Commentary
How To Fail, Learn Fast And Adapt
- by Nina Lentini , Staff Writer @Nina_Lentini, February 19, 2020
It takes guts to admit your mistakes but, as Hedy Payghambari, Director of Marketing and Media at Papa Murphy's, says, " Behind every win is a line of failure. You have to fail, learn fast and adapt."
Papa Murphy's is a 40-year-old pizza chain, the fifth largest in the United States, that makes fresh pizza for you to pick up, take home and bake in your oven. Its biggest challenge is overcoming the resistance to "Wait, we have to pick it up and bake it?" Yes, said Payghambari, "it's the magic of the brand -- a scratch-made experience without the mess."
She spoke at MediaPost's Brand Insider QSR Summit on Wednesday, where she outlined seven ways to fail fast in order to drive ROI:
1. Lacking clear, aggressive measurable goals. If you're only looking at YOY growth, what was the goal? Make accountability stronger.
2. Not having a test-and-learn approach. Measure, learn, repeat. Every time you fail, that's something you're not going to do again.
3. Not investing in using your first-party data. Act on data, which is becoming less accessible and you'll be successful. Three segments: regular customers, lapsed, new. More scalable than social retargeting.
4. Measuring just the CPV/CPT. You lose sight of future. Invest in measuring customer lifetime value.
5. Not leveraging creative to its fullest. An image plays more of a role than a headline or copy. People don't want to see people eating, touching food. Just product.
6. Not trusting the robots. Working smarter not harder. Facebook is smart at figuring out where customers are at the DMA level.
7. Not knowing when to go in-house. Does it make sense to outsource or bring in? Brought digital management in-house. Efficiency has increased.
Hmmmmm. I can think of an eighth way to "fail" (or at least diminish growth).
8) Naming your pizza after a leprechaun.
Papa Murphy's? How about Papa Lentini's? That small change might at least bump you up from "fifth largest" to "third largest."
I've spent the past forty years in Manhattan, Los Angeles, and Atlanta... and I've never heard of Papa Murphy's Pizza until today.
I remember my classmate Erin Murphy growing up the northern suburbs of Manhattan in the 60's and 70's, and the rest of the Murphy clan, and their successful Irish pubs, and FAMOUS corned beef and cabbage.
Their pizza? It didn't exist.
As for the resistance to...
"Wait, we have to pick it up and bake it?" Yes, said Payghambari, "it's the magic of the brand -- a scratch-made experience without the mess."
Speaking strictly for myself, that "resistance" is greatly diminished if the place I'm stopping at to avail myself of this "scratch-made experience" is called Papa Lentini's.
My mouth is already watering...