Turning a Negative Into a Positive With Julie Wade, Senior Director of Marketing at Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe
Julie Wade is the Senior Director of Marketing at Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe. Her background includes franchise development, brand marketing, product development, and franchise relations in the food and beverage industry. At Taziki’s, Julie uses two decades of experience in advertising, strategic planning, marketing, and social media to elevate digital and physical guest experiences.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Julie Wade explains how Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe began
What does the Greek word eudaimonia mean, and why it’s important?
How Taziki’s plans to expand beyond 100 stores
Why restaurants with Mediterranean cuisine have tremendous growth potential
What did Taziki’s do differently during the pandemic?
How Taziki’s uses its mobile app to enhance the customer experience
What keeps Julie up at night?
What you’ll learn in this episode:
How do you turn a negative situation into a positive one when unforeseen circumstances cause business to slow down? One restaurant became an advocate for its customers and turned up its restaurant business. So how did they do it?
During the summer of 2020, when a large part of the restaurant industry was struggling to survive during the pandemic, Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe needed to find a way to continue serving food to customers who couldn’t come into the restaurant. While many customers ordered Taziki’s food using third-party delivery services, others enjoyed it through neighborhood drops. According to Julie Wade, Senior Director of Marketing at Taziki’s, this momentary altruistic gesture led to a larger customer base once restaurants reopened.
On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Julie Wade, Senior Director of Marketing at Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe, for a conversation about the various ways Taziki’s creatively navigated the pandemic. Julie shares how Taziki’s is using its mobile app to enhance the customer experience, why she’s concerned about the possibility of an economic downturn, and the worst advice she’s ever received. Don’t miss it!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
This episode’s sponsor:
Today’s episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we create meaningful moments of brand trust and influence how people interact and engage with brands.
There is a science behind tapping into your audiences’ desires and motivation. After all, if you’re not changing your audiences’ behaviors, you can’t truly unlock all of your brand’s potential.
The proven models and methods of Behavior Design is the strategic foundation for your brands’ success.
Episode Transcript
Intro:
This is From Persona to Personal podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. Off Madison Ave creates meaningful moments of brand trust and influences how people interact and engage with brands. The science behind their approach taps into your audience's motivations and desires. After all, if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you can't truly unlock all of your brand's potential. Now, let's get started with the show.
Roger Hurni 0:06
Hello everyone, I am Roger Hurni the host of From Persona to Personal, where I get to speak with top leaders changing consumer behavior so they can propel their brands forward. Today I have a fantastic guest. And before I get to her, I wanted to let everyone know that this episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we use behavioral science to create meaningful moments of brand trust, which influences how people interact and engage with companies. Our behavioral approach taps into your audience's motivation and prompts them to shift behavior. And after all, if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you can't truly unlock all of your brand's potential. These proven behavioral models and methods are the strategic foundation for your brand success. Visit offmadisonave.com That's a v e dot com to learn more. Now, today's guest is Julie Wade. She is the Senior Director of Marketing for the Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe. She has more than two decades of experience in marketing, restaurants and retail brands. Wicked wicked, smart woman. Currently, Julie is working to elevate the digital and physical guest experiences at the Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe. On a personal note, she's a lover of Bama football, which I have now come out to find out it's actually Alabama football because clearly I'm not from the south, the Atlanta Braves and traveling which is something she and I have in common. Julie, welcome to the show.
Julie Wade 1:44
Thanks for having me, Roger. All right. Let's they get me that wrong? You're 100% Correct. All right.
Roger Hurni 1:52
All right. That's only happened five times in my life that I've been 100% Correct. So I really appreciate that being one of them. Let's let's give me some background on Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe just to get the conversation started.
Julie Wade 2:06
Sure. Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary in early in 2023. It was founded here in Birmingham, Alabama, where I'm currently located by Keith Richards and his wife, Amy, they, Keith had some culinary background and went on a trip with his wife, Amy to Greece and 1997. And absolutely fell in love with the culture, the people that cuisine, just everything about it really appealed to them. So they brought that concept back to Birmingham and started with one little 1000 square foot location and grew it to three restaurants than partnered with another group that was able to really take it and start an explosive growth pattern. And right now, we just opened our 100th location earlier this year. So we have certainly spread our wings and grown quite a bit. We're in 16 states and looking to grow some more in 2023. And we're we're fast, casual, approachable, Mediterranean. So if you're one of those meat and potato count folks, that doesn't like you know, very just stream cuisine where your place but then if you also like something a little bit different, some of those Mediterranean flavors, then we definitely have something for those folks as well.
Roger Hurni 3:44
I appreciate that as a vegetarian because you know, grape leaves and feta cheese, a little bit of olive oil on tomatoes. Like that's an easy meal. So I deeply appreciate that. I also like the intersection of how Mediterranean foods started in Alabama. Because like, when I first was doing research for the interview, I was like, Okay, how does this thing work? And then for everyone listening, Keith Richards is the other Keith Richards is not the Rolling Stone, Keith Richards not related to Keith Richards, from what I understand, but just a gentleman named Keith Richards and his wife Amy, right.
Julie Wade 4:17
Yes, that's exactly right. Yes. So people do ask that all the time about you know why Why don't Mediterranean restaurants start in Alabama? And yeah, tell them the backstory. But then the kind of the second part of that is Birmingham does have a very vibrant Greek restaurant community already. So Keith partnered with some of those folks, and we still today get a lot of our products imported directly from Greece because of those relationships with some of the folks here in Birmingham that are native Greek. We get our olives, olive oil, roasted red peppers. Yeah, several different items. We're still getting from some of those original relationships that he formed.
Roger Hurni 5:02
That's fantastic. Because that definitely gives it Not an air of authenticity, but actual authenticity with food and the flavor profiles that you're creating it to that point when I was doing the research, a lot of companies have several core values, you seem to have one word, and I'm gonna butcher this, but I'm gonna give it a shot anyway. And see how my linguistic palate goes on this one? eudaimonia?
Julie Wade 5:28
Yes, very good. Yeah, there you go. First time. Yeah, I don't think the Greek say it exactly like that. But that's kind of the Americanized version of it. So yes, very good.
Roger Hurni 5:39
All right, well, so why is that important? And what is it?
Julie Wade 5:43
Okay, so your ammonia roughly translates to live the good life, or human flourishing is another translation of it. So that's what we are really about, like, I know the company two and a half years now. And I've been a customer for over 20 years. And when I interviewed with the CEO, the very first time I ever talked to him, I said Taziki's is really an extension of my kitchen. That's how I feel about the brand. Like, it's the place that I always want to go, when we have friends or family coming in from out of town, it's a great gathering spot, it's when we have caterings, that's my go to catering option. It just is really, it's just an extension of what I'm normally doing. And I'm certainly not alone in that we've built a tremendous fan base, and all of our restaurants for people that feel the same way. We have large community tables, and our restaurants where we really encourage people to come together and enjoy a meal and enjoy just being together. And that's part of what Keith brought back from Greece with him was just that genuine love of being together and enjoying a good meal with people that you enjoy being with.
Roger Hurni 6:02
You know, I think it's a wonderful answer. There's something in there that I think you kind of buried the lead on in the conversation, I want to point out to listeners, and that there's a there's a position in that word that you defined as an extension of your kitchen. And honestly, in my years of working in the f&b space, I've not heard anybody describe their restaurant that way. But it is truly a wonderful way to understand the motivations of your audience, and really give them the ability to use your restaurant as a literal extension of their of their kitchen. And I, you know, I'm going to steal that if I may, even if I may not, I still am going to steal it.
Julie Wade 7:46
Okay. Yes, well, that's that's just the way I've always thought about Taziki's. And it's, it's just kind of part of our community, Taziki's has been very much a part of the Birmingham community. Like I said, it's it's 1998. And I can throw a stone from my house and just about hit four Taziki's restaurant. So it really, it does carry that. Yeah, it's a great gathering place. But it's also we really offer good food for families. So when Yeah, mom is deciding when she's leaving the soccer field after a game at eight o'clock on a Tuesday night, you know, whether we're on we're gonna do for supper, now. Everybody's starving, we've been fields forever. But they know that to Taziki's is a great option, you're gonna get a better meal for your family, than from a lot of the other, you know, options that are available to you. So it's, it's that coming together, but it's also enjoying a good quality meal. We make so many of our products from scratch every single day in the restaurant, which probably most customers don't give us credit for. And that's another thing when I first started, and I worked in the kitchen for a couple of weeks, and I was absolutely blown away at how many items we were preparing. Fresh, like we don't use package graded cheese, we are hand grading our cheddar cheese for our pimento cheese, we are hand crumbling, the feta cheese, for every item that we make, so we don't cut corners. We really do love the food that we're preparing. And, you know, it's kind of a labor of love for everybody that works in the restaurants.
Roger Hurni 9:37
Well, that speaks volumes to being a true extension of your kitchen. And you also said it's part of the community. So you're in your 25th year in business. You probably want to be part of other communities. What does future growth look like in terms of expansion? What's what's on the on the on the horizon for you? Oh, sure.
Julie Wade 9:58
Yeah, we've got a lot of growth plans. Were like gosh, we got probably 10 stores into development right now we just opened in our 11th restaurant in Birmingham just last week, which makes 20 in the state of Alabama completely. We've got several on the board in the Nashville area. Next to Birmingham, Nashville is our second largest market, they're about to have their 10th 11th 12th and 13th locations within the next probably six months are filling in other parts of Tennessee as well. Dallas is a big growth market for us. We just signed a new franchise partner out there last summer, and they have committed to adding some more units out there. We currently have two in the DFW Metro, we really, you know, we want to grow and expand and take our brand further north and further west. But we do still have an awful lot of space in the deep south that we can backfill throughout the Carolinas, Florida. Yeah, more Tennessee got a great presence in Arkansas. So just kind of all over
Roger Hurni 11:12
the kind of concept that you've had. I mean, you know, 12 1300 stores across the country is not out of the realm of possibilities.
Julie Wade 11:23
Um, probably not for 2023 or 2024. But yeah, just growth in general.
Roger Hurni 11:27
Yeah, yeah.
Julie Wade 11:31
Well, Mediterranean is one of those cuisines that probably has the most growth opportunities. You look at some of the franchise surveys and models and things. And for the past couple of years, they've really been saying that there's there's more room for Mediterranean cuisine, then there really is anything else you think about the burgers, the pizzas, the chickens, you know, they're all pretty saturated. But there's a hunger for the flavors. The, you know, we say that we're a great celebration of the Mediterranean diet, which is consistently one of the top diets not not diet, in the sense of you're trying to lose weight, but just I know, but yeah, yeah. So yeah, all of that is just, you know, further fodder for us in our expansion plans. And we were constantly looking for partners that want to join with us and grow the brand.
Roger Hurni 12:36
Well, the growth comment was a little bit of a soft pitch for you, for the investor community, if anyone's listening out there from any of the PE firms, because it's seriously a lot of growth opportunity. You did mention. The Mediterranean diet as in what you eat from everything you consume, not weight loss thing. That is important to a lot of people and you said this is an extension of your kitchen. So I'm trying to put these two things together, the pandemic shifted so much dining behavior. What How did Taziki's navigate that? Maybe Maybe you didn't have to maybe because it was an extension of the kitchen, everyone was sort of locked up, it became just, you know, your sales went up versus having? Did you have to do anything special? Or how did it affect you?
Julie Wade 13:37
Well, yeah, we certainly had to do, I would say we did things differently, not really think anything special, but just different. So I came onto the brand, and August of 2020. So we were through the major, you know, everybody's stuck at home weeks, which and hearing what they did during those times. Keith Richards, our founder who's still involved with the brand today, he was very instrumental in starting some neighborhood drops. So we would have, like neighborhood associations that would fill out a Google form with what their family ordered. And we would load up a catering van and go park it, you know, this entrance to this community. And everybody would come and pick up their their family's food. And so it was a way that we were able to, instead of customers coming to us, we went to them in those early days. And I think that propelled us even further when we were able to open up dining rooms again and kind of start getting back to normal, because people really appreciated that and they recognized us as a viable option when there were so few options available. So that definitely came back. I mean, we did it more in an altruistic fashion, but it did come back to help us business wise, but you know, another thing that was kind of just kickstarted threw out the COVID was our third party delivery, we had kind of tested it in some places and said, Okay, we're going to lean into this and just a few markets, and we're going to test self delivery and had franchisees that weren't convinced because it's a tough, tough financial model, honestly. And then, of course, with the pandemic, and everybody being stuck at home for so long, and offices emptying out, the system really had to embrace third party delivery is more of a survival technique than anything else. And, and that has really grown our customer base, we have been able to get in front of people through those third party that DoorDash UberEATS grub hubs and some local ones, people that would never think to come into our restaurant that they see us online, they order from us, and then they become big fans. So those are probably the two things that really kind of changed the most. And we're still we're still adding adding third party delivery platforms. And we even just last week had like the second highest third party delivery sales of any week that we had ever had. So that segment of our business is continuing to grow. And, you know, we're, we're very grateful for that channel.
Roger Hurni 16:30
It's a wonderful brand lesson on the first part that when things are not going well, you can be the brand that takes advantage of the situation. Or you can be the brand that is an advocate for your customers. And since you took the latter path, clearly, that makes your company more successful, maybe maybe so than others. And I've heard from lots of lots of people in your space, how the third party delivery apps, you know, technology has been a game changer. Let's just put it that way. I mean, QR codes, we didn't know what to do with them before the pandemic, right? We're like, what's this funny looking thing. And now they've just become ubiquitous. Where I've heard certain restaurants are like, we're never gonna print menus, again, to do it online, like there's a cost savings there, and people are comfortable doing it this way. So but you also aside from the third party apps, you have your, your own app. And I know, that's been a big restaurant strategy, because now you unlike other media channels, you have a direct one to one line with each of those customers. How are you taking advantage of that mobile experience? And how are you measuring success within it?
Julie Wade 17:48
Yeah, great question. Um, so our mobile, well, mobile, the app and online ordering, that continues to grow as well. So we've really done a lot of concerted campaigns trying to get customers to order online, there's so many benefits to doing so. When a customer, you know, say 2019, they'd pick up the telephone, and they would call somebody at the store, say, oh, I want a chicken face, I want a salmon feast on what a med salad was shrimp, whatever it is, you know, it takes time for the person answering the phone, that means that they're not speaking with the guests that's in front of them. So by shifting some of that business online and giving our customers incentives to get on the app, or get online, order your food there don't call the store that's helped from a labor standpoint, which was especially crucial, and the past few months when we had such a hiring problem. And yeah, like every other business that was out there, you could barely staff your facilities. So that certainly helped. And then also getting that data is so important. Where we do try to to encourage customers that may be using some of those third party delivery platforms, which that's a total love hate relationship with restaurants and third party. But we appreciate the folks that do order through them, because we do understand, like I said that our customer base has expanded tremendously because of that. But we would, of course, prefer somebody to come directly through our app, and through our online system so that we can collect all that data, we have their phone number, their address, their email, all of that. We're actually first quarter of next year kicking off a large one to one marketing campaign, leverage, leveraging all of that data in a way that we have not done. So before. We've really spent most of 2022 leveling up our tech stack, and kind of getting us into this century so that we can do a lot of things with the data that we have and Do our marketing in a really smart way and targeting people and personalizing their marketing. So they're getting, you know, you mentioned that you're a vegetarian, well, you're probably not going to be interested in the lamb burger, that we're going to launch this coming summer. So if your personal purchase history has no meat products in it whatsoever, we're not going to send you any e mail about the lamb burger. So that's what we're trying to get to.
Roger Hurni 20:37
Yeah, that's the great thing about mobile apps. And I'll say this is that you don't have to every restaurant feels that the third party delivery services, and I've interviewed a couple I won't tell you who Yeah, but the they're frenemies, right. They're, they're a bit of a necessary evil, they do serve a purpose for a certain select audience. But third party data is going away, and what you can get first party data, and be able to look at the behaviors that are associated with that first party data, you can make a lot of other decisions, and you get to a true one to one personalization at, at scale. So since you're going down that road, you gave me the example of the lamb burger, but how? How do you connect with me? Like what's Can you give an example? Of what kind of a channel? Do you do that in the app through a push notification on an individual basis? Are you doing as an email? How, how does that manifest itself?
Julie Wade 21:38
Oh, sure, sure. Um, right now, it's through email and SMS. Okay, um, eventually, we hope to get to a place, you know, either by end of 2023, or early 2024, where we can segment our push notifications through our app. And we can actually serve up through the app itself. Whatever messages it is that are personalized to you. So you may have an app home screen that is specifically about our salads. And then my home screen, maybe about chicken roll ups? Yep. Yeah.
Roger Hurni 22:14
Yeah, I actually work with a company that does AI. And what they do is they look at implicit and explicit behaviors on that app. And then the push notification is on a one to one basis at scale that's individualized, based on those previous behaviors. Yeah, and it's, yeah, it's a very utopian way, you know, it's the like, that's the holy grail one to one, because you're not really, I hate this word. And I'm in the business, you don't advertise your way to a customer relationship, you manage a conversation with them. And and when you can do that through your app, or online, or some sort of direct communication channel. You know, it's far, far more effective than my friends in media will hate me for saying this. But it's far more effective than taking an outdoor board on the side of the freeway, even if it's geo fenced in some way.
Julie Wade 23:02
Oh, yeah. They're trying to tie all of those things together now.
Roger Hurni 23:07
But yeah, but it's only as you can add first access, first party data access, then things just become infinitely, infinitely easier. All right. That's, that's awesome. It's a way to spur frequency to way drive customers like those are great learnings. This is a really critical question for me. Why aren't you coming out with faster to Arizona, where I live right now? Because this this restaurant is right up my alley?
Julie Wade 23:35
Well, you find this a franchise partner that wants to put some, you know, 10 or 12 stores out there, then we would be more than happy to talk.
Roger Hurni 23:43
I can help you with that. We'll talk offline.
Julie Wade 23:44
Okay, that sounds good.
Roger Hurni 23:47
No, no serious note, serious note. Lots of things are happening really well, this is often the tougher question. I kind of really want to know, like, what's the big challenge right now? You talked about a couple of minor technology ones that you're getting get to, but what's the big challenge that you're facing now? Like what's keeping you up at night?
Julie Wade 24:07
Um, it's interesting. You asked that I had a vendor exactly a year ago asked me that same question. And my answer at the time was the staffing crisis, because we can't grow if we can't staff our location. So I think we've come out of that. What really keeps me up at night now is just kind of the overall economic mood of the country. I heard driving in this morning that there was retail data for November, did not hit estimates. And you know, they're thinking that this whole Christmas season is gonna be a lot softer than it was projected to be. So, you know, just those overall economic climates. We're probably looking at more unemployment coming first and second quarters of next year. You know, all of that. While we're not a fine dining experience, and we probably can even benefit From an economic downturn from the folks that may have gone to a fine dining experience for a birthday and anniversary, something like that they ended up coming to us. Instead, because we do we have elevated, fast casual, we have beer and wine. So it can be very much a dining experience. Um, but also fear too, that those customers that have are more value oriented, you know, they'll they'll fall out, and they'll fall into another category out of fast casual so. So that's really, you know, just the overall mood of the country, and the global global economic conditions that, that worries me a little bit of
Roger Hurni 25:53
being worried a little bit and taking some good steps, particularly like in your technology that can help mitigate some of that I will offer some unsolicited observations here. You are also going to segment historically that when a recession does hit, you fall into this unique category of affordable luxury. Yeah. You know, for those who don't realize, you know, when you're a luxury brand, like in hospitality or anything else like that, you have to pivot and find some things that can people can enjoy about your product, that are less expensive, and you you offer some different services or products, that kind of thing. When you're in a category where that is already there, you end up getting more people coming down to use you and for speculative yuzu, I wouldn't worry about them going down into more value play a yes, you're gonna have some of those people. But at the same time, you can't be cooped up all your life, and you said it yourself, your words were perfect. Taziki’s is an extension of my kitchen. And if you were to leverage that point, it becomes this, Hey, we're this affordable luxury. We're an extension of your kitchen. So when things are a little tight, yes, you may have come to our restaurant twice a month, and now you're only coming once a month, but you're still coming, right. And you're telling friends about it, and that can kind of grow. So it takes a little solace in that, like you're you're in a good position, a really good position to weather the storm.
Julie Wade 27:20
Yeah, thank you. Yeah. I agree. I think that one of the things that we need to focus on and think about in 2023, is those folks that are trading down per se. They're not, they're not missing anything. Like we have to make sure that they understand that this is still that elevated experience. And, you know, they're they're not, they're not going to be losing because they come to us. Right.
Roger Hurni 27:53
Totally. I've got one last question. You have said some incredibly valuable things to listeners and to me. And I'm always surprised I asked this question now, because I literally end every podcast this way. And every guest is like, hey, interesting question. I'd never heard that before. I'm thinking why you didn't really listen to the podcast before you got on. So here's the question, and I'm hoping it's not going to stump you. What is the worst advice you've ever gotten?
Julie Wade 28:22
So professional or otherwise,
Roger Hurni 28:25
whatever you want it to be? It's your time.
Julie Wade 28:28
Okay. Um, okay, so this is, this goes back over 20 years, when I was pregnant with my first child, and I was working in marketing, actually, for a large franchise, a Blockbuster Video. And I had a, I was doing media buying, had a rep from a TV station, give me advice on parenting, and was chastising me for not finding out the sex of my child, because he said that was so rude. And inconsiderate for the people that wanted to buy gifts, because they they needed to know what the sex of my child was going to be. I was like, that is really a personal thing that has absolutely nothing to do with my business persona whatsoever.
Roger Hurni 29:24
Besides, that's why we have the color yellow. Hello. We can't go out of business.
Julie Wade 29:29
Yes, agreed to. Anyway, that was the advice that he gave me was always needed to or Yeah, I needed to find out the sex of my child. And I thought that was absolutely ridiculous. So that's, that's easily the worst, professionally. Oh, I've had some doozies of a couple of supervisors from a previous position that really tried to derail I guess my career that overcame all that so that's great,
Roger Hurni 30:04
huh? All right. Well, it has been wonderful having you as a guest today and thank you so much for being on the show. I have been speaking with Julie Wade, the Senior Director of Marketing for Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe, Julie, tell people where they can learn more about you and Taziki's.
Julie Wade 30:22
Sure, we are online at tazikis.com. It's t-a-z-i-k-i-s.com. Lots of information there. We also have tazikisfranchising.com gives lots of information about growing our brand, like Roger had alluded to before and to some other areas. So feel free to check us out. And thanks, everybody for listening today. Appreciate it.
Roger Hurni 30:49
Wonderful. I'm Roger Hurni, the host of From Persona to Personal and we'll see you next time.
Outro:
Thanks for listening to From Persona to Personal, the podcast that takes a closer look into how organizations personalize their marketing. We'll see you again next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
