Fiona Pietruski of SheSpeaks, Inc.

With over a decade of experience in all aspects of global online marketing for banking and financial products, Fiona Pietruski is an avid word-of-mouth marketing advocate. She is the Chief Marketing Officer of SheSpeaks, LLC. (www.shespeaks.com), a unique women’s word-of-mouth marketing network that establishes a direct dialogue between its diverse national network of women and companies that want to spark women’s interest, obtain candid feedback about products and services, grow word-of-mouth awareness, and build long-term brand advocates.

SheSpeaks’ member network has grown to over 50,000 women from across the U.S. The company has successfully tested products and services for leading brands in the beauty, packaged goods, and media industries, including Philips, Dove® chocolates, Oxygen, AOL, Martha Stewart, OPI and others.

Pietruski joined SheSpeaks at the company’s launch in 2007, and plays a pivotal role in developing the SheSpeaks network, content and client programs.

Before joining SheSpeaks, Pietruski spent over 10 years building international expertise in online marketing. Pietruski spent 2 years in Japan before returning to Marubeni Corp. in London. A move to HSBC Bank increased her online focus with the launch of internet banking. She held key roles leading strategy and influencing internet banking, online products and the global brand online. As an executive in Global E-Business she launched a co-branded strategic payment product with Yahoo! and championed strategic relationships, search and online best practices to significantly increase global online revenues.

A British national with a BA in Economics, Pietruski moved to the U.S. in 2004 and is married with one child.

Judy Stonefield of OPI Products Inc.Back to Speakers Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide

WOMM-U: Day Two Case Study: Houlihan’s Restaurant

The final session of the conference featured a case study on Houlihan’s Restaurants, presented by Jen Gulvik, VP Marketing, Houlihan’s Restaurants, Inc.

In the past few years Houlihan’s has undergone a tremendous transformation. Spreading the word about this has been an interesting challenge. They’re not a national advertiser. While they are in some major markets, they don’t have the budget that many of their competitors do.

The task was to see if they could turn their customers into a marketing force. In the past many of their restaurants had established e-mail lists, it was one-way only. However they do receive a large amount of customer feedback, and this is increasing. She thinks this matches the trend of customers taking control of their brand experiences.

At a WOMMA event a year ago, Jen realized that they’re in an industry (food & beverage) that is heavily talked about. Why not take advantage of that?

First step was to determine who their brand lovers were. They created and sent out a survey. Some quick metrics: 114,949 sent, 18,695 received. From there they began to build out a program, an advisory group. This group would advise them on menu choices and other brand assets. They also developed a program for the HouliFAN’s.

The primary communication channel with the advisory group is the HQ, a password protected site that allows Houlihan’s to provide information to the fans. It also allows them to participate in coversations and get feedback.

One of the first things they did was ask the advisory group, what would you do? Early on they saw an issue related to the removal of fajitas from the menu, or as Jen said, a fajita-freakout.

Once the site was established with the advisory group, it expanded to the entire fan-base, the HouliFANs.

Soon afterwards they rolled out a new menu and used their fans and the site to spread the word. They found that 35% of the fans had spread WOM about the menu.

The program is still new and growing but they’ve been thrilled with the response and feedback they’ve received.

Fiona Pietruski of SheSpeaks, Inc.

On the agenda

WOMM-U: Day Two Case Study: Houlihan’s Restaurant

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