The most important outcome of creating Alex was that it transformed our guest from a demographic profile into a real person that everyone across the organization could understand, relate to, and make decisions for.

Like many brands, we had plenty of data about who our guest was—age, income, ethnicity, household composition—but data alone doesn't always inspire action. By developing Alex, we created a shared language that helped our teams move beyond statistics and start thinking about the real needs, motivations, and daily realities of the people we serve.

Alex represents a hardworking, value-conscious consumer who is balancing a lot of responsibilities and looking for brands they can trust. Once we brought Alex to life, it became easier to evaluate everything through that lens: Would this message resonate with Alex? Would this offer matter to Alex? Would this content earn Alex's attention?

The impact extended far beyond marketing. Product innovation, operations, digital, loyalty, and even franchise communications gained a clearer understanding of who we were trying to serve. It helped create alignment across the organization and ensured we were making decisions based on guest relevance rather than internal assumptions.

Ultimately, Alex gave us a more human-centered approach to decision-making, and when you better understand your guest, you're able to create experiences that drive stronger engagement, loyalty, and business results.

2. What advice would you give other brands that are trying to move from broad target audiences to a clearly defined brand persona?

My biggest piece of advice is to remember that a persona is only valuable if it changes behavior.

Many brands do the hard work of developing a persona, but then it ends up as a PowerPoint presentation that gets referenced a few times and eventually sits on a shelf. The real opportunity comes when you operationalize it across the organization.

Start with data, but don't stop there. The most effective personas combine quantitative insights with a deep understanding of the human behind the numbers. Focus on understanding what motivates your consumer, what challenges they face, what they value, and how your brand fits into their daily life.

Once you've built the persona, make it accessible and actionable. Give it a name. Tell its story. Bring it to life in a way that people across the organization can easily understand and remember. The goal is to create something that is relatable enough that teams naturally start asking, “What would this mean for our guest?”

Most importantly, use the persona as a decision-making tool. It should influence everything from marketing and menu innovation to digital experiences and customer service. When evaluating a campaign, product, or partnership, ask whether it genuinely serves the persona you've defined.

For us, the greatest benefit wasn't simply creating Alex—it was creating alignment. Alex became a common reference point that helped teams across the business make more guest-centric decisions. When everyone is solving for the same person, you move faster, make better choices, and create a more consistent brand experience.

3. How did the brand ensure “Alex as a filter” became a shared decision-making tool rather than just a strategic concept?

The key was making Alex impossible to ignore.

From the beginning, we knew that if Alex only lived in the marketing department, the initiative would fail. Our goal was to create a guest-centered mindset across the entire organization, so we intentionally embedded Alex into the way decisions were made.

First, we socialized the persona broadly. We shared not just the demographics, but the story behind Alex—what motivates them, what challenges they face, what they value, and what they expect from brands. We wanted people to understand Alex as a person, not a profile.

Then we started using Alex as a filter in meetings, planning sessions, and creative reviews. It became common to hear questions like, "Would Alex care about this?" "Does this solve a problem for Alex?" or "Are we communicating this in a way Alex would understand?" Over time, those questions became part of the culture.

We also reinforced the persona with data. Alex wasn't based on assumptions; Alex was built from consumer research, guest feedback, social listening, and performance insights. As we learned more about our guests, we continued to refine our understanding and share those learnings across the organization.

Perhaps most importantly, we demonstrated that decisions made through the Alex lens produced better outcomes. When teams saw stronger engagement, more relevant creative, and better business results, the persona gained credibility. Alex stopped being a marketing exercise and became a practical tool for making smarter decisions.

Today, Alex serves as a common reference point across functions. Whether we're discussing menu innovation, loyalty, digital experiences, operations, or marketing, we're all solving for the same guest. That's what transformed Alex from a strategic concept into a shared decision-making framework.

4. What made micro-influencer partnerships a strong fit for reaching “Alex” in an authentic way?

What made micro-influencers such a strong fit is that they mirror the way Alex actually discovers and evaluates brands.

Alex isn't spending their day looking for advertising. They're scrolling through content from people they trust—people who feel relatable, credible, and authentic. Whether it's a local creator, a parent sharing family meal ideas, a sports enthusiast, or someone highlighting great value finds, those recommendations often carry more weight than a traditional brand message.

As we built our understanding of Alex, one thing became very clear: authenticity matters. Alex can tell when content feels overly produced or overly promotional. Micro-influencers gave us the opportunity to show up in a way that felt more natural and culturally relevant because their audiences view them as peers rather than spokespeople.

Another advantage was precision. Rather than investing all of our resources into a handful of large creators with broad audiences, we were able to partner with multiple micro-influencers who had strong connections within the specific communities we wanted to reach. This allowed us to tailor content, test different messages, and learn quickly about what resonated.

But perhaps the biggest benefit was engagement. We weren't just looking for impressions; we were looking for conversations. Micro-influencers consistently generated higher levels of interaction, comments, shares, and meaningful feedback. That gave us a real-time connection to our guests and helped us better understand what Alex was thinking, feeling, and responding to.

Ultimately, micro-influencers weren't simply a media tactic—they became an extension of our consumer listening strategy. They helped us reach Alex in environments where trust already existed, and they provided valuable insights that made our marketing more relevant and effective.

5. What is your go to order at Church’s?

Always tenders with Creamy Jalapeno Sauce. I’ll pair it with fried okra—because if you’re at Church’s, the fried okra is a must—and a Honey-Butter Biscuit. I don't think it's possible to talk about your favorite Church’s order without including a biscuit. And if I'm really hungry, I might add a side of Jalapeño Cheese Bombers because they’re my weakness.

If you’re interested in submitting content for future editions, please reach out to our Managing Editor, Barbie Romero at Barbie@MediaPost.com.