A Marketer's Guide to Engineering Brand Love

Tom Krouse, CEO of Donatos Pizza, offers his perspective about how C-suite executives view the role of marketing in today’s challenging environment during a spirited interview with The Shipyard’s CEO Rick Milenthal.



Speaker: Tom Krouse, CEO, Donatos Pizza

Moderator: Rick Milenthal, CEO, The Shipyard

Key Takeways

• The first step toward improving the relationship between the C-suite and marketing department is making sure you have a very specific and agreed-upon brand architecture. Know exactly the list of things you are always going to do as a brand, and not going to do.
• Make sure all departments are in pursuit of the same measurement strategy. If the main goal is acquiring new customers, then everything you do has to be measured against that strategy. It must be supported with the best available tools and have explicitly defined success hurdles.
• Look for cultural cues to help improve internal and external communications. What do memorable musical lines from songs like Sweet Caroline and Paradise City have in common? Simplicity and repetition. All too often, companies complicate their brand promise and their mission statement unnecessarily.

Sound Byte

“The best plans are the simplest ones: We’re going to focus on these five things. Think about writing a song and a verse. A standard country song has four verses, those are the initiatives, and a chorus, the theme that you repeat again and again.”  —Tom Krouse, Donatos Pizza

In a panel discussion, marketers weigh in on how to leverage the power of social media and user-generated content, take appropriate creative risks, gain stakeholder support for new programs, prepare for additional repercussions of artificial intelligence, and more.

Panelists:


• Tony Fung, Director of Shopper Marketing & eCommerce, Bob Evans Farms
• Ryan Sanecki, Senior Digital Marketing Manager, Bibibop Asian Grill
• Linda Lollo, Global External Digital Communications Manager, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
• Kelsea Cozad, Social Media Manager, Sleep in Heavenly Peace

• Moderator: Jason Smith, Sales Director, Brand Solutions, TeamSnap

Key Points

• Social media and UGC are powerful tools that can be used to strengthen customer relationships and breathe new life into legacy brands. Goodyear has been deploying its famed blimps as a “happy kind of mascot” and encouraging consumers to share those interactive experiences on its social platforms. The strategy is intended to build excitement around the Goodyear brand beyond the necessary but not-so-fun task of buying new tires.
• “We executed a surprise and delight opportunity on our Goodyear blimp handles,” says Linda Lollo, Global External Digital Communications Manager at Goodyear. “This is big. This is outside of Goodyear’s comfort zone. This is user-generated content. This is a little girl who is three years old and three-year-olds are very unpredictable. But we pitched it. We went through it. We explained the success for it. And it went off even better than we thought it was going to.”
• Retailer Express views UGC as a way to tap into emerging behaviors around style and fashion. “We empower our consumers to create content. We offer discounts as a part of our Style Editor program and empower them through promotion on our social channels and in-store events,” says Kelsea Cozad, Social Media Manager at Express. “We’re not soliciting UGC through contests. It’s sort of an always-on empowerment of the mindset that our consumers naturally have. It started as an organic social effort but it’s become the face of the business.”
• Bibibop Asian Grill taps the blogger community’s focus on well-being to promote a healthy lifestyle and create brand love. “From a data standpoint, this is a great way to see where your store traffic is really coming from,” says Ryan Sanecki, Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Bibibop Asian Grill. “Then you say, OK, maybe I shouldn’t be spending $2 million for Kylie Jenner to talk about Bibibop and how avocado makes her skin clear. Instead, we can go after those small wins of that blogger out of Chicago who shares her bowl every time she goes to Bibibop.”

Sound Bytes

• Adopt a shared language and vision across the organization. “Corporate communications is really the genesis of effective brand love. If you can get buy-in on the brand purpose and brand position, then every piece of the business that touches the ‘love timeline’ you’ve created will be speaking the same language.” —Kelsea Cozad, Express
• Embrace the storytelling power of employees. “Regardless of where people are engaging with us or landing on our digital properties, we need to show up as one brand. We’re really leaning into having associates help tell our story so we can role model that behavior and then try to figure out how we can globalize the story while still thinking locally. —Linda Lollo, Goodyear
• Place rigorous measurement standards around messaging. “When we look at messaging around our loyalty program, it is really more about one to some, instead of one to all. Every message we put out, we try to answer: Does it cause people to engage, entertain or inspire? If it doesn’t fit one of those three categories, it falls apart.” —Ryan Sanecki, Bibibop Asian Grill
• Tried-and-true methods of marketing and product development still work. When Bob Evans Farms partnered with Kroger on a new line of Mashed Cauliflower items last year, it was based on the insight that consumers didn’t just want to add more vegetables to their plate, they wanted to do so conveniently “They either didn’t know how to cut the cauliflower properly or didn’t have the time to prepare it,” says Tony Fung, Director of Shopper Marketing & eCommerce at Bob Evans Farms.

Patti Ziegler tells the story of how Scotts Miracle-Gro overcame numerous challenges to its core lawn care business in 2023. How would Scotts Miracle-Grow refresh its brand at a time when consumers were returning to post-pandemic life outside the home, older homeowners were passing on and first-time Millennial and Gen Z home buyers were entering the category with a whole new set of priorities?

Speaker: Patti Ziegler, SVP & Chief Marketing Officer, Scotts Miracle-Gro
Moderator: Jes Jenzen, Digital Sales Director, Teads

Key Points

• The rebooted “Scott for Scotts” TV ad campaign focuses messaging on new consumer groups, seasonal usage occasions and multiple product benefits, as new homeowners enter the category with many questions about how to take care of their lawns and gardens.
• The new spots reimagine the “Scott” character in the mold of Game of Thrones character Tormund Giantsbane, a brash and fun-loving celebrity who introduces young homeowners to a variety of experts in lawn care.
• Like many CPG brands, Scotts is continuously reshuffling its media mix to ensure the right balance between brand building and performance marketing. The rise of retail media has further shifted marketing dollars towards lower-funnel activity.
• “When we look at brand and performance, it’s across all our media investments to be sure that we level that out and that everyone is still spending enough money to get people into the category.”—Patti Ziegeler, Scotts Miracle-Gro

Gut Check

• How are your new products designed to meet the needs of modern consumers? Scotts triple action products are a direct response to the insight that today’s younger homeowners do not have time to put multiple applications of product on their lawn.
• How do you ensure your values-based initiatives remain authentic to you brand? Scotts’ sponsorship of the children’s garden at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio, includes making donations on Earth Day and connects to its larger mission of helping local communities get off to a good start in the growing season.

• When a CEO asks, “Do people love our brand?,” marketers often struggle to provide a succinct answer. And that’s because holistic measures of brand love are in short supply.
• Many tools in the marketplace purport to measure brand love but only focus on social listening and survey data. There’s very little if any accounting for what consumers do in addition to what they say about a brand—and actions are what impact the company’s bottom line.
• PULSE, currently in beta test mode, generates component scores across four layers of Brand Love and a total score on a 100-point scale. Inputs include not only social listening and survey data but also website data, paid media data, organic social performance and in-store sales.

Read the whitepaper to dig deeper.

Learn more about Pulse.

Sound Bytes

• Lean into the positive aspects of ritualistic behaviors that a brand might not have chosen itself. “We take some inspiration from different things that our audiences have created—sometimes bad, sometimes good. But they’re still supporting the brand. Their intention is to be part of that loyalty and pride. We love that. —Andy DeVito, Director, Creative Services & Branding, Ohio State University Dept. of Athletics
• Look for brand partners with their own built-in cult followings. Jeni’s collaborated with cultural icons Ted Lasso and Dolly Partner on custom ice cream flavors. “We’re looking for someone with a built-in passion community, so that if we create something new, it’s going to activate their followers and our customers too.” —Ryan Morgan, Head of Brand Strategy, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
• Be open to unexpected audiences that might be drawn to your brand. “You have to give up your understanding of what you think is possible or what your training has taught you and really go deep on the identity of your product. You can’t figure out how to get there through traditional means and vehicles. Your audience will show you how to get there. —Bryan Waddell, Senior Brand Manager, Hot Pockets, Nestlé

Mike Boyd, SVP, Marketing Content & Delivery at Nationwide, discusses the evolution of the brand’s iconic tagline/jingle and shares insights into building brand love in today’s fast-changing marketing landscape.

Speaker: Mike Boyd, SVP, Marketing Content & Delivery at Nationwide

Moderator: Jason Smith, Sales Director, Brand Solutions, TeamSnap

Key Points

• In 1964, a one-page internal memo circulated among Nationwide’s top agency executives with a list of potential taglines to send to the client. The first on the list was “Nationwide is on your side.”
• “Today that memo would be 25 pages long. By the time it got to the client, there would be a 150-page PowerPoint to support it. Every single day we remind ourselves that this is our hallmark. If you have a strong, brute force instrument like that, you’re foolish not to use it.” —Mike Boyd, Nationwide
• Nationwide’s highly diversified business helps insulate the company from negative impacts of shifting consumer priorities amid economic downturns. At a time of rising interest rates, the company is doubling down on providing financial agents and advisors with the products, content and thought leadership they need to help weather the storm.

Sound Bytes

• Never lose sight of the basic function of marketing. “My definition of marketing is pretty straightforward,” says Boyd. “Marketing equals commerce. As marketers, we are here to drive businesses forward.”
• Keep proper perspective on marketing complexity. “Doing a marketing mix modeling analysis with millions of inputs is complex stuff. What’s not as complex is what you do with the outputs, as well as the decisions you make and the fortitude with which you make those decisions.”
• Be wary of the bloated brief. “You see the work and you think, ‘This is going to be a disaster because it becomes a checklist of things you want in there.’ People don’t react to checklists. They’re not emotionally energized by those things.”
• Never give up on a good creative idea—regardless of your role in the organization. “If you’re a media planner and you have this idea that’s really strong, or you’re on the creative execution side and you think, ‘This is the right idea, it’s what we need to do,’ do not give up on it. Remind yourself of those handful of words that were scribbled on a piece of paper in 1964. Five words which later became seven notes. Don’t let that go.”

Adam Ferguson recalls how Huntington Bank pivoted at watershed moments in its recent history in order to demonstrate how to build brand love in a commoditized category.

Speaker: Adam Ferguson, Chief Brand Officer, Huntington Bank

Moderator: Lee Lawrence, Senior Client Lead, Basis Technologies

Key Points

• When Ferguson joined Huntington in 2010, the bank was emerging from the subprime mortgage crisis and consumers were still reeling from the Great Recession. Competitors were increasing fees to stay afloat despite historically low trust in financial institutions.
• With a new CMO at the helm, Huntington leaned into customer-first policies such as a 24-grace period on overdraft fees and zero minimum balance requirements. Those differentiators drove marketing for the next five years and catapulted Huntington to become the category’s fastest acquirer of new households in the country.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, many banks implemented standby cash policies and eliminated overdraft fees. We had to re-establish ourselves after the pandemic. We came full force with this innovative, stylistically different, campaign to attract millennials and Gen Z, and we got caught in the noise. We still saw good acquisition numbers, but we just saw we didn’t see the brand distinction that we had in the past.” —Adam Ferguson, Huntington Bank
• Huntington enlisted Oscar-winning film director Errol Morris to shoot a testimonial campaign to help bring the bank back to its core strength—the trust it had built with consumers.
  “We’re reminding people that what you love about us is more present than ever distinctly different from all the digital convenience happening out in the world.”
• “We had to re-establish ourselves after the pandemic. We came full force with this innovative, stylistically different campaign to attract millennials and Gen Z, and we got caught in the noise. We still saw good acquisition numbers, but we just didn’t see the brand distinction that we had in the past.” —Adam Ferguson, Huntington Bank

Gut Check

Is your company putting the customer first at each and every channel interaction? Mindful of Huntington’s mission to be “people first and then digitally powered,” Ferguson is advancing new ideas like a capability that would allow customers to Face Time a banker at any time through the mobile app. “Why would we invest in that when we can make digital convenience the driver?” he says. “Because riding the wave of why your brand is famous in a commodity category is really important. If you’re known for being personal and humane and putting the customer first at each channel interaction, whether it’s a mobile payment or anything like that, how are you making that moment felt?”

Traci Graziani talks about rebuilding the francesca’s brand and how to create lasting brand love through successful partnerships.



Speaker: Traci Graziani, Vice President Marketing & Brand Partnerships, francesca’s

Moderator: Gina Cavallo, Chief Revenue Officer, Audigent

Key Points

• When Graziani joined francesca’s in 2021, the company had recently been taken into private equity and new leaders were brought in to help rebuild the brand from the ground up.
• Graziani’s team began by interpreting the definition of francesca’s—which means “free one” in Latin—in a way that would resonate with its core twentysomething female customer base.
• “Being in your twenties is such an interesting time in your life as a woman, and I think you’re always discovering who you are. So we’re all about this idea of being free to make those choices, try new things and express yourself and your individuality through your clothes.” —Traci Graziani, francesca’s
• To reflect the idea of discovering new things, the typical francesca’s playbook is to run two-week drops of small collections. There’s a scarcity model built into this notion of never really finding something that someone else has.

Sound Bytes

• Ability to move at the speed of culture is especially critical when marketing to an under-30 audience. When Beyoncé began telling concert goers to wear silver and chrome in the last month of her Renaissance Tour, francesca’s leapt into action. “The team is hustling to get a chrome story in the window and pulling everything we have,” says Graziani. “It’s been really fun to see who our customer is and where she is in her journey.”
• Think about brands and brand partnerships in personified ways. “I think about who is Francesca, what does she do, how does she talk and walk? And that has gotten us to an archetype. Then I think about other brands, partners and creators as putting together a really interesting dinner party and who would make for good conversation.”
• When working with content creators, sometimes it’s better to start small. francesca’s saw huge success by doing a pop-up boutique at the Houston Rodeo that appealed to customers with a Southern, Boho style. “We like to say there’s riches in niches. We work with many different creators and ambassadors but on a micro scale in local areas. Last year we delivered a 9x ROAS on a program that had anywhere from 30 to 60 ambassadors at a time.”

Jamie Richardson shares the marketing philosophy, product innovation and new technology behind White Castle’s successful formula for keeping the brand love going at the revered burger chain.

Speaker: Jamie Richardson, VP of Marketing, White Castle

Moderator: Brad Brief, Client Lead, Basis Technologies

Key Points

• “I think in terms of staying relevant, it’s really important to not fall in love with your past, to definitely know that foundation matters and that the essence of the brand comes from someplace really important. And it’s not something we dream up in our heads. We learn about the essence of our brand from asking our customers good questions, listening intently to what they tell us, and then responding accordingly.”
• As a key part of their remit for a 102-year-old family-owned business, White Castle marketers are tasked with maintaining the quality of the original brand while constantly looking for ways to bring fresh new ideas to the table.
• Recent technological improvements at the chain range from robot arm “Flippy” working various stations in the kitchen, to “Julia,” the smart drive-thru experience. “These have really freed up team members who can listen in and jump in to complete an order if someone asks for help. But it’s allowed us to concentrate on accuracy,” says Richardson. “We haven’t lost a single [human job] because of our investments in technology.”
• “At some point in our 102 years, we changed the cash registers and made those better. At some point with our partnership with Coca-Cola, we put in the freestyle machines, so that could be better. Similarly, we’re making these investments in technology to make it a better place to work.”
• In an era of practically limitless data and information, Richardson looks to simplify his approach to marketing by thinking of all consumers as existing somewhere along the “crave” continuum from crave cautious to crave committed. “We’re really investing a lot to understand the different cues along that spectrum,” he says. “So the conversations we have with each individual about their potential cravings is something meaningful to them and we’re getting them the right messages at the right time and place.”
  • “We live in such an age of incredible information. We have so much knowledge at our fingertips and we all know this. We can go deep on every demographic profile and every psychographic profile. And what we’ve tried to do is actually bring a little bit of simplification and elegance in terms of how we’re thinking of the world bred. So we’re thinking of it as the creative continuum.”

Gut Check

How are you protecting your brand’s heritage while continuing to surprise and delight customers? “People love the original slider. But what we’ve learned from a menu innovation point of view is that people also love variety,” says Richardson. “So our guiding principles are around that craveability quotient to make sure that the distinctive taste really comes through. Candidly we’re doing a lot of good testing. It’s easier than ever to test and learn and find out along the way what’s likely to be a hit.”

Carl Stealey talks candidly about how the food company overcame failures and reinvented itself in the most volatile periods of the past four years.



Speaker: Carl Stealey, President of Retail Business, T. Marzetti Company


Moderators:
David Hogrefe, Group Account Director & Mark Hillman, Executive Creative Director, The Shipyard

Key Points

• Despite growing by over $500 million in sales in just four years, T. Marzetti faced unprecedented challenges to its food business that forced the company to rethink its entirely business plan and marketing strategy. Stealey uses the principles of VUCA (Volatile. Uncertain. Complex. Ambiguous.) to guide his teams through tough times.
• “I say this to our teams all the time: We’re wrong. Whatever forecast we have, whatever plan we have, we’re wrong. And we got to get comfortable with being wrong. And it’s not about being right or wrong. It’s about how are we going to adjust.” —Carl Stealey, T. Marzetti
• Heading into 2020, T. Marzetti was growing at 3% in the second quarter of its fiscal year, with plans to grow 5% in the back half of the year. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Stealey tore up his plans. The company launched zero new items and eliminated half of the SKUs in its portfolio.
• Recognizing growth had to come from digital channels as well as efficiencies in the supply chain, the company stood up an e-commerce practice and built a new revenue growth management team from the ground up.
• In 2021, T. Marzetti was growing rapidly and its revised strategy was working as planned. Then inflation hit, and the company was forced to switch gears yet again. “We took more prices increases (20) in 18 months than we had in the history of our company,” says Stealey. “We had a capability to license brands and a partnership with Olive Garden that was quite successful. We leaned into that full force. We now get inbound calls looking from other businesses to take their property to market.”

Gut Check

When faced with product launches or campaigns that are falling short of expectations, do you own the failures or try to tell a story about why things aren’t as bad as they seem? “If you’re explaining, you’re losing,” says Stealey. “The fastest way to fix a problem is to get crystal clear on why the problem is, and fix it.”

Gut Check

Are you prepared to challenge assumptions and hypotheses as part a test-and-learn approach? “I am always surprised that I’ll have one hypothesis that will I think will absolutely win out, let’s say it’s a beautiful image with almost a GIF look and feel, and then it’ll lose to like a static image of just like a cell phone,” Amato says. “So always being able to test and learn at scale, and using that to not only support your strategies but pivot when necessary.”