On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Steve Schulze, Co-founder, President, and CEO of Nékter Juice Bar, for a conversation about starting a business by filling a gap, the process of growing a business, and personalizing your communication with customers. Don’t miss this informative and inspiring discussion!

On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni sits down with Rishi Nigam, Co-founder and CEO of Franklin Junction, to discuss Franklin Junction’s unique business model of facilitating host kitchens in existing restaurants for brands outside the owners’ market share. Rishi explains how Franklin Junction helps restaurants maximize revenue using their existing setup and how they can utilize their downtime to increase profits.

On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Jamie Richardson, Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations at White Castle, for a conversation about the evolving relationship the 100-year-old brand maintains with its customers. They discuss the value of the app and how it allows White Castle to interact with its customers to cement their relationship with the brand.

On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Kate Troc, Managing Director at WineShop At Home, to discuss the enjoyment of drinking wine with others. Kate’s role includes holding private guided wine tastings inside homes and small businesses. During the pandemic, she switched to virtual events. Now she’s incorporated all the changes into their business model, and she explains how the company is more robust than ever before. They talk about personalizing wine for the consumer, bracing for inflation, challenges she faces, and their favorite wines.

On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Mike Jacobs, the Founder and CEO of Kitchen Data Systems, for a conversation about how delivery-first restaurants are doing business as virtual brands. Mike discusses how virtual brands can enhance their bottom line by making customers aware that they exist, ways to create brand awareness, and how to build a meaningful connection with customers since food is only part of the total customer experience.

On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Mark Fortney, VP of Sales and Marketing at Cozzini Bros, to discuss their unique business model. Mark explains how they supply knives to restaurants, replace them when they break or get dull, and then sharpen the blades and redistribute them to customers. Mark says it’s mystical to have a knife that provides a great initial and long-lasting edge that gets replaced if it gets dull or worn out.

On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes James Walker, CEO of Frisch’s Restaurants, for an in-depth discussion about the challenges of marketing to a customer base whose ages span multiple generations since the communication method and message will vary. James discusses his various marketing strategies to reach a variety of age groups and which customers will receive discounts and why.

On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Mark Edmonson, Chief Marketing Officer at GoGo squeeZ, to discuss how to personalize a product experience for an audience of multiple age groups. Mark says it starts with understanding different cohorts. For GoGo squeeZ, the first cohort is age five and under, where parents control snacks. The second cohort is ages 6-12, who want to choose for themselves. To learn how they personalize by age group and much more, tune in!

In this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni sits down with Carl Bachmann, President and COO of Smashburger, for a conversation about the aggressive approach that Smashburger took to come out of the pandemic stronger than it was before. Carl talks about why he wishes they were even more aggressive in handling the challenges of the pandemic, the returns you get when you treat people like you want to be treated, and how they managed to improve the culture at Smashburger.

In this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Brian Fox, CEO of Richelieu Foods, Inc., to discuss how grocery stores can personalize the customer shopping experience. He says grocery stores are too worried about having meat in the meat department and produce in the produce department. He says that when it’s pizza night or taco night, stores should take the opportunity to introduce new taco or pizza-related products exactly where the customer finds the taco meat or the pizza in the deli.

On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Debbie Johnson, Director at the Arizona Office of Tourism, for an in-depth conversation about personalizing tourism. She shares how her office develops campaigns to encourage travelers to come to Arizona and explore everything it has to offer. Debbie talks about simplifying the travel experience and how to make traveling to Arizona easy to create a better overall travel experience.

On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni is joined by John Giaquinto, Senior Director of Customer Loyalty and Digital Marketing at Hannaford Supermarkets, for a conversation about successful grocery store customer loyalty programs. John talks about why customers’ digital engagement is higher than before Covid started, how it’s changed how people shop, and how the resulting data has allowed Hannaford to know individual customer purchases to personalize discounts through their loyalty program.

In this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni joins Kara Goldin, Founder of Hint Inc., for a fascinating conversation about how Hint water came to be. They discuss the challenges of introducing an entirely new beverage category, overcoming self-doubt and discouragement from others, how Hint Inc. has evolved, how her company navigated the pandemic, and why offering customers a subscription opportunity has proven valuable. Don’t miss it!

In this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Anthony Valletta, President of bartaco, to discuss the ways bartaco tries to create a memorable experience for its customers. He shares how bartaco resisted the temptation to replace human servers with technology and, instead, made sure it had more people on hand to create an exceptional customer experience. Anthony knows anyone can make a great taco, but bartaco wants to be a place where people can really come and enjoy themselves. Tune in!

In this episode of From Persona to Personal, we’ve flipped the script, and Roger Hurni, Managing Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Off Madison Ave, is interviewed by Chad Franzen of Rise25 about all things in behavior design and how he uses it in marketing. Roger shares the tricks to determining customer motivation and how it can be effective in making money for your clients and saving them money by preventing unnecessary work. Don’t miss this interesting and informative episode!

In this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Erik Frederick, CEO of UNO Restaurants, LLC, for a captivating conversation about what UNO Restaurants did to become stronger during the pandemic. Erik explains how UNO personalizes the dining experience for its customers, and how UNO (whose pizzeria has been around since 1943) continues to evolve with new concepts. Erik shares some great examples of how he caters to its customers. Don’t miss this interesting episode!

In this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni, Managing Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Off Madison Ave joins Chad Franzen of Rise25 to talk about how this marketing agency came about. He talks about the collaborative nature of the agency’s work, what makes it unique, leading with empathy, and how a particular client benefited from working with his agency. Roger also shares why affecting behavior is critical to a brand’s success. Tune in to hear a marketing expert’s unique perspective!