AI in 2027: What Franchise Marketers Need to Stop, Start, and Fix

Kim Gouch (Retro Fitness) and Will Fraker (The Good Feed Store) join the conversation to talk about what AI is actually doing inside franchise marketing right now — not the buzzword version, but the real decisions their teams are making around creative, websites, data, and channel strategy heading into 2027. If you leave this episode with one thing, it's this: AI is already rewriting the customer journey before your prospects ever land on your website, and most franchise marketers aren't watching.In this episode:How AI is disrupting the customer journey before customers reach your website — and what to do about itThe "go slow to go fast" discipline-first approach to AI adoptionWhere AI belongs in creative production and where it absolutely doesn'tHow to prioritize channels for the AI era — email, paid, website, and beyondWhat franchise marketers need to stop doing with AI right nowGuest: Kim Gouch, Chief Brand Officer, Retro FitnessKim has spent 30+ years in franchising across hotel, hospitality, restaurants, and fitness — including time on both the franchisor and franchisee sides. As the first-ever Chief Brand Officer at Retro Fitness, she's building the AI strategy for a high-value, low-price fitness brand with e-commerce at its core. Her brand-first perspective on guardrails and authenticity is one of the clearest frameworks in this conversation.Guest: Will Fraker, VP of Brand and Performance, The Good Feed StoreWill has been in franchising for over a decade across home services, retail, and specialty. At the Good Feed Store — a 300+ location brand — he oversees brand and performance marketing while also supporting a much smaller early-stage stretch brand. That contrast gives him a uniquely practical lens on what AI looks like at scale versus what it looks like when you're a team of one.Host: Katherine LeBlanc, Fractional CMO | Apollo CMOWant to go deeper? 🌐 apollocmo.com ▶️ @My Podcast Host on YouTube 🔗 linkedin.com/in/katherineleblanc 📩 [email protected]