The CMO Spotlight is a chance to get an inside look into the minds and journeys of high-performing marketing leaders. 

Setup CEO, Joe Koufman, virtually sat down with Alice Crowder, the former CMO of Krystal Restaurants LLC, to share about how she personally immerses herself in the brands she works for, how she encourages curiosity and inspirational thinking, and how a Chinese Folklore inspired her leadership style. 

Q1 | Is there any advice you’d like to share?

Crowder is process-oriented and believes that every marketer could benefit from more organization. She believes that each marketing leader should work “to understand the needs, motivations, and success metrics of the cross-functional team in which you work.” She added, “If you can understand what those departments need and how to help them be successful, then you can draw a picture for everybody where everybody's got an end and everybody's got to win.” If everyone understands their part in the process, the whole brand benefits.

Her other advice to marketers is to fully immerse yourself into your brand. If you’re not fully involved in what your brand is marketing and you don’t love it, then it's hard to have a gauge of what a consumer wants. She added, “I don't believe in skinny chefs and I don't believe in skinny marketing executives because I think you have to really love and enjoy not just food, but the environment that food creates, the hospitality of it, having someone at your table, and building an experience around a good meal.”

Q2 | What’s your superpower?

Crowder shared that she is really adept at taking in information, processing it, and using that information to strategize what each department needs in order to best support the brand. She also values having strong relationships with her colleagues. She prioritizes hearing and understanding the different perspectives of her team members in order to move projects ahead responsibly. 

Q3 | Where do you find inspiration?

Crowder finds inspiration internally and externally. 

When she worked in the food industry, her team did “dine-arounds” where they tasted new things from other venues.

She also values reading as a way to find inspiration. “I'm a voracious reader. I love to read articles. I love to be online. I love to see new things – I love everything. From older material, to brand new material…and pulling themes out of both.”

Q4 | How do you coach and mentor your team?

Crowder creates a collaborative, open environment that prioritizes one on one meetings with her teammates where they can talk about the business, their goals, and a little bit about their personal lives. “You can’t help somebody's professional growth without understanding where they are personally,” she expressed.

To understand her team’s professional and personal goals, they had a "weekly wins" meeting where they all gathered to make a list of everything that needed to be accomplished and how they would achieve their goals.

Q5 | Tell us about an impactful campaign.

While working at Denny’s, Crowder conceptualized a promotion called "Build your Own Grand Slam.” Denny’s came up with 30 different kinds of Grand Slams, and when the meals were tested with consumers, the "Build your Own Grand Slam" performed the best. After looking at the insights, she learned so much about what's important to guests and how they approach a promotion. Denny’s took that information and used it to make the promotion a huge success. 

For more marketing leadership advice and a view into the mindset of marketing executives in various industries, be sure to watch the full interview with Alice Crowder, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.

Watch the full interview to the right.