Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast, where host Zack Oates talks to industry experts to get their strategies and tactics you can use to create a five-star guest experience. This podcast is sponsored by Ovation, a guest experience platform for multi-unit restaurants that gets you all the answers, without annoying your guests with all the questions. Learn more at OvationUp.com.

In this episode, Zack is joined by Marlo Fogelman, the founder and CEO of Marlo Marketing. With a rich background in both marketing and law, Marlo shares her insights on the challenges and opportunities in hospitality marketing, the importance of hospitality, and actionable strategies to enhance guest experiences.

The Beginnings of Marlo Marketing (1:38)

Zach: What do you do at Marlo Marketing?

Marlo: “We focus on three areas: hospitality, so restaurants and hotels; CPG, mostly food and beverage products; and lifestyle, which is sort of our catch-all for anything that doesn’t fall into those other two categories. So everything from movie theaters to senior living, to destinations like a zoo sort of thing. We are an integrated marketing agency.”

Addressing Common Marketing Mistakes (4:50)

Zach: What is a big mistake restaurant brands often make with marketing?

Marlo: “Not knowing what they should be doing. Marketing has become so siloed with so many different areas, and it’s hard for operations people to understand the skills and strategies needed. That’s what our Outsourced Hospitality Marketing division was designed to solve for.”

The Essence of Guest Experience (6:37)

Zach: What do you think is the most important aspect of the guest experience nowadays?

Marlo: “I really hate to answer with like the most cliche of answers, but it’s truly all about hospitality, even more today, making people feel welcome, being friendly, and then the little touches that take any guest experience to the next level.”

Leveraging Technology for Personalization (11:23)

Zach: How can restaurants effectively use technology to enhance guest experiences?

Marlo: “When you’re thinking about how you want brands to communicate to you, you want to feel… I want to feel like somebody’s speaking to me. I want emails and text messages about new items or items that are actually of interest to me.”

Improving Guest Experience (13:11)

Zach: What are some specific tactics restaurants can use to improve the guest experience?

Marlo: “It depends. Are we talking about the sort of smaller mom and pop, you know, two to ten local group, you know, geography, restaurant group? Are we talking, you know, multi-unit QSR, across states, across whatever, right? So… that’s another thing too about marketing that everybody thinks, not everybody, but many people think that it’s a one-size-fits-all, and it’s not.”

Recognizing Industry Leaders (18:02)

Zach: Who is someone that deserves an ovation in the restaurant industry?

Marlo: “Jenny Goodman and Alex McCreary, the founders of New York City-based hospitality workwear brand, Tillit. They created Utility, an independent alternative to NRA, focusing on independent restaurants and their ecosystems. They’ve done a fantastic job addressing the needs of smaller brands.”

Learning More About Marlo Marketing (19:42)

Zach: Where can people go to learn more about you or Marlo Marketing?

Marlo: “You can visit our websites, marlomarketing.com and outsourcedhm.com, which focuses on fractional CMO and execution services for the hospitality world. We’re also on Instagram @Marlo Marketing.”

Thanks for joining us today. If you liked this episode, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite place to listen. We’re all about feedback here. Visit OvationUp.com to learn how we can help you measure and create a better guest experience.