness to experiment and iterate, and it is so important to have a company culture that supports this approach, especially during a pandemic! Today’s guest is Julie Roehm, Chief Experience and Marketing Officer for Party City, and she joins us to talk about the transformation she and a brand new executive team implemented in this firm with the help of an agile turnaround plan and synchronized culture. Before Julie joined, Party City was following a ‘stack it high and watch it fly’ approach relying on vertical integration and a market share as big as their SKUs.

Today we sit with Brett Campbell, Vice President of Field Marketing for Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and dive into the nuances of field marking and how it’s aided his organization’s success. After hearing about Brett’s childhood as the son of a U.S Navy pilot, he tells us more about the Tropical Smoothie Brand and how it has been making waves in the fast-casual space. Brett talks about the brand study they performed two years ago, and why it was so useful in helping the Tropical Smoothie Cafe team find their brand voice and engage with their market more effectively. Following this, Brett details his role at Tropical Smoothie Cafe, sharing some of his professional history.

Many multi-location brands end up prioritizing operations over field marketing because they don’t have the expertise or human resources to do the actual outreach. This is a pain point that Field Day is solving and today we have its Founder and CEO, Alex Nocifera on the show to help us learn how. Field Day is a one-of-a-kind solution for local marketing activation. It combines a proprietary technology platform that offers all the tools and measurement capabilities to run sophisticated outreach campaigns to local communities with an army of trained brand ambassadors to execute those campaigns. Our conversation with Alex begins on the subject of the lost art of leveraging a community via in-person interactions due to a marketing landscape heavily weighted toward digital marketing.

Listening to your peers and understanding your business model from the ground-up is a key path to marketing success. This idea is shared by today’s guest, Andrew Rebhun, as we unpack his career and latest role as the Vice President Digital Officer for El Pollo Loco. Having lived in six cities for over 10 years, we open our conversation with Andrew by exploring his impressive career trajectory. After chatting about his work for Ford, we talk about his transition into the QSR industry and how he accelerated McDonald’s digital expansion. Having laid the foundations for his current job at El Pollo Loco, we then dive into the healthy state of their marketing department. Andrew opens up about their challenges, how they drive customer engagement, and what they’re doing to get customers to use their app over third-party services.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is fast becoming one of the most important tools for business. Today, we sit with industry expert Jason White to talk about his journey in SEO and discover best practices of local SEO for multi-location brands. Jason is currently the Director of SEO at PMG and has cultivated a deep knowledge of SEO practices over the past decade. First, listeners will hear about Jason’s career path so far, as well as how PMG fits into the SEO landscape. We then ask Jason about the basics that multi-location brands should be covering, as he touches on landing pages, Google My Business, and more. As our conversation develops, we talk about the value Google brings to brick and mortar businesses and the challenges that come with proving ROI to clients.

Whether it’s to watch the game, go out with buddies, have a family meal, or simply pound beer and eat chicken wings, Hooters is the top choice for many. But even before the pandemic struck, consumer needs were changing. In response, Hooters began building out a fast-casual version of itself called Hoots Wings with a limited menu and food delivery capabilities. All of this happened thanks to the open mind and leadership of HOA Brands CEO and President Sal Melilli, and today he joins us on the show to talk about what these changes looked like from the perspective of marketing and operations. Sal’s career is unique in that he has worked for Hooters his whole life, having started as a dishwasher and slowly worked his way up until where he is today. He is a big believer in teamwork and often accredits the excellence of the company to the people that work for him, as well as the strength of the Hooters brand itself. We start our conversation hearing about the conditions that formed the initial thinking for Hoots Wings. From there Sal weighs in on their agile and customer-led approach to reinventing themselves, as well as the corporate structure behind the different Hooters companies and franchises. We talk about traditional versus digital marketing next, and Sal shares some techniques they are using to stay visible online and in the real world. Toward the end of the conversation, Sal speaks about what is in store for Hooters and Hoots Wings in the coming months and years. Tune in today!

Yes, today’s show is about coffee and so much more. We sit with Mike McFall, co-founder, and CEO of Biggby Coffee and author of Grind. In this rich and tasteful episode, we splash into Mike’s journey with Biggby Coffee and how he’s achieved his success. We kick off the show by hearing Mike’s story and take a look at some of the characteristics that set his coffee chain apart from all the others. We then shift scope toward the present day to find out what’s in store for Biggby’s future. Mike tells us how, by embracing versatility, Biggby has laid down the foundations for a strong 2021. Mike then introduces us to his latest book, Grind, and talks about the book’s premise, why generating revenue is your number one goal, as well as his fail-proof business model. Toward the end of the episode, we come full circle, back to Biggby Coffee, with Mike leaving listeners with some stirring parting notes. He closes by talking about the power of purpose and why the customer’s experience should be central to the way you operate your business. To get more nuggets of business wisdom, be sure to join us today

Creating a brand that becomes a part of culture and community is a marketing mission for many, but few can pull it off as well as Kristen Hartman, President of the Specialty Category at Focus Brands. The heart of her success is a freshly baked Cinnabon, rich in taste and aroma. Today we speak with Kristen to find out how she created Cinnabon’s success and open the show by first taking a look at Kristen’s background in the industry, exploring her new role as we go. After hearing about what working on the Cinnabon Brand means to her, Kristen shares thrilling anecdotes about the entertainment industry, and how a Cinnabon reference helped set the narrative for Breaking Bad spin-off series, Better Call Saul. Far from done, Kristen has enjoyed a successful career thus far. In the latter half of the episode, listeners will find out what she learned from working for companies, and how the Cinnabon strategy has changed in light of the coronavirus. Stay tuned and you’ll catch a glimpse into the future, as Kristen shares details about how Cinnabon is evolving and why pandemic has accelerated growth in some areas. To find out the secrets behind franchising, as well as Kristen’s advice for juniors looking to break into the industry, be sure to tune into this delicious episode.

Today’s guest is John Teza, President and Chief Development Officer for Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa. John’s career has been largely focused on building and marketing franchise brands from the operations and investment side, and he joins us today to share how he is applying his extensive experience in his role at Hand & Stone. Our conversation covers the benefits of recurring revenue subscription models, marketing franchise brands to consumers and franchisees, and a whole lot more. We kick things off with John talking about some of the key differentiators of Hand & Stone. From there, we take a deep dive with him into his past career, what led him to join Hand & Stone in August, and some of the things he is focusing on there in his current role. We get into how marketing Hand & Stone to franchisees versus customers differs, what onboarding new franchisees looks like, and how using an internal ad agency to handle new launches plays into this. Our conversation also covers the recurring revenue model at Hand & Stone and how this helped keep them afloat during the pandemic. In addition, John shares about how the process of migrating from an on-prem to a cloud-based POS tech stack is playing out and the advantages it will provide. Toward the end of the show, John weighs in on trends in the restaurant and health and wellness industries relating to tech, COVID, customer preferences, and more. Tune in today!