“Chief Marketing Officer”
Company Overview
(Boston, MA)
Panera Bread was founded to change the world, by changing the way people eat. It all
began by baking fresh bread each day with no preservatives or chemicals in stone deck
ovens. In the decades since, the company has worked hard to be an ally for guests by
offering nutritious and healthy options, and transparency that empowers.
Panera was the first national restaurant company to voluntarily post calories on menu
panels. Panera helped create the market for chicken raised without antibiotics and they
voluntarily removed artificial trans fats, long before it was mandated. Today, in more than
1,800 bakery-cafes—across the U.S. and Canada—guests enjoy handcrafted, artisan food in
warm and welcoming environments. This warmth and caring is embedded throughout
Panera’s entire ethos.
Panera is widely recognized for pioneering the “fast casual” segment of the restaurant
industry and remains committed to getting the tough stuff done with optimism and mastery.
Recent initiatives such as Panera 2.0 and the company’s Food Policy have reinforced their
leadership relative to innovation, the guest experience, and to serving food you can trust.
For more than 25 years, Panera Bread has been an excellent source of career and personal
growth opportunities. To learn more, including their commitment to fighting food insecurity
and making a positive impact on local communities, visit www.PaneraBread.com.
Company 5-Year Stock Performance (“PNRA”)
© 2015 Wiser Partners, LLC
Panera ~ “Chief Marketing Officer”
Page 2 of 6
Position Overview
The new CMO for Panera will lead the execution against the brand vision and
strategy, developing a compelling and differentiated “voice” for Panera, and
ultimately, contributing to driving traffic and transactions at the store level. As one
of the brand’s chief stewards, the CMO must ensure that all communications reflect Panera’s
differentiated positioning and essence, and deliver the company’s broader transaction,
revenue, and profit goals. The CMO will bring a commercial mentality, and a sense of
urgency, as well as a strong understanding of effective, multi-unit Retail Marketing. This
CMO should have an ability to strike a balance between data/analysis/planning, and
creative. Exceptional leadership, communication and interpersonal skills are required for
success in this role.
Scope of Responsibilities
• Brand Stewardship – Serve as a passionate steward, advocate and gatekeeper for the
Panera brand equity. As needed, develop - with the senior leadership - an ongoing renewal
and refinement of the brand’s positioning and architecture, derived from an understanding of
Panera and competitive brand health measures, as well as a keen understanding of an
increasingly-changing competitive, technological and customer environment, both in-store
and online. The CMO at Panera must balance the goal of achieving higher-order emotional
connections to—and preference for—the brand, with the practical need to consistently drive
traffic, and loyalty, on a promotional and seasonal basis. Through their work, their influence,
and their voice, the CMO will help to create an even stronger brand-centric culture within—
and across—the Panera system.
• Brand Voice & Communications – One of the most critical, strategic priorities for the
new CMO will be to help the company rediscover, develop and share its voice with the
market (this effort is underway, internally). As other restaurant concepts continue to
chase Panera, and as Panera customers continue to expect a little more, it has become a
strategic imperative for the company to rethink its essence, and deliver a voice
(messaging) that resonates with where the brand intends to be. This voice will extend
across every customer touch-point, including TV advertising, radio, print, outdoor, instore, online, social media, etc. With a relatively new lead Creative agency partner
(Anomaly), Panera is excited and energized about finding and sharing this new voice.
• Marketing Planning & Execution – Continually enhance and activate the Marketing
strategy that delivers new Panera customers and profitable, loyal customers, who keep
coming back. Ensure that all activation, tactical plans and promotional calendars are executed
flawlessly, on time and within budget. The CMO will also be responsible for measuring
performance across all tactical Marketing programs, and then adjusting the plans (tactical
tools and how they’re used) accordingly across the Marketing mix, to continually optimize
efforts and improve LCV, and MROI. Strategic plans must appropriately embrace and reflect
the overall architecture and voice of the Panera brand.
• Media – Oversee Panera’s Media strategy and plans, working in conjunction with key
internal Media owners, as well as external agency resources. The Media strategy should
both support—and be aligned with—the brand’s overall positioning, architecture, voice and
strategic growth agenda. These Media plans and briefs should include crystal clear
objectives, systems for measuring and assessing performance and ROI, and agreed-to
points where prompt course corrections can be activated, as needed. Ensure annual Media
planning/buying is linked with critical Marketing objectives, including driving promotional
traffic, web traffic, and foot traffic to retail stores.
© 2015 Wiser Partners, LLC
Panera ~ “Chief Marketing Officer”
Page 3 of 6
Scope of Responsibilities continued
• Field Marketing – Provide leadership, counsel and oversight to Panera’s Field Marketing
team, whose mission is to drive growth across Panera’s retail system by recommending,
guiding and leading the activation of specific, localized Marketing strategies and plans,
that franchisees and operators of company-owned stores can implement in their local
markets. The objectives of this team are to drive profitable and incremental foot traffic,
enhance the customer experience, and increase the customer basket. Key to success will
be enhancing both operational and governance frameworks that dovetail with—and
enhance—the corporate growth agenda, new product pipeline (field testing and
subsequent launches), and the way planning and resource allocation works in the Field.
• Loyalty & Customer Engagement – The new CMO will oversee the VP, CRM who is
responsible for activating and achieving Panera’s long-term objective of building loyal
relationships with customers, as a means of increasing affinity, and as a result, Customer
Lifetime Value. The Customer Engagement/Loyalty team is charged with developing a
deep understanding of Panera customers’ purchase behavior, attitudes and interests and
then applying that knowledge to develop and deliver customized benefits/communications
that enrich their experience with the Panera brand. By deepening customers’ experience
with Panera, customers form a stronger emotional attachment to the brand resulting in
increased customer lifetime value (LTV). In addition, the CRM/Loyalty team oversees
Panera’s Customer Service, consisting of a Customer Resource Group team that responds
to all in-bound customer inquiries/issues, and managing the successful Gift Card business.
• Research & Insights – While Panera’s Customer & Brand Research team reports to the
SVP, Strategy, the Marketing organization is still strongly supported by this Research
team, and the new CMO will need to ensure the ongoing application of Insights and
Analytics to help the various Marketing teams (Advertising/Creative, Media, Promotion,
CRM, PR/Social, Field, CPG) make informed and inspired business decisions, which deliver
against critical business objectives.
• Branded Packaged Goods – For the past few years, Panera has been building a
successful, emerging new business in the CPG segment, by selling Panera products
through alternative channels (Grocery, Club, Mass). While this team reports into the
Emerging Businesses part of the operation (not into the CMO), there will still be an
opportunity for the CMO to add value to this growing business, by collaborating and
brainstorming with the CPG team leadership, as needed. In order for this CPG business to
be truly successful, it must grow compatibly with the retail/café business.
• Functional Management & Team Development – The new CMO will inherit an
outstanding, seasoned team of approximately 80 Marketers. Their job is to continue
building and shaping a highly-effective, world-class Marketing organization that
understands how to hire, train, motivate, inspire and set leadership direction for the
broader team. Define and nurture a collaborative and customer-centric Marketing
culture—cross-functionally—within the broader Panera organization.
© 2015 Wiser Partners, LLC
Panera ~ “Chief Marketing Officer”
Page 4 of 6
Performance & Success Measures
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Increase system-wide revenue, transactions and CLV
Increase same-store traffic and web traffic
Improve Brand Health measures (Awareness, Consideration, Differentiation, Preference)
Measureable enhancement of customer’s in-store and online experiences (NPS)
Increase Marketing ROI (by-program/channel)
Organizational feedback from Panera teammates; external customer feedback
Reporting Relationship(s)
This position will report to Mr. Ron Shaich, in his role as President of the core
Panera Café business. Thirty years ago, Ron set out to change the world by changing the
way America eats. By founding not one, but two successful restaurant concepts (Au Bon
Pain and Panera Bread), he shook up the industry by offering an antithesis to fast food—
hand made, artisan food, served in warm and welcoming environments by people you can
trust. Today, Panera Bread serves over eight million people each week, employs over
80,000 associates and is a leader in the restaurant space. The Company is ranked number
five in the Food Service category on Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” list.
Today, Ron directs a range of long-term Innovation and strategic initiatives for
Panera Bread as the company’s Chairman and CEO. Ron also serves as President of
the Panera Bread Foundation and recently spearheaded the Panera Cares initiative, through
which the Foundation created nonprofit community cafes aimed at addressing issues related
to food insecurity. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Lown Cardiovascular
Research Foundation and on the Board of the Rashi School. Ron received a Bachelor of Arts
degree in 1976, from Clark University. He also earned a Master’s Degree in Business
Administration from Harvard Business School in 1978.
Staff & Resources
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VP, Marketing
VP, CRM
VP, Creative Services
Director, Societal Impact
Key Internal Operating Relationships
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CEO
Chief Operating Officer
EVP, Food & Chief Concept Officer
SVP, Strategy
VP, Research & Insights
VP, CPG
Analytics team
© 2015 Wiser Partners, LLC
Panera ~ “Chief Marketing Officer”
Page 5 of 6
Compensation & Benefits Compensation & Benefits
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Base Salary
Incentive Bonus
Stock/LTIP
Vacation
Health/Dental Care
Relocation (as needed)
Candidate Profile
Experience Base
• Brand Development (Essence) – Panera needs a Marketing leader who really
understands brand positioning, architecture and essence, and has proven this ability
throughout their career. CPG is a common training ground for this expertise, so
candidates with foundational Brand Management experience from a blue chip CPG
company, could be very relevant to this requirement. That said, CPG is not the only
industry that trains Marketers how to think about Brand Positioning and Brand
Development, so we are open to engaging Marketers from any vertical, provided they
grew-up in—or have spent time in—a consumer brand driven culture where the focus on
“Brand” is intense, and considered “foundational” to the rest of the Marketing mix.
• Advertising & Communications (Voice) – As discussed in this position spec, Panera is
in the process of rediscovering, and developing a “voice” that reflects where the brand
intends to be, and where/how the brand intends to compete. We need to engage
Marketers who have deep and broad experience working with skilled, insightful agencies
at developing advertising and communications (that “voice”) that reflect and cement
brand essence in the minds of those customers they seek. They need to demonstrate an
ability to create and deliver messages which really differentiate their brands from others,
and compel customers to buy, over and over again.
• Industry Experience (Retail) – There are a number of industry and category
backgrounds that could be relevant to this role, and set up the new CMO for success.
Panera’s most recent CMO, Michael Simon, was successful at the company, over a 5+
year period (with a background that included Pepperidge Farm, Godiva, Ralston Purina).
That said, there are elements of the Restaurant industry that are complex, and unique,
and we believe Marketers who have had experience in the industry (Casual Dining, Fast
Casual, QSR) could be very appealing. More broadly, Marketers with Retail experience
could bring the same operational understanding to this role. This could be any Retail
segment where the role of Marketing is ultimately to drive customers into a chain of
stores.
• Organizational Development (Collaboration) – Critical to success for the new CMO,
and for the Marketing function more broadly, will be their ability to work collaboratively
and openly across all functions of the business. As stated, this is a complex business, with
many moving parts, and Marketing needs to be tightly connected into the Operations,
Strategy, Innovation and Food parts of the business, in order to provide customer insights
and guidance, as well as support. Additionally, this new CMO must be exceptionally skilled
at leading, training, and inspiring their team. They must have a reputation for being a
committed developer of others.
© 2015 Wiser Partners, LLC
Panera ~ “Chief Marketing Officer”
Page 6 of 6
Skill Set
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Creativity (an ability to see things differently, and see opportunity)
Strategic Leadership (and an ability to execute against that strategy)
Analytics (gathers critical insights and data, knows how to drive/influence decisions)
Relationship-focused (strong team orientation and collaborative style)
Communications (exceptional listening skills; persuasive communicator)
Technical (understands technical/R&D skills around food design/testing)
Financial (advances initiatives based on solid financial modeling and forecasting)
Connected (understands how to work in a networked world)
Personality Profile
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Collaborative
Courageous (will challenge the status quo)
Self-directed/motivated
Flexible and adaptable
Results orientation
Tenacious work ethic
“Foodie”
High integrity and trustworthy
Intellectually curious
Selfless and Humble (ego in-check)
Search Contact
David Wiser
Principal Partner – Cincinnati, OH Office
david@wiserpartners.com
513.919.4000 (M)
File: Position Specification/Panera/Panera CMO Spec (02 09 15-F-DW)
© 2015 Wiser Partners, LLC