Caribou Coffee’s Erin Newkirk on Personalizing Marketing Strategies with Innovative Campaigns for Gen Z

In this special episode of The QSR Experience Show at the National Restaurant Association Show, we chatted with Erin Newkirk, Chief Brand & Marketing Officer at Caribou Coffee. Erin shares insights on the importance of personalization in marketing, emphasizing the need to tailor efforts across various channels like TikTok and Instagram. 

Erin also discusses the critical role of integrating customer feedback through social listening and location-based insights to enhance the customer experience. She also highlights some of Caribou Coffee's innovative campaigns, including a creative TikTok dating show aimed at engaging Gen Z audiences. 

 

Topics discussed:

• Tailoring marketing efforts to different channels like TikTok and Instagram to meet guests where they are.
• Utilizing social listening and location-based feedback to enhance the customer experience.
• Launching creative campaigns, such as a TikTok dating show, to engage younger audiences like Gen Z.
• The importance of having a solid brand architecture when expanding from a few locations to several hundred stores.
• Ensuring employees are informed and engaged to provide a great customer experience.
• Identifying themes and key drivers from customer feedback at both micro and macro levels.
• Encouraging marketers to be curious, ask questions, and be more interested to create compelling campaigns.
• Leveraging data from customer surveys and feedback for informed decision-making in marketing.