As senior director of marketing, Richard led a very successful evolution of the Austin-based Tacodeli brand. He followed that success story with a stint as VP of marketing for Freebirds World Burrito and now works as a fractional CMO and consultant. Richard has spent time in agencies and client-side. He said people at agencies tend to have a more specialized expertise (in his case, brand strategy) and are spread across multiple clients in multiple industries. On the client side, he’s focused on one client, but his expertise is broader. The biggest challenge in Richard’s evolution of the Tacodeli brand was making the evolution seem natural. He saw his role in that process as an enabler and listener to carefully evolve the brand. The marketing industry – not just restaurant marketing but all marketing – is so fluid and ever-changing. Technology is the biggest word right now, especially in the restaurant industry. Technology used in restaurants needs to be intuitive and easy to use for customers and staff. Quotes “On the agency side, you’re often challenged to really push the limits and see how far you can stretch something and I think good clients really want that.” - Richard “Strategy is useless if it can’t be executed effectively. The best brand strategies for me are those that don’t stick in the lane of marketing. They are things that influence and affect the entire business.” - Richard “Brand strategy is business strategy. Period.” - Joseph “There are two types of brands. There are brands that are struggling to find the truth and then there are brands that have so many truths the struggle is which truth are you going to lean into and how are you going to cascade everything from that singular focus?” - Richard “(As a CMO), your first 90 days has very little to do with getting things done. It has very much to do with building rapport and relationships, understanding systems and finding champions.” - Joseph “I don’t think you should have to have a master’s degree to operate some of the marketing tech that exists. I think it should be intuitive and straightforward. Yes, make it easy for the guests, but also make it easy for the marketers.” - Richard “Food is so much about experience. Yes, it’s about wonderful food, it’s about people, the context, the environment. Yes, for the best meals the food has to be great, but it’s often about so much more than that.” - Richard Transcript 00:00.00 vigorbranding Everyone today I'm joined by my friend Richard penic he is a brand strategist and fractional cmo fractionable is what I said that's a very important new word that you guys need to learn and we'll talk about that and more but before we get in say hello give a little bit backstory. 00:15.40 Richard Pennock Hi Joe good see you yup so my name is Richard Pennet I'm born raised in the uk undergrad I was a historian at the University Of Leeds which is in the north of england um I spent 3 years at b jk and e which the W P P Media agency and then in 2006 I moved over to the us I did my Mba at Georgetown and between first and second year I married my then-girlfriend now wife Amber who is from the United States thinking I would spend a few years in the us think it's seventeen years later I'm still here. 00:50.53 vigorbranding Yes. 00:52.89 Richard Pennock I via Minneapolis I spent a few years at Target I worked in corporate strategy and marketing and then moved over to an agency up there Olson spent a few years there they then acquired a company down in Austin Texas and as much as I enjoy Minneapolis the. Winters were a little brutal and the temptation of sunshine and and all Austin had to offer was too much so I came down and I ended up staying um and amongst other things down here I had the marketing at taadelli which is a cult Austin Restaurant brand 12 locations I believe it is now in Austin Dallas and Houston and then moved over to free birds and was a Vp of marketing head