This week, Chris sits down with Ruth Carpenter, Sales and Marketing Director at Black Rock Restaurants, the Brighton-based collection behind Burnt Orange, The Salt Room, Coal Shed, Tutto and new pub concept The Crazy Goose. Ruth rejoins the show (she was number 32 in the harem, now back at 210) fresh from three and a half years at Pizza Pilgrims, where she helped grow the business from 16 to 31 sites.
They get into what it actually takes to market six premium brands at once, why the Pizza Pilgrims' one big campaign model does not translate, and how Ruth has gone properly old school by building a network of the 100 most loyal customers per site and getting under the skin of what they want.
The tech chat is a good one. Ruth talks through inheriting the stack, why Airship does the CRM job, and how bringing in Edgy took cost per customer from £55 down to £11 in three months, all trackable and wired into SevenRooms, so there is no arguing about ROI at board level.
Plus, why she picked Glew for gifting and loyalty, and the recurring theme of the episode: you are buying into people, not just tech. Elsewhere, they cover the £2 million Salt Room refurb (driven by data showing the audience had aged with the brand), making premium dining accessible without a race to the bottom on price, merging sales and marketing into one team, and a proper, honest take on AI. ChatGPT is the hardest working colleague on the team, but everything gets a human lens on top, and stay curious.
Closes on the best sign-off this podcast has ever had. Chill out, follow the plan, stay true to who you are.
Topics: Marketing six premium brands with a small team
The 100 loyal customers strategy and guest segmentation
Paid social done right and proving ROI (£55 to £11)
The tech stack: Airship, Edgy, Glew
Merging sales and marketing
The Salt Room £2m refurb and repositioning for a younger audience
Accessibility versus price
Using AI without losing the human lens
GuestRuth Carpenter, Sales and Marketing Director, Black Rock Restaurants.
