Copyright Adweek
Welcome to this episode of the Marketing Vanguard podcast. Today, Jenny Rooney speaks with Doug Zarkin, CMO of Take 5 Oil Change and author of Moving Your Brand Out of the Friend Zone. In this compelling conversation, Doug shares how he’s transforming a commodity category into an emotional brand experience through people-first leadership. Doug’s career spans from the agency world at Saatchi & Saatchi and Grey to client-side roles at Avon Products and Victoria’s Secret Pink. Most notably, he spent 11 years as CMO at Pearle Vision, an unusually long tenure, where he led a complete brand transformation that resulted in the company topping Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500. Now, as the first-ever CMO for Take 5 Oil Change, Doug is applying his proven “people, process, progress, profitability” framework to elevate a challenger brand in the oil change category. Doug Zarkin is the CMO of Take 5 Oil Change, part of Driven Brands, North America’s leader in automotive services. Previously, he led Pearle Vision to unprecedented growth and helped the company top Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500, and held roles at Victoria’s Secret Pink and Avon Products. Unlocking the Creator Economy with Awin Did you know influencer marketing drives twice as many sales as display advertising, with a 37% higher retention rate? Awin helps brands harness this potential with tailored influencer management solutions that drive measurable results. Whether you’re looking to grow your creator roster, foster long-term relationships, or track full-funnel performance, Awin’s expertise and platform integrations make it easy to scale campaigns and optimize impact. With partnerships across CreatorIQ, LTK, ShopMy, and more, brands gain access to powerful discovery tools and seamless tracking capabilities, ensuring transparency and efficiency at every stage. 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He emphasizes his “people, process, progress, profitability” framework, explaining that success starts with assembling the right cast of talent: “If you think about profitability at the end of the train, it starts with people, then process, then progress, and then profitability.” He stresses that not everyone needs to be a star player, but everyone needs to fit their role. Doug credits his close partnership with operations as critical, noting that “marketing without ops is just words.” [14:51] Learning from Failure: The BOGO Experiment — Doug shares a candid story about his first attempt to remove buy one, get one free promotions from Pearle Vision, which was a “colossal failure.” He introduces his brand value equation: “Brand value equals experience as your numerator divided by price as your denominator. So as long as the ratio is, like, three or four to one, you can charge whatever the hell you want, so as long as you deliver an amazing experience.” The initial BOGO removal failed because he overestimated consumer sentiment about Pearle’s experience quality. Rather than giving up, he reinstated BOGO deals, conducted more research, and embarked on a three-year journey to properly strengthen the brand experience before successfully removing the discount. [06:39] Challenger Brand Strategy at Take 5 — Doug explains his approach to competing as the fourth-largest brand in the oil change category. He uses a race analogy: When you’re in fourth place, you can think completely differently about winning rather than just defending your position. His strategy starts with people and talent assessment, both internal and external, followed by clarifying the brand’s purpose and target audience. He emphasizes making marketing metrics personal and understandable: “Take the complexity out of it. What is our cars per day target? How much can we afford to spend? If we’re winning, how much are we winning by?” [11:23] Data, Tech, and Meaningful Metrics — Doug addresses the challenge of data overload in modern marketing: “Twenty years ago, I didn’t have enough data. Now I’ve got too much. And I’m a firm believer that just because you can measure something doesn’t mean it’s meaningful.” He emphasizes the importance of curating what’s truly meaningful and focusing on the right questions. Doug also discusses his approach to evaluating technology stacks and AI tools, emphasizing that technology can be used “for good or for evil” and the importance of understanding team comfortability with these tools.
