WHITE CASTLE CMO, Lynn Blashford

Lynn Blashford is the Chief Marketing Officer of White Castle, a company she has been with for over a decade. Despite being over 100 years old, White Castle has remained relevant in popular culture. The brand is known for its fun and originality, with collaborations with the Wu-Tang Clan, selling branded silk robes, and even officiating weddings in its restaurants. All a testament to their commitment to outrageous authenticity.

On this episode of Frictionless Marketing, Lynn delves into the inner workings of White Castle's marketing and communication processes, discussing how they continually surprise and delight their fans (known as "Cravers"), and the requirement for marketing teams to spend time working in their restaurants and factories and the thinking behind it.

Here are some key takeaways from this conversation with White Castle CMO, Lynn Blashford.

Create from within.

A key element of White Castle's marketing is it's slogan 'What You Crave.' This phrase came from a customer focus group and ended up governing the majority of their marketing from their commercials to their endearing term for their customers or 'Cravers.' The organic origin of the slogan enabled it to be as effective as it is because it came from a place of authenticity, in this case a truly passionate customer, instead of from an insular marketing brainstorm.

Merge authentic with outlandish.

White Castle did a collaboration with Wu Tang Clan to promote their use of Impossible patties. This feels like a random/left field idea, but in fact, it's the opposite. The Wu Tang Clan grew up going to White Castle in New York and 8 out of the ten members recently turned vegan making this a very meaningful collaboration. With all of the seemingly random and outrageous marketing stunts brands are doing to gain attention in this post-advertising world, authenticity is a critical ingredient for effective campaigns.

Spend time making your own burgers.

Everyone who works for White Castle's marketing team, including agency partners, has to spend time working either in one of their restaurants or in one of their manufacturing plants for their frozen food products. This is brilliant, because it not only ensures a level of compassion and visibility for the manual workers, but it embues each person with the brand from the ground up. As Lynn says, this enables all those who work with White Castle to truly speak the truth about the brand which is what gives it its authenticity.

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