Marketing With Purpose Kit: Breaking Down Silos Across Teams
Joel Bulger, Chief Marketing Officer of WOWorks, joins the Marketing With Purpose series on building shared metrics across teams. With 30 years in restaurant marketing, he explains why growth stalls at alignment rather than ideas.
Shared metrics across teams is where Joel Bulger says growth is actually won or lost. Joel is Chief Marketing Officer of WOWorks, the platform brand behind six better for you fast casual restaurant concepts including Saladworks and Barberitos, with a 30 year career spanning Coca-Cola, Darden, Wendy’s International, and Focus Brands. He joined host Tullio Siragusa on the Marketing With Purpose series to talk about what really breaks alignment between departments.
In this episode we explore:
• Why growth fails at alignment rather than at ideas
• How measurement quietly becomes the biggest source of friction
• Turning a market shift into a growth play instead of a threat
• Owning the entire guest journey rather than a slice of it
• A listening system that produced 60 new ideas a year
• Why franchisee trust is built on leadership cohesion
Joel’s opening argument is that people assume growth comes from creative ideas, when the failure point is alignment: departments chasing the same broad goal while measuring it differently. He is direct that this is doubly true in franchise systems, where marketing, operations, finance, and technology can each be right by their own numbers and still pull apart. His fix is translating growth goals into shared metrics so every function knows its piece.
On the short term versus long term tension, he refuses the framing. They are partners, not competitors, and a limited time offer should reinforce brand equity rather than borrow from it. The friction, he says, is measurement, because teams will optimize whatever is easiest to track instead of what creates lasting value.
The strongest practical example is his response to GLP-1 medications. Rather than treating a demand shift as a threat, his team leaned into a position they already held, adding a GLP-1 filter to an already unusually detailed nutritional page so guests could find what fit. His framing is the one every marketer should steal: we are not selling products, we are solving problems.
That mindset extends to how he handles disappointment. When a beloved limited time item had to leave the menu, he gave customers the recipe rather than a corporate explanation, keeping the need served even after the product was gone.
On measurement and personalization, Joel describes owning the whole journey, picturing each guest at the center of a spider web where loyalty, CRM, local store marketing, and feedback all feed the same profile. For brands managing paid media across multiple locations, that is the same discipline Zero Company applies: the more a brand genuinely knows, the less intrusive its messaging has to be.
Key Takeaways
• (2:11) Joel locates the real failure point: people think growth comes from creative ideas, but “where it fails is alignment,” and twice as much so in franchise systems.
• (5:02) The friction he names is measurement, because “teams will optimize what’s easiest to track” rather than what builds lasting value.
• (5:02) His test for alignment: “if we all take off together, we all land together.”
• (13:52) Facing data that around 12 percent of Americans use a GLP-1 product and a majority report dining out less, his team added a GLP-1 filter rather than treating the trend as a threat: “we’re not selling products, we’re solving problems.”
• (20:13) On personalization: “the more you know about somebody, the less creepy you can message to them,” with each guest at the center of a spider web of signals.
• (23:03) His listening system gave every team member two Get Out of Jail Free cards a year, generating roughly 60 big ideas annually and making people feel genuinely heard.
FAQ
How do you break down silos between marketing and operations?
Joel Bulger translates company growth goals into shared metrics, so each function knows its specific piece of the same outcome. He argues silos persist when departments chase the same goal while measuring it differently.
Do short term campaigns hurt long term brand building?
Not if they are designed to reinforce it. Joel Bulger treats them as partners rather than competitors, where a limited time offer should support brand equity instead of borrowing against it.
How should brands respond to a sudden shift in customer behavior?
By solving the new problem rather than defending the old product. Joel Bulger’s team responded to rising GLP-1 use by adding a filter that helped guests find suitable options, turning a demand shift into a reason to choose the brand.
Great marketing does not just sell, it serves. Hear the full conversation with Joel Bulger on the Marketing with Purpose Kit series.
Chief Marketing Officer
Joel Bulger is the Chief Marketing Officer of WOWorks, the platform brand home to six better-for-you fast-casual restaurants including Saladworks, Barberitos, Garbanzo, Simple Greek, Frutta Bowl and Z!eats. With an impressive 30-year tenure in marketing and brand development within the restaurant industry, Joel brings a wealth of expertise and a proven track record of fostering growth and innovation. Having previously held primary marketing roles of esteemed brands such as Coca-Cola, Darden Restaurants, Church's Chicken, On The Border, Zaxby's, Johnny Rockets, Wendy's International, and Focus Brands, Joel has earned a stellar reputation for his ability to drive guest traffic and enhance menu profitability.
