Laura Jones: 00:11
Marketing and sustainability. At first glance, these are two things that are on opposite ends of the spectrum. On one hand, you've got marketing, which fundamentally is all about growth. And on the other hand, you've got sustainability, which at its core could be viewed as conservation. So how do you reconcile these two things, especially when a lot of organizations have the leadership in these areas at completely opposite ends?

Laura Jones: 00:39
Well, that is only reinforcing the myth that marketing and sustainability are at odds with each other. But today, on our guest list, I'm really excited to have Marissa Jarrett from 7-11, who holds both the titles of chief marketing officer and chief sustainability officer. So, we're going to get into how these two things come together to grow business. I'm Laura Jones, and this is Opinion Party, the podcast where we dispel the most pervasive myths in marketing. Welcome to the party, Marissa.

Marissa Jarrat 01:10
Thank you, Laura. I'm glad to be here.

Laura Jones
Yeah. Well, before we get into it, I just have to mention the merch, the 7-11 merch. We were having so much fun when we were prepping for this interview going through the website and, I mean, the inflatable Slurpee costume. Tell me how that came to be.

Marissa Jaratt: 01:30
It's called Seven Collection, and we launched it a couple of years ago. We noticed that, there were people kind of making their own 7-11 t shirts or even looking on eBay for kind of vintage 7-11 uniforms. And at the time, there was starting to be this emergence of brands developing, you know, their own kind of merchandise or licensed apparel. And we thought, well, let's give it a try. And so we started to to do that.

Marissa Jaratt: 01:57
We launched a couple of collections around Slurpee and, you know, 7-11, obviously, of course. And we were shocked at the response. I mean, consumers were buying up t shirts and dog bowls and umbrellas and pool floats. I mean, just anything you can think of. And it's over time, we thought, well, how can we do this that's a little bit different?

Marissa Jaratt: 02:18
You know, we want to build the brand. We want to kind of be able to extend the brand in different areas. And so we started to partner with different collaborators, in particular streetwear fashion sort of area. Joe Fresh Goods was one of our initial partners. And that has really helped us kind of extend the brand to different audiences.

Marissa Jaratt: 02:38
It keeps the brand very relevant, particularly on social media and with particularly with the Gen Z population. And I think more than anything, it's really taught us on the on the marketing side, like, this is a path for us to build the brand and also to fund more marketing because there is there is a small profit margin that we're able to generate that we just plow back into our marketing budgets. Seven Collection has been a great hit. We're actually dropping in Cannes this week, an exclusive launch for Seven Collection for people who are in Cannes this week. And it's a preview of our next Seven Collection capsule, which is going to be focused on I can't say exactly what it is, but it'll be focused on Japanese and golf culture and the intersection of the two.

Laura Jones: 03:23
I love that. Yes. Some of the golf inspired wear. I mean, if the shipping, like, had worked out, I would be sitting here in one of those shirts. I'm going to keep my eye out for that next year.

Laura Jones: 03:35
So, you are both chief marketing officer and chief sustainability officer for 7-11. And many times, those two roles are not held by the same person in the organization. How do you reconcile that? How does that work in your world?

Marissa Jaratt: 03:52
Yeah, I think it's true what you said that at times, or at the surface anyway, it can seem like the two roles are in conflict with what they're trying to achieve. But it was actually at the IRG summit here last year that one of the IRG alumni made this comment that really stuck with me. And he said that marketing and sustainability at their core are really about driving behavioral change. So as a marketer, if you think we're trying to drive growth, we're trying to drive consumers customers to do something different, to buy something else, right? For sustainability, you're also trying to drive behavioral change.

Marissa Jaratt: 04:29
It could be from a consumption perspective. It could be choosing something different that has a lesser impact on the environment. And so that has really helped bridge what, at the surface, seems like really competing priorities. And so, thinking about, well, how can whatever behavioral change that I'm trying to drive as a marketer also support what we're trying to achieve from a sustainability perspective, at least in the near term, is a good path that we're able to pursue.

Laura Jones: 04:56
How did 7-11 come to thinking about both of these in the same area? How did that manifest through the business? Was it organizationally something that had always been a part or a new development?

Marissa Jaratt: 05:07
No. It came up really about three years ago. So, from 2013 to 2023, let's say, sustainability was nested in really the legal organization or as part of the chief administrative office of the organization. And in 2023, 7-11 kind of realized that we were at a point in our sustainability journey where we needed to go from being more compliance oriented or compliance driven to really driving organizational transformation, to embedding or integrating sustainable management practices into the business. And so, at the time, I had been with 7-11 for about three years or so and had completed some work in marketing to really transform the function in marketing or building organizational capability not only within the function but also across the organization.

Marissa Jaratt: 05:59
And so, the person actually who was leading sustainability retired from the company after thirty years. And that created an opportunity to reassess, well, where should this function sit for the next chapter of our journey? And we decided that you know, it made sense for sustainability to to fall under my area of responsibility for two reasons. One is the type of work that we needed to do. The organizational transformation and capability building was quite similar to the work that I had done when I first joined as a marketer.

Marissa Jaratt: 06:30
And two, we wanted to nest sustainability as close to the customer as possible to ensure that we were meeting or exceeding our customers' expectations. And in our company, you know, marketing is the function that sort of sits the closest to the customer. So that's why we put them together. You know, it's not very common in the industry, as you point out, but I actually think it's been an awesome experience for me personally, but also for the company because I'm able to think about things from the customer's perspective, from the marketing perspective, but then also through the sustainability lens.

Laura Jones: 07:05
When you put it like that, it makes so much sense. And I love that insight that came out of IRG and driving behavior.

Marissa Jaratt: 07:12
Yeah.

Laura Jones: 07:13
So, tell me a little bit more about that organizational transformation. I have always held the opinion that marketing is the place to get organizational transformation done because it needs to be intersectional, and you need to work with all different areas of the C suite. So when you came in at that point and you had to transform marketing, what was some of your playbook that you put into Well,

Marissa Jaratt: 07:34
it's going to sound familiar for many of the people listening or watching. It's, you know, a classic organizational change model. So, we had a shell of a strategy for sustainability. Like, we knew where we wanted to get to. Our parent company has set goals for us that align with the UN SDGs for 2030 and 02/1950.

Marissa Jaratt: 07:53
So, we had kind of a shell of where we wanted to go. But we didn't really have a deeper strategy that would help us understand how to get there. And so, I set about working with my team in the sustainability office to basically articulate how are we going to go get there, what needs to happen. And we identified everything from governance process gaps that we needed to implement in our organization that could help us hold each other accountable and actually make better decisions, not just, you know, on the fly in a measurement or reporting capacity, but also from a planning perspective. So, addressing kind of governance gaps, as well as just educating and building awareness in the organization on when we say sustainability, what does that mean?

Marissa Jaratt: 08:36
Why does it matter? How are we going to go activate it? And that, I mean, honestly took probably a year to eighteen months of just education, communication, building alignment, building organizational awareness of what it was that we had to go do and how we were going to get after it. We moved into, after that kind of first phase, more of like an education and an activation phase internally and have spent a lot of time educating our business partners. So, our partners in operations, in construction, in merchandising, all of the different business functions of a retailer.

Marissa Jaratt: 09:11
What is their current impact in sustainability? What is the goal? And then what are some new ways that they can tackle them? So, things like innovation and design thinking, like core processes that we use as marketers, but really expanding those across the organization as a tool to drive the work forward. And so, I mean, as you know, sustainability is a really dynamic area.

Marissa Jaratt: 09:31
So, we are constantly learning, always trying to adapt as the regulatory environment changes, the consumer changes, our business is dynamic as well. So, I'd say we're still in that phase right now of continuing to help build that capability across the organization and really integrate it into how we do business. That sounds like a really thorough process, really well thought through,

Laura Jones: 09:53
and set you up for success, no doubt. So where did you arrive? What is 7-11's definition of sustainability?

Marissa Jaratt: 09:57
So, we have a tagline internally that we use called Good Made Easy. And when you think about it, it's like how ease is obvious. From a convenience perspective, anything that we do, we want to make our customers' lives a little bit easier, more convenient. But the good, obviously, we want to do it in a good way.

Marissa Jaratt: 10:16
So good made easy is our shorthand kinda tagline internally that we use to describe our sustainability strategy. And it really comes across three different pillars. As you would expect, we have a planet pillar where we look at greenhouse gas emissions, plastic reduction, food waste reduction, and then sustainable procurement of our top commodities. We look at it from a people perspective, so both in terms of social impact as well as our supply chain, value chain partners. And then we look at it from a product perspective.

Marissa Jaratt: 10:47
So, looking at our assortment, how we're sourcing, what are we trying to achieve there. So yeah, that's good made easy. So simple. So simple.

Laura Jones: 10:57
So effective. But yet you operate in so many different places in the world, and sustainability has different metrics and different standards. How do you adapt that strategy globally?

Marissa Jaratt: 11:09
Well, our parent company is based in Tokyo. They're called seven and I Holdings. So, for those of you who have ever traveled to Japan and been to a 7-11 in Japan or Thailand or Denmark, then you've experienced 7-11. But ultimately, all of those stores are owned by a parent company in Japan. And they are working really hard to provide flexibility within a framework or freedom within a framework.

Marissa Jaratt: 11:35
So as I mentioned earlier, they have set KPIs for all of the operating companies that align to the UN SDGs. So that's really how we get to a global standard of what we're trying to achieve. Where we have flexibility on a market-by-market basis is how we go achieve those goals. And there's definitely times where we have to get together from teams around the world and have a discussion on, okay, what it like, how are we going to align behind this globally? There may be some things where we can have that variability, but there may be other areas where we have to drive to a common solution.

Marissa Jaratt: 12:08
It's in the best interest of the customer or the environment, whatever. So, it's kind of messy. It's kind of like the sausage making of the innovation world. There are some things that are very clear, and there are others that require just a finer, kind of nuanced approach and much closer collaboration across the different

Laura Jones: 12:24
countries across the globe. So, you mentioned a few times the UNSDG. For those people that aren't familiar with the acronym, what is this?

Marissa Jaratt: 12:33
Yes. The UNSDG stands for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. And it's a set of goals that the United Nations align to for how organizations and companies can do business, basically. And so, 7-11 and our parent company, seven and I, we align our ESG goals to the UN SDGs. I love that that's the global standard.

Marissa Jaratt: 12:57
It's something that we are still using that unites us around the planet.

Laura Jones: 13:01
Yeah. It's important.

Marissa Jaratt: 13:04
And they're long term too. So, they're designed to, they're defined through 2030 and then through 02/1950, which is really important in the environmental space because a lot of the work that we need to do, obviously, is going to take decades to achieve. So, they've done a nice job of setting those goals over the long term.

Laura Jones: 13:25
And long term versus short term. Obviously, in the convenience space, that's something the metrics are oftentimes in a little bit of competition with one another. How does measurement work at 7-11? And how do you keep the perspectives of all the stakeholders in mind navigating through that?

Marissa Jaratt: 13:44
Yeah. I mean, like a lot of companies, we are on the hook for our financial goals and objectives. And so, you know, we have very ambitious goals from a financial perspective, and we're operating in a really challenging environment like so many other companies are today, not just in the US, but, you know, around the world. And balancing that with our sustainability goals is hard. I mean, I'm not going to lie.

Marissa Jaratt: 14:07
Like, it's hard. Like, ] there's a lot to do. The way that we've really approached it is rather than trying to figure out how do we go from zero to a 100 overnight, We're really and this is part of the transformation that that I mentioned earlier. We're really trying to help our business partners understand how can you, you know, eat the elephant one bite at a time. Right?

Marissa Jaratt: 14:31
So identify an initiative that you can start in a pilot or a test mode. You can get some learnings. Then you can scale it. If it didn't work, that's fine. You know, you'll need to have multiple initiatives.

Marissa Jaratt: 14:42
That helps us balance, just from a financial investment perspective as well as an output perspective. I think longer term, I know this is a little controversial in sustainability circles, but I still think the triple bottom line is a really good framework for companies to use. And so, it's how do you deliver your financial objectives in a way that is also helping you achieve your sustainability objectives so that they're not in conflict. You're taking all of that into account. It's truly a stakeholder model approach to how you drive business growth. And ultimately, that's what we're doing too.

Laura Jones: 15:15
And that's aligned with one of the objectives of the IRG, is to create value for all Can different you describe a little bit of 7-11's stakeholder ecosystem and how you're creating value for each of them? Sure. Yeah.

Marissa Jaratt: 15:32
We're a franchisee model. We also operate corporate stores. So that's definitely a group of stakeholders, is our franchisees, our corporate store associates, our headquarters, or we call it store support center associates. We have our consumers. We have our vendor and supplier partners who, for a lot of our sustainability initiatives, we will not achieve them without partnership and collaboration across the entire kind of business ecosystem.

Marissa Jaratt: 16:00
Obviously, we have investors that we have to, you know, be mindful of and consider the communities in which we operate. So that's a that's a really important consideration is how are we really ensuring that we're contributing to thriving communities. We know that that'll help our business long term also. So that's probably a sampling. And then, of course, we're a global company.

Marissa Jaratt: 16:20
So whether it's our Japanese parent company, partners, or any of our operations around the world, those are also part of our stakeholder community.

Laura Jones: 16:29
So, you've mentioned Japan a few times. I'm going to bring us to the concept, the core concept of IRG, which is Ikigai, Japanese philosophy. Can you talk a little bit about your Ikigai, what your interpretation of Ikigai is, and how it impacts how you do your role at seven Yeah.

Marissa Jaratt: 16:48
I mean, at at my core, this sounds cheesy, but I really am thinking about is the work that I'm doing making a positive impact on people. And that can be defined as narrowly as the individual who I work with on my team. Am I helping them grow and develop in their career or in their personal life? All the way to the products that we sell, the marketing, the seven Collection apparel. Is that making a positive impact in one way, shape, or form on someone else?

Marissa Jaratt: 17:16
And so that's part of the reason why I love working at 7-11 is because the opportunity to make an impact at scale is really there, right? We operate over 13,000 stores in North America. We serve about 12,000,000 customers a day in North America. And globally, we operate over 85,000 stores. So thinking through that lens is really what, I guess, motivates me and takes me back to my e k guy.

Laura Jones: 17:44
Wow. That is an incredible amount of scale and your ability to have that impact globally. And I'm sure the brand is a big part of that. 7-11 is over 100 years old as a brand.

Marissa Jaratt: 17:56
It will be a 100 in 2027. We have our centennial coming up in less than two years.

Laura Jones: 18:01
Getting close. Have you started planning for that

Marissa Jaratt: 18:03
We have. Yes. Yeah. We've spent several years, I mean, won't surprise anyone really, but we spent the last several years just digitizing our archives from the last fifty years. So, the first fifty years, the company published a coffee table book, a history of 7-11, you know, all the archives contributed to that.

Marissa Jaratt: 18:23
And then it was kind of like we sort of forgot everything. And now we've spent time converting everything from paper to digital. So that's been a huge first step in our centennial celebration planning. Now we're actually organized, and we can dive into those and get inspiration for what ultimately we're going to launch.

Laura Jones: 18:42
Wow. Is there a museum component? I love working with brands that have the museums.

Marissa Jaratt: 18:47
We are looking at that. So we don't have the original store that 7-11 opened. It wasn't even called 7-11 when it opened. It was the Southland Ice House in South Dallas, actually. It's not there anymore.

Marissa Jaratt: 19:00
It's a diff you know, like, the store doesn't exist in that location. We don't own the land or anything. So, we don't actually have, like, a store that we could go turn into a museum on the original spot that it started. And that's okay. We're looking at other more modern ways to execute on the museum kind of concept or idea.
Marissa Jaratt: 19:17
So, stay tuned.

Laura Jones: 19:18
Absolutely. I can't wait to visit once that gets going. So, tell me a little bit about 7-11 Brand. What it stands for, how you're evolving it, and what your process is for keeping it relevant. You mentioned Gen Z Yeah.

Marissa Jaratt: 19:32
How does that work? Well, like any good marketer, we are constantly trying to understand our customers, both our core customers as well as ones we want to grow with. And even customers who maybe don't like the brand, don't shop the brand. We want to understand why. So, we're constantly doing research.

Marissa Jaratt: 19:49
We're listening. We're seeing what's happening in social media and using that as an input to understand how does the brand need to evolve. Right? We know that there are some timeless insights that drive the brand, that our customers have told us. This is true about 7-11 regardless of the decade, and that is convenience.

Marissa Jaratt: 20:08
That is, you know, always being open twenty four seven, which is both, you know, a literal benefit to 7-11. Like, we are actually open 24/7. We provide delivery. But it's also kind of metaphorically true for our customers as well. They think about 7-11 as the language we use is as an ingenious accomplice because the brand provides solutions to people who are on their way to do something.

Marissa Jaratt: 20:35
And so those timeless insights, we're constantly looking at how do we bring them to life in a way that is timely and relevant for today. And it's an iterative process. So, we are very grounded in the idea of activating awesome for our customers. That comes to life not just in the marketing that we do, but operationally, our franchisees or store operators. We're, you know, asking them, encouraging them, like, how can you elevate awesome or activate awesome for our customers?

Marissa Jaratt: 21:08
What does that look like? It could be as simple as greeting someone when they walk in the door, but it comes to life in so many other ways. Obviously, through our assortment, through the activations that we do, through just, you know, a lot of different things. So it's never dull at 7-11, I have to tell you, because even though I oversee the North America business, it's a global brand. And so, we were talking a little bit before we started recording about all the different, you know, foods and products and things that you can find in 7-11s around the world.

Marissa Jaratt: 21:38
And so, we're taking that in also and trying to reflect that in what we do in North America, as well.

Laura Jones: 21:45
I was looking to all of the different innovations. And there is a coffee machine in South Korea, I think. You can get your picture in the foam. Is that right? It is.

Laura Jones: 21:57
You know, it's it's funny.

Marissa Jaratt: 21:58
I think this ties into part of our brand story. We've done work around conflict in our story to understand, like, what are the forces in the 7-11 story that we can utilize to keep our customers engaged with the brand? And so a story framework is one approach to doing that. It's one that we use at 7-11. The conflict for our brand is amusing versus essential.

Marissa Jaratt: 22:20
And the trick is to have both of those elements present in storytelling and more broadly in the experience. And so, when you say something about, like, the store in in South Korea that has the coffee machine that puts your face on it, that's such a great example of an amusing and essential conflict in action because many customers would tell us that coffee is an essential. Like, they need it to get going on their day or whatever. But the face is completely amusing, right, and makes it so much more memorable. And so we've heard a lot from customers that one of the reasons why they like coming to 7-11 is because, you know, they're working hard and 7-11 is playing a role in helping them get to where they need to go and also do it in a way that's enjoyable, that's fun, that adds a little levity to their day.

Marissa Jaratt: 23:04
So that's a great example of how the brand story or the brand conflict is coming to life in a product experience.

Laura Jones: 23:12
Ingenious accomplished. Ingenious accomplished. I feel that in my own life. Good. Thank There's a 7-11 that is down the street from our house, and I've got two girls.

Laura Jones: 23:22
And I have stopped there. I cannot tell you the amount of times I've stopped there on the way for a ski trip, and we all eat a slice of pizza in the car or after someone has to go to the doctor and they need a little treat. Like, let's go get Slurpees. Yeah. Or I just tried the new Mr. Beast candy that I have only have seen at 7-11, which was absolutely delicious.

Marissa Jaratt: 23:45
Wow. It sounds like you're a platinum customer!

Laura Jones: 23:47
I use the app. I have all the rewards.

Marissa Jaratt: 23:51
Thank you for your business, Laura.

Laura Jones: 23:52
Yeah. Like I said, I mean, if I could wear the t shirt, I will next time you see me, I'm going to be wearing the merch.

Marissa Jaratt: 23:58
I can help you out with that.

Laura Jones: 23:59
Okay. Cool. But yeah. And it sounds like you have all of the brand elements really well defined, which is so important and a lot harder than I think a lot of marketers paint it to be, right, in a big organization. Is that an initiative that you undertook as part of your job as CMO to get all of those things into place?

Laura Jones: 24:23
And then how do you get them out into the broad organization?

Marissa Jaratt: 24:27
Well, so a great example of this, yes. Short answer is yes. As a marketer, and your audience will appreciate this and probably agree with it, is you constantly feel like you're spinning multiple plates. And that's just kind of the nature of the role because it is such a high integration role across the company. But one of the things that that we've really adopted at 7-11 is this idea of how do we operationalize marketing within the company so that it's not just an ad campaign.

Marissa Jaratt: 24:53
It's not just an activation. It's also how do we, like, unleash the power of our associates and our franchisees? You know, everyone's a brand manager. Right? So, when we developed our brand purpose, this Activate Awesome idea and the brand story that I mentioned earlier, we actually went through a process.

Marissa Jaratt: 25:10
This was during COVID, in fact, during 2020, where we rolled out the framework to our operations organization, really cross functionally first, but then to the broader operational organization so they can understand the work that you do connects to this important brand purpose. And I have to tell you at the time, remember 2020 COVID is kind of a scary time. Like, we didn't really know what was going on in May or June of that year. And that's when we chose to roll it out to our organization over Zoom, of course, but it really provided oxygen to our system at a time that we needed it. And it's been embraced not only by the franchisees, but also by our store associates, and it's kind of become a rallying cry.

Marissa Jaratt: 25:54
So, I think there are ways as marketers where you need to think about not just your customer and your end user, but how can you arm and build the acumen and capability of marketing across your entire organization? How do you operationalize marketing so that you're using all of the tools that you have in your toolkit?

Laura Jones: 26:11
Right? Everyone's a brand manager. That is such a novel idea to think about. And I've heard from multiple people that I've been interviewing that moment in COVID where big ideas were launched or on a global scale, all of the technology and just because everyone was on that same playing field of virtual Yeah.

Laura Jones: 26:33
I imagine that had it not been COVID times, it might have been like a whistle stop world tour and audiences, and you probably would have reached a fraction of the people that you reached. So, in some ways, having this hybrid new world that we live in is actually getting the message out and bringing organizations closer together more globally than being only relegated to geography and in person ever was. Excellent. Well, I have one more question for you, and we'll bring it back to IRG and the concept of humanized growth. So how are you humanizing growth within your organization?

Laura Jones: 27:09
What does that mean to you? And what do you see as the future of that in 7-11?

Marissa Jaratt: 27:13
Well, I mean, look, nothing in retail happens without people. I mean, it's a team sport. And so, the concept of humanized growth maybe is even more important through a retailer lens. So everything that we do can't just be about what is that bottom line number. It also has to be what is the impact across the entire stakeholder community, and how are we taking into account what's happening really all the way down at the store level.

Marissa Jaratt: 27:36
That is literally where the rubber meets the road for 7-11. So we are working on how to do that. We're providing our stores with new solutions and tools that they can implement that help reduce their emissions or their footprint, but we're also giving them tools that help them drive sales. Helping them have, products in their assortment that have a a lower environmental impact, which is great because that's also what our consumers and customers are looking for. So it's a multifaceted approach and answer to, you know, what sounds like a really simple question is, how are you driving humanized growth?

Marissa Jaratt: 28:13
It's kind of every touch point you have to look at and evaluate. And then over time is where you start to see the benefit.

Laura Jones: 28:20
How awesome to pick up on one of your words of your brand. Well, Marissa, our time here in opinion party is wrapping up. I think that we busted this myth. Sustainability and marketing can coexist, and behavior change is really the thing that unifies them. Thank you so much for joining me.

Marissa Jarratt: 28:35
Thank you for having me, Laura.

Laura Jones: 28:40
Absolutely. And for everyone, if you want to hear more about Marissa's story, about 07:11, maybe buy some merch, we will drop all of that in the show notes. And remember, everyone's invited to opinion party, so please like or subscribe. See you soon.