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Director of Buzz ” was Stacey Kane ’ s title when she worked for AmRest Holdings , a Wroclaw , Poland-based company with more than 900 restaurants in 12 countries in Eastern and Central Europe . It was a great title and describes the energy and focus Kane brings to her job .
“ I ’ ve been working with and building multi-unit restaurant chains for more than 20 years ,” she says . That time includes serving as media buyer for Subway and as vice president of marketing at California Tortilla , where she was responsible for overseeing all marketing functions . In both 2012 and 2013 , Fast Casual magazine named her one of the Top 20 Movers and Shakers in the fast casual restaurant industry .
In March 2015 she joined East Coast Wings & Grill as vice president of marketing , overseeing the marketing department and contributing to the brand ’ s 12th consecutive year of positive same-store sales . In January 2016 she was promoted to CMO .
Describe your role as CMO . I have continued my previous responsibilities of overseeing brand positioning , digital marketing , customer acquisition , and social media platforms . Additionally , I ’ ve increased my focus on data analytics , franchise sales , and brand culture . My job is to not only look at the business from a marketing perspective , but with an operational mindset as well . I ’ m here to continue implementing both national and localized strategies to generate sales and the healthy EBITDA that East Coast Wings & Grill is known for .
What ’ s unique about the CMO position at East Coast Wings & Grill ? It ’ s the people who built the brand . There are folks who have been here since the first day we started franchising and have worked their way up the ranks . When one
CONSUMER MARKETING
CMOQ & A
Market Operator It ’ s a team effort at East Coast Wings & Grill BY KERRY PIPES
is that invested in a company it becomes more than a job , it becomes a family . That relationship makes everyone extremely passionate about the success of the brand .
What ’ s the most challenging part of being a CMO today ? The term “ big data ” is bandied about a ton , and I firmly believe that understanding the numbers is a huge part of a CMO ’ s role today . In fact , there is so much data in our business that we have an entire unit-level economics department to help out ! However , it is sometimes overwhelming to make all of that data actionable .
What are the 3 most important keys to being an effective CMO leader today ? 1 ) To make sure every initiative gets buyin from all functions within the company . Does the operations team know how to train it ? Does the unit-level economics department know how to measure it ? Is the store-level staff going to embrace it ? No matter how great an idea is , if the whole team doesn ’ t get behind a marketing initiative it will not succeed . 2 ) As the movie “ Frozen ” says , learning to “ Let It Go ” is really important to being an effective CMO . Sometimes the marketing department comes up with what we think is the greatest idea since Facebook . Then we pitch the operations team and they provide feedback as to why that idea just can ’ t work in a real-world store , or unitlevel economics says it is not a financially viable program . As creative and fun as the idea may be , sometimes you have to say good-bye to it and not take it personally . 3 ) Be nimble . Make sure you leave room in your budget and that you and your team are up on the world around you to take advantage of spontaneous moments of awesomeness .
How do you prepare a marketing plan and execute the strategies ? Everything here is a group effort , so from the beginning we have the end goal in mind . If the team agrees on the goal , we look at that marketplace and tap our vendors to create the best strategy to reach it .
How do you measure marketing results and effectiveness ? As CMO , I have the luxury of tapping into our unitlevel economics department . So any time we run an initiative , promotion , or any marketing action , I can see how it directly affected traffic , average check , or profitability pretty quickly and in a robust way . In addition , my department is very adept at pulling metrics off things like social media , digital , and loyalty .
Discuss your core consumer marketing strategies and objectives . First of all , it ’ s important to note that the brand ’ s universal goal has been the same since the beginning of time . With that , our consumer marketing strategies are the same as at any restaurant chain : to increase sales . To achieve this , no matter how you do it , you must attract new customers , retain existing customers , and get existing customers to come more frequently and pay more during each visit . We use many varying tactics to achieve those goals . For example , we have a very healthy rewards program to retain customers . We also put a large part of our budget into PR and social platforms to attract new customers . It really comes down to one of our core marketing strategies : delivering great customer service every time so custom-
32 Franchiseupdate ISSUE II , 2016