Living a Core Marketing Philosophy – The McDonald’s Way at Caspers Company
On May 25th Bob Conigliaro – VP of Community Relations at the Caspers Company – was Tampa Bay AMA’s featured keynote luncheon speaker. He boiled down his executive marketing and public relations job description into two words – generating happiness – and further claiming that it’s the primary reason that Casper’s stores generate nearly 30% higher revenue than the national average for McDonald’s restaurants.
If you visit a local McDonald’s restaurant, it’s most likely owned and operated by the Caspers Company, which also includes the Caspers Service Company, Caspers Distribution, and the Oxford Exchange. Every day McDonald’s serves 68 million customers in 120 countries from more than 35,000 restaurants.
Bob shared four keys to success in business and life:
- Adoption of a core marketing philosophy into your life
Most of us go to work everyday and feel that we must switch on our professional self and then switch back to our personal self after work. What if we looked at our lives as continuum where embracing a core marketing philosophy was apparent in our attitude and actions at all times? No game face for Bob, as his personal and business philosophy are identical – make the lives of everyone that he comes in contact with happier.
Bob asserted that we spend 25% of our lives at work, so we should consider seeing it as a place “where we create, find joy, take pride in our work and savor the opportunity to impact lives” versus just earning a paycheck. He remarked that we should see our “Smile as a logo, our personality as our business card, and how we leave others feeling after an experience as our trademark.” His upbeat and humor-driven presentation was a reflection of how he fully embraces this mantra.
- The McDonald’s Way
Bob shared how “Everyone starts out with a broom and a mop at Caspers” and learns how to clean a bathroom properly. This approach sends a message to employees that they all start from the same place and that every job is critical, which instills a sense of pride and ownership in individual tasks. Even when the third generation of the Caspers Company made their way up the ranks at McDonald’s, they followed the same training regimen of learning the business from the ground up – though they were eventually fast-tracked. There must be something to it as former McDonald’s employees approach Bob regularly with their personal stories of the value of their work experience with Caspers. He’s mentored a police chief, lawyer, and folks from every walk of life and receives comments like, “Everything I am today is because of you. I learned how to be a man. How to be responsible at McDonald’s.”
- The Three Legged Stool Approach
Franchisees, suppliers, and employees work together to drive the McDonald’s brand forward, resulting in a three legged stool approach. The Caspers Company believes in taking care of employees, the work environment, and the community. Employees start off at the Caspers Company with a strong orientation, comprehensive training, merit based benefits program, and are given personal growth and educational opportunities. Caspers is focused on keeping facilities maintained, remodeled and clean. Consumers enjoy a great dining experience in McDonald’s restaurants, while employees enjoy a breakroom customized to their needs. The same goes for McDonald’s community outreach. If an employee supports a good cause, Caspers jumps in as well.
- Big+small = HUGE
By providing support to many causes in small ways in the Tampa Bay area, McDonald’s makes a HUGE impact. Bob shared that it’s all about, “doing little things a lot of times.” By sponsoring both employee and local Tampa Bay area causes, McDonald’s is able to assist the greater community and causes close to their employee’s hearts. McDonald’s assists Tampa Bay public and private schools, veteran support organizations, hospitals, races for cures and our city government to name a few. He insists that these investments do indeed sell more hamburgers and French fries, and are great ways to market.
In closing, Bob cited a quote from Mark Twain – The two most important days in your life are the day you were born, and the day you find out why. Bob started at the bottom and worked his way up at Caspers over the last 42 years. He insists that he loves waking up every morning and heading to work with a mission to spread joy, which are critical drivers of marketing success, productivity and financial results. I’m lovin’ it may be an advertising theme for McDonald’s, but for Bob – it’s a way of life.
Kathleen Rogers has a passion for content writing and has always been inspired by creative thinking. Recently, she explored her source of inspiration by completing a second degree from USF’s Art History program. A notable highlight from the start of Kathleen’s career, she was trained at the award winning creative shop Cliff Freeman & Partners, a subsidiary of Saatchi and Saatchi Global.