Kimberly Bean, VP of Integrated Marketing + Menu Strategy at Papa Johns on Pizza + Innovation

In this episode of "YouShouldTalkTo," our host Daniel Weiner chats with Kimberly Bean, the VP of Integrated Marketing + Menu Strategy at Papa Johns. Kimberly has had an unconventional career path, having worked in operations before pivoting to marketing. Nevertheless, she’s glad that she did. She loves introducing people to newer and tastier experiences with Papa Johns. Kimberly is an innovator who knows her audience, and today, she’s sharing a few tips and tricks she’s picked up as a VP of Marketing. Now, we do have to address the elephant in the room - you can get pizza everywhere. You don’t always call up your favorite pizza place, sometimes you just order what’s nearby. So what do you do when you know pizza customers are notoriously inconsistent? Kimberly shares how she navigates such a fickle audience and how she strengthens brand loyalty among her customers. Papa Johns has amazing customer loyalty, it’s her job to make sure it stays that way. As well as attracting new customers with fun new menu items! But, there is a limit to how much you can innovate before you’re just going off the rails. Kimberly loves to think outside the box, but there is a method to her madness. She loves gochujang, for example, but does it have a place in pizza? Along with thinking outside the box, you also have to stay true to your customers. It’s her job to figure out what they want and find a way to give it to them. This is also true about agencies! Kimberly and Daniel discuss her best and worst agency experiences. Her worst experiences involved agencies not doing what they were hired to do. They wanted to be flashy and innovative without prioritizing the consumer. All of the data they presented meant nothing to her because it wouldn’t work for their audience. Most of the time, clients tell you what they want, so do that before you start getting flashy. Check out this week’s episode to learn more about Kimberly Bean’s best and worst experiences in the marketing industry and how they have improved her work today. Guest-at-a-Glance 💡 Name: Kimberly Bean, VP of Integrated Marketing + Menu Strategy at Papa Johns 💡 Where to find them: LinkedIn Key Insights: The Consumer is Always the Priority In this week’s episode, Kimberly shares how she prioritized her consumers at Papa Johns. She is not a shock-and-awe kind of marketer. For her, slow and steady is always the way to go. By focusing on the data and always thinking of the customer, she is able to create new and innovative menu items that her audience will love. Pizza is Promiscuous It’s pretty obvious that it can be hard to keep a pizza enthusiast's attention. You can get a decent slice of pizza anywhere. It’s Kimberly’s job to analyze the data and support menu items that will keep Papa Johns’s customers coming back for more. Is this thing on? 🎤 Kimberly’s work experiences with agencies usually involve them not listening to a thing she says and presenting something completely different to her team. Sure, their presentation was cool and interesting, but it wasn’t what her company needed, and now she has to take the fall for it. If you want to have a great relationship with your clients, do what they asked you to do the first time. Then you can think about innovating, as long as it aligns with their customers.