Ask the CMO | Doug Zarkin - CMO - Pearle Vision

MarPro - The Marketing Procurement Podcast

We are excited to announce our new series called "Ask the CMO" where we bring in a different CMO each quarter to provide a marketers perspective to procurement related questions & topics sent in from our MarPro community.
So to kick this new series off is Doug Zarkin, a true marketing visionary and the legendary CMO of Pearle Vision. Doug's work at Pearle Vision helped propel it atop Entrepreneur Magazine Top 500 Franchise Brand list and solidified its rank among the Top 10 most profitable franchise brands alongside mega brands McDonald’s and Dunkin’. Entrepreneur also listed Doug as one of "The 10 Remarkable Franchise Leader to Watch" in 2022.

In addition to those accolades, Doug has also earned placement on several "Top Marketers" lists, 5 North American Effie awards, a Clio award and has twice had him recognized as Innovative Marketer of The Year by The CMO Club.

A few of the key learnings in this episode:

• A successful negotiation is when both sides walk away a little unhappy.
• Brand Value = Experience ÷ Price
• Questions to ask to determine if you have the right agency
  1. Does bringing on the agency add value to your business?
  2. Are they open and curious?
  3. Do they invest in understanding your brand, business, category, and people?
  4. When staffing your account, did they use it as a 'casting exercise' to look across their agency roster to find the right account staff for your business?
  5. Do they have a clear understanding on what success looks like?