130 Restaurants! How CMO Jennifer Bell markets RPM Italian, R.J. Grunts, Aba, Wildfire, M Burger, Shaw’s Crab House, Mon Ami Gabi, Beatrix and 100+ more | Ep. 378

0:01Welcome to Do This Not That, the podcast for marketers. Each episode is packed with quick tips. They're super short, and at the end, we have some fun. Let's jump into it, and thanks for being here. We are back for Do This, Not That podcast, presented by Marigold, and we have a very cool human being here. So who's here? We got Jennifer Bell. Now, Jennifer is the Chief Marketing Officer at Let Us Entertain You. So Jennifer's been at Let Us Entertain You for over 25 years, leading branding and marketing and loyalty and digital and guest experience, all this stuff. And you're like, well, what has Let Us entertain you?

0:38You probably know their brands because they manage and license more than 60 brands and 130 restaurants in a dozen states. And it's wild what Jennifer has to oversee because it's everything from Michelin star stuff, fine dining to, you know, fast, casual, all the RPM restaurants that you know, like RPM Steak and Italian, all that down to things like Wow Bow and Frankie's by the Slice. I mean, you name it. They've got it all. So Jennifer is going to share with us, how do you handle marketing? All these brands that are so different. How do you build loyalty? It's going to be amazing. Jennifer, welcome to the show.

1:11Oh, thank you, Jay. What an intro. Thank you. You should intro me in every case I have. I will. I'll follow you around. But how do I manage it? I manage it with a very large group of very smart people as we all manage it. But I think the best part of my career is starting my career with lettuce when I was 23 years old. So I got to see it in a stage that's very different than what it is today. And I got to grow up essentially with the company. And the company is now 54 years old. And Lettuce entertain you. Yes, our biggest distinctive strength that we have is our variety of brands. And it makes us unique.

1:53We're not going to open a thousand wildfires or a thousand RPMs. That's not our business model. Rich Melman, who's our founder, his motto is not to be the biggest or the richest, but to be the best we can be. And working for a company who just strives to be better every day and pursues excellence is what kept me here all those years. Plus, I got to really flex so many different parts of my brain. I started as the assistant to the vice president of marketing. I went into PR. Then I went into web development and I brought a web team in-house. Then I went into loyalty and gift cards and building apps.

2:35And the 25-year journey that I have has just been full of wonderful learnings, a lot of failures, and a lot of fun. Marketing for restaurants is incredibly fun. And now, go ahead. No, no, that's, it's a, it's an amazing journey that you've been on and your background is so perfect for it. But what I, I'm curious, so you have these, I don't like saying disparate, but I'm just going to say disparate, these kind of disparate kind of types of restaurants, very different. So like when you go in to talk about marketing, do you have like on your calendar, all right, let's have a meeting of all the fast casual brands.

3:12And then we have a meeting of all the fine dining. Like, how do you actually structure? an excellent question. Our setup is really unique. So the way we're set up is we're comprised of operating partners. So I am a partner of Lettuce Nutanium. I'm also the CMO, but there's also operating partners. And there are some operating partners that have a collection of different brands. And then we call them divisions. So we have about nine to 10 different divisions. And in those divisions, they have marketing people. So those are brand marketers that go out and they do the marketing specific for the RPM brand or the wildfire brand.

3:51And they are doing the email marketing, the SMS marketing, the social media, the brand marketing. Because I really believe that in order for you to really connect with a brand and be that brand ambassador, you've got to be in those restaurants. You've got to know those people. You've got to really understand what the customers are experiencing. And no two brands are the same. And we never approach the brands in the same. The only thing that is a common thread throughout all of the brands is, number one, they're part of something bigger called Let Us Entertain You, which includes loyalty and gift cards that they all participate in.

4:26And number two, that they have this ability to be distinct and on their own. And they have the ability to do things that are different from the brand across the street that we also may own. So it's really fun. And I get to get all of the marketing managers together every month. And we talk and we tackle problems and challenges. And I have a team here at the corporate office that works on loyalty, gift cards, PR, social. I have a team of graphic designers and I have a team of developers that help us with our app and website. So my team's job is to really provide the resources for these field marketing teams that just go out there and do incredible content and incredible storytelling.

5:15So, all right, that's amazing. I love that structure. But I'm curious about something because a lot of people listening, you know, they may be part of the organizations that have different product lines, different service lines, different all this stuff. And so let's say you're like, OK, you know what? We're now excited. We found this new thingamabob, new SMS tool, new AI thing, new way to optimize this, new whatever. Is it let's make sure every location, every brand now uses this thingamabob? or does everybody kind of operate on their own? They're operating, it's like their own MarTech stack.

5:52Everything is just do your thing. Excellent question. Because I've been here so long, I've seen it both ways. So in the beginning, it was, you're an entrepreneur and you do what you want. So we had seven different reservation systems and three different POS systems and nothing was the same, right? There was no foundation. And then a few years ago, one of the strategy teams here at lettuce led a project with a digital transformation and just like most companies who are going through digital transformation it is scary you don't know what's we're going to tell you things that you don't want to hear and we took away some of that flexibility from the restaurants right but what we focused on are the things that do apply to not maybe every single location in our portfolio but most of the brands majority like pos everyone's now on the same POS system.

6:44Everyone's now on the same reservation system. Everyone now is on the same loyalty platform. They're on the same gift card platform. So because of that, we can layer in new technology much faster, easier that benefits all the restaurants. We're now on all on the same online ordering platform. So all of those things allow us to grow and expand. And our theory and my philosophy, and this has been ingrained in me by the Melman family, is that marketing needs to enhance hospitality and the guest experience. So when I think about what new thing we're going to do, the first thing I think about is how is this going to make lives for our guests better?

7:27And how is it going to make lives for our employees better? I go back to my days as a server. I started as a server. I was a hustler. I would love my job, but people would bring in this coupon or they were running this promotion. And as a server, and you have all these tables and you have to remember all these different things, it could be quite cumbersome and confusing. And quite honestly, I just wanted to get guests in and out. So that's what I love about my job is because I understood the restaurant industry because I worked in it. And now I can take away some of those pain points that they experience.

8:03I'll give you an example. So we run a promotion called Scratch Off, and it's every August and September. And years ago, we used to send out this giant mailer. It literally was like a direct mail piece that had a coupon with every brand. And you'd bring it in, and we'd scratch it off at the table like a lottery ticket and unveil a reward. And we thought to ourselves, okay, we have this app, let's make this digital. And so with the digital experience, the interaction was with the guest, and the server just processed the loyalty points the way they would normally, and there was no extra step on their part.

8:42So we made it better for the server and more convenient for the customer. And that's how we approach everything, is if we only tackle things or get things out of the way that are actually going to really enhance our customer experience or our employee experience. I love that. So I'm curious though, okay, you have a lot, most of the locations kind of on all the similar platforms or all the similar stuff. Is there some sort of like test mentality? Like, okay, we're going to pilot this over here and we're aggregating all the metrics from all the different marketing across all the locations. So we know that this is working over here and then there's like a knowledge share saying, Hey, by the way, all you locations, look at the pilot weed over here.

9:23You guys should try it too. Are you, are you organized in that way? Yeah, I think that's, that's been a very interesting, like testing and learning is always how you want to approach anything. You want to get some information. You're going to dip your toe in right first. And now we finally, because of the technology, when we add something new on, like we added pay at the table and we didn't add it across all of our restaurants. We added it one or two first just to see if people would do it, if they like the user experience, to get feedback from it. We would survey them. We would get the data and the analytics to your point, establishing benchmarks and understanding what we could expect.

10:02And then we did two more and then we did five more. And that is how we roll things out. It's never, you know, everybody has to do this. It's let's try it here, see how it works, learn from it, understand the product, and then work with the partner. What I love about the restaurant industry, too, is that when people are getting into the restaurant industry, they want to act as a partner. And a lot of the great vendors that I work with really want to be an asset to our team. and they see us as an opportunity to learn and we see them as an opportunity to give them feedback to make their product better.

10:40And so really choosing those types of people in the very, very beginning at the start of the project of knowing that we're aligned in our mindset of like your goals and our goals are the same. And then doing a little pilot launch, a proof of concept, and then what the rollout will look like. And that's really how we're going to approach everything going forward. I think it's extremely important to do that. And it seems like you all have loyalty as a North star. And what I'm curious about is, um, your loyalty program. So if I go to RPM steak and I'm a, I'm a member there, are those, are you seeing like crossover?

11:20Like that, that same person's going to have a loyalty card that they're going to go and get a pizza by the slice at your pizza place? Or is it like high end people go to high end, whatever, whatever I like, Like, how does loyalty, is that a big deal for you all? Loyalty is one of our greatest assets because there's no other loyalty program like us. I don't know of any other loyalty program that has the sheer variety of restaurants in which you can earn and redeem points. And so that is our distinct advantage. And that is what I leverage. So you can earn points going through to Three Dots and a Dash, which is our Tiki Bar at the bottom of one of our restaurants, to, you know, Eiffel Tower Restaurant in Las Vegas, you know, a four-star fine dining experience and anything in between, right?

12:08So that's the whole benefit of the program. And so what we love about that is, to your point, there are some people that will go to RPM and only RPM and never another brand. And that's okay. But then there are some people who visit 5, 10, 15 brands in a year, right? And so we want both of those people. We, you know, if you're joining the RPM loyalty program because you love RPM and only RPM, great. That's still beneficial for us, right? But if you want to try other brands or you're traveling and in a market and you see one of our restaurants and you can easily make a reservation, get points and use your reward dollars, that's great too.

12:47So that's why we run promotions that are cross-selling like that scratch-off promotion where it encourages you to go to different brands. And we do all kinds of things to encourage people to go to different brands. One of the things that we just recently did is I told you we're all now on the same online ordering platform is we now added points and reward redemptions with online ordering too. So if you go directly through us, it's seamless. And if you're a loyalty member, you are getting points, you're redeeming your world dollars, and you're enjoying that experience. And we have some people now that are only ordering online, which is okay, too.

13:26And so we look at our data, and the data is really nuanced. And it's actually kind of challenging. because if we had the same concept, the same menu, and roughly the same customer, that's pretty easy to see sort of their visits, their average visits, their average spend, all of those things. But, you know, I mentioned Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas. If you go there once a year, every year, that's considered loyal to me. Never in a metric in a loyalty program would one time a year give you that high loyalty experience. So for us, we have to really break apart that data and understand the guests on how they want to use it and meet them where they're at.

14:07We do distill it down to five major segments because I would drive myself crazy if I didn't. And we kind of hone in on those segments because of the core segments of our list and those types of behaviors and the psychodemographics of those segments are important to us. How they behave, why they behave, how often they interact with us. But that's something we're constantly tweaking, evaluating and trying to understand. I don't think we're perfect at it, but we're pretty good. Well, it's always a moving target. I'm curious about moving target related to something else. So I live down here in South Florida and every time a new restaurant opens now, I'm curious how marketing has changed about opening up a new brand or a new location, because whenever they open something down here, there's some random influencer who I don't even know in the local market who goes on Instagram and blows up this new location.

14:59And I got to go there because everybody else is going there yeah is that like is that the marketing playbook now and you gotta have it macro and micro influencers you gotta have it i think you know i've definitely showed my age so it was really tough for me to be like so anyone can post about our restaurants and it was tough for me to sort of embrace but now i'm all in and you have to be it's like if somebody tells you that they don't want to do ai you're like well okay you're going to be back you know good luck us right like you have to right we are all in with these influencers and man are they powerful and for me it's like anything pairing the right restaurant with the right influencer right it's like matchmaking it's understanding that i want this to be an authentic experience i don't want it to be like oh this we're forcing this influencer to do something that they don't normally do, right?

15:54So it's really, we do a ton of research and my team loves this to really connect with the influencers, just like we would the media. I mentioned my background was PR and I was going out with media people every week. Now it's changed. You know, I'm not going out personally with the influencers now, but my team is and they're connecting with them and they're understanding what's important to them. And as you said, as we go into new markets, so we're opening up in Nashville later this year And we don't have any restaurants in Nashville. And I am obsessed about learning about that customer in so many different ways.

16:30And the first place I went was TikTok and Instagram and tried to find as many Nashville influencers as I could just to learn. And I learned the food scene pretty quickly. And it's a great place. And I think now most of us, when we travel, are kind of looking on Instagram or we're looking on TikTok and we're trying to see what excites us. And I think we're human beings at the end of the day. And whatever connects you to a brand, that is going to be what forms that solid relationship. And I started my career obsessed with brands and the emotional connection that it brings. And I think that's what influencers do.

17:14They just bring that emotional connection to a brand. And I think it's important. I love your energy and excitement about the industry that you're in because you've been in it for a minute. It gets me excited because I've been doing I'm in the same world for a really long time and I got to like rev myself up. So that's that's amazing. And so along those lines, what gets you excited about what's coming? Like is AI have anything to do? Oh, I love it. I love everything about AI. I love it. Love it. But how does it impact your business? Like what's going to happen to the restaurant? Yeah, I mean, the only thing we joke about this is AI is not going to allow you to like eat.

17:52But other than that, I think it could do everything. I really do. I am obsessed right now about using AI to number one, really understand guest sentiment, right? There's all these tools out there that pull all the reviews and all the things being sent about, said about restaurants and aggregating them. But I think AI does the best in this. And the fact that I can change a prompt that can really go specific and deep down a path to really understand my guests better is incredible to me. I've spent hours and hours perfecting prompts and going in and trying to find things. And then another thing I do is I use AI to try to find out who's coming in the restaurant and if there's anybody that we should be paying attention to.

18:41Anybody that we could bring that hospitality experience to. Anybody that we could, who's celebrating a birthday or doing something special. If there's anything I can provide the restaurants with ahead of time to make the guest experience better, of course I'm going to do that. And prioritize that. Because I think that's really important. And I think those are the really big opportunities. Of course, content and things like that. I mean, I use AI every day. And I think if you don't, you're behind. And as a leader, I really felt it's important to establish an AI strategy within the team to really encourage them to do it.

19:20And I was at a webinar and they talked about the fear that people have that AI is going to take jobs. And there's a couple consulting companies that did, they went all in with organizations and they helped them really transform all kinds, all parts of organization with AI. And they actually hired more people because there's still a human element that you need to review. This was like a law firm specifically. And one of the use cases they said is that they could, you know, review a lot of the like paralegal stuff much, much quicker than a person. AI could do it. But a person still had to read through it and still had to see what the AI did.

20:06And so for me, it's about being more productive and focusing on the things that are more meaningful to us. We're all bonged down every day with those tasks that we have to do because they're important to do. But if we could free up our time and really focus, like if I could spend more time learning about our customers or coming in the door and then me greeting them and making sure they had a better experience, that's where I think the best use of my time would be. Right? Totally agree. So, all right. One final question here. I'm curious. You're in the restaurant world for a long time. Now you go out to dinner.

20:41You're not going to one of your restaurants. Let us entertain your restaurants. You're going out, whatever, with friends, family, whatever. Are you able to participate like a normal human? Or are you like, this menu is trash. They're not doing good service. The lighting is horrible. I got to get two drinks in. I'll be honest. And then I relax. No, I look at things. Like my husband really gets irritated because I'm like, you know, look at that. See that there. They use that. And I am. But then I'm also doing it in such a positive way. like I can't remember it was a restaurant we were in Arizona and I want to say it was Steak 48 and we walked in and as you're walking by every employee they stop and look you in the eye and they say hello right on the way to your table and we were walking through and I just thought I was blown away by that I felt so welcomed when I came I personally felt welcomed they did it to every single one of us, right?

21:38Like, but I personally felt welcome. And so when I feel like that, I pay attention to that. That's really, really important. But otherwise, sometimes you like some of my friends, like I'm really not forthcoming coming with what I do. So I could just relax and chill because I love doing that too. I love going out to eat. I love food. I love everything about the industry. So sometimes that's the focus of just having a great time. Well, the next time I go anywhere, I'm going to message you back. All right, Where should I eat in this city? Yeah, please. I love that. That's my favorite question. Yeah.

22:09Oh, we know everything everywhere. Listen, everybody's got to follow Jennifer Bell on LinkedIn. We're going to put it in the show notes. And also, they have an amazing app, Lettuce Antenu. What is the app called? It's called Lettuce Eats. And it's incredible. You can make your reservation. You can do loyalty. You can store gift cards. You can order online. It's a great app. It's custom built. Please download. It's great. All right. We're going to put that in the show notes. Amazing. And we're going to put the links to Lettuce Antenu You can find all the restaurants. Jennifer, thanks so much for being here.

22:37You are awesome. Thank you, Jay. It's fun. All right. You did it. You made it to the end. Nice. But the party's not over. Subscribe to make sure you get the latest episode each week for more actionable tips and a little chaos from today's top marketers. And hook us up with a five-star review if this wasn't the worst podcast of all time. Lastly, if you want access to the best virtual marketing events that are also 100 % free, visit guruevents.com so you can hear from the world's top marketers like Damon John, Martha Stewart, and me. Guruevents.com. Check it out.