Teaspoon
Building a National Marketing Program From Scratch
CASE STUDY 01
BRAND STRATEGY, CRM & LOYALTY
FOCUS
CRM & Loyalty, Partnerships
MY ROLE
Director of Marketing
THE CHALLENGE:
Marketing was tactical and founder-led, with no brand strategy, inconsistent execution across franchisees, and a loyalty program disrupted by a platform transition. The brand needed to operate like a scalable national franchise.
MY ROLE:
Built and led the company's first integrated marketing organization, partnering with executives, operations, and 50+ franchise operators.
THE APPROACH:
Defined the brand. Competitive analysis, customer personas, and positioning became the foundation for campaigns and menu launches.
Launched the app and loyalty program. Part of the team that launched the Teaspoon app and loyalty program, then built the segmentation, lifecycle journeys, and birthday and win-back programs behind it.
Systematized franchise marketing. Local playbooks, promo toolkits, Google Business workflows, and an LTO launch template.
Built a partnership engine. A data-driven evaluation framework prioritizing reach, geography, and business impact.
Diversified paid media. Partnered with university researchers to understand customer behavior, then reallocated spend across YouTube, Hulu, and other digital channels to extend local reach within a franchise-funded budget.
Built the team. Coached junior employees into expanded leadership roles, brought creative in-house, and introduced performance scorecards and a culture of accountability and experimentation.
THE RESULTS:
$800K Costco gift card program
National Disney+ campaign across 49 locations
+$2 average ticket for loyalty members
Partnerships with Bay FC, Visa, AReign, and athlete Maya Doms
Summer of Teaspoon LTO: 3K+ giveaway entries; Flamingo drink was the summer's top seller
WHAT IT TAUGHT ME
This is where I built a scalable marketing organization. Consistency at scale comes from giving operators tools, not rules.