Marketing With Purpose Kit: Bringing Purpose and Empathy into Marketing

**SPEAKER_1** (0:04)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Tullio Siragusa** (0:18)
Welcome to the Marketing With Purpose Kit series of The Bliss Business Podcast, where we explore what it really takes for marketing leaders to create impact, impact that goes beyond the numbers. I'm Tullio, and in each episode, we sit down with marketing experts to explore their leadership approach and strategies that drive performance and resonate with their audience. Together, we'll dive into what's working, what's not, and how purpose and empathy can transform the way brands connect with people. So let's get started.
Today, I'm joined by Darren Keeler, who's the Vice President of Marketing and Creative at Shucking Shack Oyster Bar. Since 2019, Darren has been the creative force behind the brand's genuine fun loving and community driven experience. He combines local coastal culture, brave, worthy food and authentic storytelling to build deep emotional connections with guests and fuels the Shack's continued growth. A former Top 40 radio DJ, Darren brings a rare ability to connect with people on a personal level, translating authenticity, empathy and joy into every part of the brand experience. We're going to explore bringing purpose and empathy into marketing, and I'm excited to dive in. Welcome to the show, Darren, looking forward to this conversation with you.

**Darren Keeler** (1:41)
Thanks, Tullio. That introduction was very heartwarming.

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:45)
Our pleasure. Let's dive right in. Darren, before we do, I'd love to hear why was bringing purpose and empathy into marketing the topic you chose to explore with us today, and what makes this so important right now in our time, nowadays.

**Darren Keeler** (2:02)
Well, I picked this topic for today to talk about because we are so in the marketing world and the digital world, we are so data driven, right? And sometimes you lose focus on the real end game that we are in the service industry, right? And we are serving people and people are not computer based. People have thoughts, people have feelings. And that's why, you know, bringing empathy and impactfulness to what we're doing in marketing, especially now more than ever is vital in success and growing a brand, growing a business, whether you're a small mom and pop business or franchise business, it comes down to empathy and that personal connection with who you're serving.

**Tullio Siragusa** (2:59)
Yeah, it's so true. Things are so perfect today with AI that it's almost losing a little bit of that authenticity that's behind when people think about it. So but the reality is, you know, CMOs are often pulled between near term campaign results and long term brand building. I'm sure you're experienced that. But how do you ensure your marketing strategy stays aligned with the company's growth goals? And and where do you find the biggest friction points in making that happen?

**Darren Keeler** (3:28)
Well, so, you know, a lot of our franchisees, a lot of business owners with that short term campaign that they want to put a bandaid over, right? It's just that bandaid aspect of marketing. Like, I have a problem. I need to fix it now. How can we do that? Right. And sometimes with local business owners, they think just posting on social media about my specials will really help drive traffic with no money put behind it, right? Nothing, no thought like, hey, I have $3 beers today. Open up the door. Where's the line?
I posted this on social media. My 10,000 followers on my Facebook page should be here. Like, that is not sustainable and it's not engaging and it doesn't have any purpose or impact, right? Yes, it's a necessary evil in our industry, in the full service industry, restaurant industry, that you have to do that, right? Because people will look at that to look at your Google business page, your Apple page, your meta pages, right? What are they doing today? What's the immediate impact, right? Especially in the world today, where consumers and everybody, like even ourselves, right?
We want the information now. I'm scrolling on TikTok, 15-second, 20-second, 30-second videos. That's how I get my information, especially with soundbite trends now, right? That's how we learn. That's how we make decisions. You have 30 seconds to get me, right? And with the short-term marketing plans, that's what we try to focus on. We try to focus on something that is impactful, engaging. It goes into those emotional buckets, right? That we all talk about in the marketing world. And having those short-term marketing goals that way of, this isn't going to be immediate. The consumers are not going to be here in an hour, but they're going to be here hopefully in two, three days. You're looking for that short long-term plan of, yes, you're going to do this now. You're going to see some conversions in the next three days. It's not going to be overwhelming. You're not going to see it until probably a week later, right? In all of your data and your sales.