*Editor’s note: Jodie was the Chief Marketing Officer of Fazoli’s at the time of this podcast recording. She has since become the CMO of Donatos Pizza.

Jodie Conrad is a restaurant marketing veteran with over 30 years in the industry and experience in marketing at Wendy’s, Coca-Cola, Fazoli’s, and more. She’s now the Chief Marketing Officer at Donatos Pizza, a nearly 200-location brand. Jodie is a long-time friend of Ovation and dropped some knowledge bombs on this episode!

Here are a few highlights from this episode:

Featured takeaway: Marketing is simpler than we make it out to be.

“We make marketing very complicated, but fundamentally it’s not. Marketing is one: having a product or service that is desirable. Something that offers an advantage – the consumer wants to purchase it or use it.

Two: telling people about that product or service in a compelling way, and three: delivering on that promise.

If you do those three things, it all works, but the fundamental part of that is delivering on the promise.” – Jodie Conrad

What is the most important aspect of the guest experience nowadays?

“What we’re really focused on right now is just trying to get the basics right. Food served quickly, built correctly, and delivered with all of the items included.”

What successful things have you seen or tried lately?

“Having some some good, and you know competitively priced family meals has been really important to us and so we’ve been focused on driving those.”