The Marketing Mindset | JD Jacobs – Chicken Salad Chick

At Setup, our mission is to connect marketers with the right people and the right resources — and one of the best ways we can do that is by learning directly from the experts shaping the industry every day.

You may know our CMO Spotlight series, where we feature top marketing leaders. Marketing Mindset is a little different. This series highlights the specialists, strategists, media managers, creatives, and operators who are making the magic happen on the ground floor every day.

Because great marketing doesn’t just happen in the C-suite — it happens through the mindset, creativity, and expertise of all of the people doing the work.

In this episode, Madeline Evans, the Marketing Manager at Setup, interviews JD Jacobs, Manager of Franchise Marketing at Chicken Salad Chick, to talk about career growth, service, brand storytelling, consumer trends, and the small but meaningful ways marketers can make an impact every day.

“At the core, it’s about the guest and treating them right.”

Watch the recap + find the full conversation below.

Q1 | What is your advice to other marketers?

Rather than putting pressure on yourself to land your dream role immediately, JD believes in building your career step by step and being willing to do the work that helps you grow into the next opportunity.

As he put it, “Don't feel like you have to get your dream job right at 23. It's not going to happen. It's okay to find something that leads into what you want it to be. It's okay to set goals, but you also need to be realistic. You have to work your way there.”

He also shared one of his favorite ways to think about career growth: “I've always said there's an imaginary ‘10,000 trash bags’ rule. You have to take out the trash 10,000 times before you get your next promotion. You have to really put in the effort and get your hands dirty to get where you want to be.”

That mindset has stayed with him throughout different stages of his career. As JD explained, “If you're always in that mindset that you're not where you want to be, then you're not coasting. No one wants to take out the trash, but someone's got to do it.”

Q2 | What do you wish were different about the marketing industry?

“I feel like there's a lot of emphasis on the media side and the brand side, but a lot of times marketing will talk about how important service is, and it's never really done.”

Service is central to marketing, JD explained. “Take Chicken Salad Chick, for instance. You have restaurants in your mind right now that you think of as having good service. At the end of the day, I feel like service itself — and making sure that the guest experience doesn't get affected — is what matters.”

He has seen firsthand how much it can mean when a brand goes above and beyond for a guest. That is why he believes marketers have to keep the customer at the center, even when there are a million other competing priorities. As JD put it, “I feel like a lot of times marketers can get so much on their plate that they forget that, at the core, it's about the guest and treating them right.”

Q3 | How does purpose drive marketing efforts at your organization?

At Chicken Salad Chick, purpose is at the brand’s core. JD described it as a clear filter for both the brand and the people behind it.

He shared, “Our purpose at Chicken Salad Chick is to spread joy, enrich lives, and serve others. When we're hiring, that's what we're looking for. We're looking for people who can spread joy, who have a service-minded heart, who are thinking about others.”

He also acknowledged that those words may sound simple, but to him they are very real. “That may sound a little cheesy and cliché, but really, when it comes to people coming into the office, we're looking for people who have that mentality. They have the positive attributes of that company.”

And while skills can be taught, JD made it clear that heart and attitude are different. Everyone who works there embodies this spirit and the spirit of their Founder. As he put it, “I can teach you the job. At the end of the day, we can't teach you how to spread joy, enrich lives, and serve others. You have to come in with that already in your heart.”

Q4 | What strategies do you find most effective?

JD prioritizes staying rooted in the truth of the brand instead of getting distracted by trends.

“A lot of times brands can get caught up in trends,” he shared. “ Whenever they're posting this or posting that, you can almost see the brand lose sight of who they are, and that goes against what their brand was.”

That is why he believes the starting point has to be understanding the brand itself. For Chicken Salad Chick, that story is important to who they are. JD shared, “Chicken Salad Chick's story goes back to Stacy Brown, who was a single mom going door to door selling chicken salad. Twenty years later, here we are with 320 restaurants. The story starts with someone who's hardworking, someone who's determined, someone who's spreading joy, enriching lives, and serving others.”

What matters most to him is that the heart of that story has remained the same. As he put it, “Twenty years later, the story still stays the same. The story doesn't change. At its core, it's still there. This is a hardworking person. This is somebody who wants to make lives better. Some brands change their story a lot, but I think, at the end of the day, the story is going to be true to who the brand is.”

That emotional resonance is part of what has made the story so powerful. JD noted, “It was such an emotional story that when Guy Raz wrote his book, How I Built This, back in 2021, he started the entire book with Stacy's story.”

Q5 | How do you adapt to changing consumer trends?

JD shared that adapting to trends starts with paying attention to how consumers are behaving now, and what they might like in the future.

He explained, “When it comes to trends, we do have a development team that sees what the trends are in terms of what flavors are popular now. What's something that people are going to crave that's outside of the ordinary?”

That forward-looking mindset shapes how Chicken Salad Chick approaches new offerings. As JD said, “We put a lot of effort into our limited-time flavors and what we're offering. We're not just looking at what people like right now. We're looking at what the data tells us people are going to like in the next six months.”

Q6 | What is your secret sauce?

Similar to the spirit of the brand he works for, JD’s super power is making other people’s lives easier. “Finding a way to help somebody in some way… whether that's making their day a little bit better… there are a lot of opportunities to make someone's day better, whether that's at work or through a personal connection.”

That outlook shows up in how he works and how he relates to people. As he put it, “I think when I'm working, I put a lot of effort into making people's day better in whatever way I can, whether that's through a smile or a laugh.”

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You can watch JD’s full interview to the right. If you like this interview and want more, check out our CMO Spotlight series, where we interview CMOs from brands like Papa Johns, Kellanova, Invesco, NAPA, Heineken, and more.

Watch the full interview to the right.