Gloria Jean's Marketing Manager: "AI Will Never Be Able To Replicate That" | Michael Marr

TALKs Season 1, Episode 2. Michael Marr is Marketing Manager at Gloria Jean's, part of Retail Food Group. Now operating 100+ stores across Australia and 600 more internationally in a highly saturated market, Michael’s background spans wine, spirits, the world's first fashion hotel at Versace, and a run of Gold Coast properties with IHG. In this episode, Michael talks about what a sales background does to the way you build campaigns, why the best marketing sits close to the salespeople, what's working in QSR right now, why Gloria Jean's grew by taking items off the menu, how you hand a brand to franchise partners across 33 territories without losing it, and the one thing he's certain AI will never replicate. 00:00 Intro 01:33 The Jimmy Choo x Midori campaign that kickstarted Michael’s marketing journey 02:47 Gold Coast, Versace, and the world's first fashion hotel 03:36 IHG and the importance of storytelling 04:04 Coffee: a global category and a saturated market 04:33 What a sales background does to the way you market 07:34 What's working in QSR: innovation that creates conversation 08:51 Local and community marketing behind a national brand 10:06 Menu architecture, and why they stripped items out to grow 11:11 Going global: handing the reins to franchise partners 14:30 Future-proof skills and the one thing AI will never be able to replicate 17:22 The future of QSR: personalisation without losing authenticity — TALKs is a podcast about marketing Every episode is a long conversation with a marketing leader about what's going on in their world right now: the trends shifting their industry, the challenges specific to their market, and what all of it means for marketing more broadly. Along the way we get into how they got to where they are, what they're building now, and the things they learned the hard way. Hosted by Cooper Jitts, Founder of Talk Agency. Subscribe so you don't miss the rest of the season. Talk Agency: Talk Agency - https://talkagency.com LinkedIn -   / talkagency   Instagram -   / talkagency