How California Pizza Kitchen Embraces Change, Goes Viral on TikTok, and Gives Consumers FOMO

This week’s master has worked for Lou Malnati’s (pizza), Krispy Kreme (doughnuts), and now heads the marketing team at California Pizza Kitchen (back to pizza) — making her career sound like my dream delivery order after a rough Monday.

Keep reading to hear from Dawn Keller, CMO at California Pizza Kitchen, on why she likes giving consumers emotional FOMO and how to lead the charge on brand evolution.

Lesson 1: Drive emotional FOMO. 

“Craveable items that are unique and compel consumers to be irrational are the best defense against competition, consumer apathy, or inertia,” says Keller. 

For Keller, this pertains to both her menu and her marketing. Her goal is to “drive emotional FOMO” for her consumers. 

Look, I’ll hand it to you — discussing “craveable products” with the marketing leader for a pizza company probably doesn’t sound too relatable to B2B marketers. 

But when I tell Keller that cheesy, gooey crust is more seductive than revenue attribution reporting, she pushes back: “I actually see this in B2B marketing all the time. Emotional FOMO is totally create-able in that world, too — you just need to show what’s possible, and the success stories of other people.”

She adds, “It’s all the same humans, you know? They’re just making different decisions… Like, what to eat, and what software to use for their businesses.”

While you might not be selling garlic knots, there are plenty of B2B attributes that are insanely “craveable” — like ease of use, time savings, and productivity boosts. Use those plot points to get all your soon-to-be consumers hungering for your offerings like they crave a good mac and cheese. 

Lesson 2: Turn negative moments into a chance to show up. 

Recently, a customer ordered mac and cheese from CPK — and just got cheese. 

After she posted the vid on TikTok, CPK responded with a video in which Chef Paul jokingly walks through the steps of properly making a mac and cheese (emphasis on: Add the mac) and then announces 50% off mac and cheese for all CPK customers. (Since the customer only got 50% of her meal — get it?) 

CPK’s TikTok response got 1.6 million views. Keller was shocked… and thrilled. 

“It was mind-blowing to everybody [how well it did], but we believe what really made the difference was how we showed up — in a super authentic, humble, self-deprecating way. It wasn’t corporate-y or stuffy.”

CPK could’ve chosen to ignore the customer’s complaint altogether, or they could’ve commented on the video with a generic “I’m sorry!” customer service response. Instead, they decided to use the opportunity to reframe the narrative into something fun and lighthearted. 

And as Keller points out, “We still got to reinforce what matters to us — which is that we have quality food, and we care about our guests. Authenticity and entertainment is what gets people’s attention… Not just that you’re using socials as an advertising channel.” 

We’ve heard it across the board this year from Greg Fass, Jenna Kutcher, and plenty of other Masters in Marketing, and the point holds true: Being authentic and showcasing the human behind your brand is a much better strategy than a polished ad these days. 

Lesson 3: Evolve as your consumers do. 

It hasn’t always been doughnuts and pizza for Keller, who has also held marketing roles at CVS Health and Staples.

Across those roles, she believes one core responsibility has always been to be an “agent of change.” 

But people don’t always love change, particularly at brands that have existed for 40+ years. So I wanted to know: When Keller joined CPK, how did she balance fresh ideas without making the team feel like she was steamrolling the good-ole way of doing things? 

“I give a lot of credit to Jeff Warne [the CEO of CPK] and my colleagues, who have really incubated this idea that any brand that’s been around for 40 years has to continue to evolve and do new, fresh things,” Keller tells me. 

Fortunately, she also has some words of wisdom for marketing leaders who’ve been tasked with growth at a company that doesn’t embrace change as easily.

“You have to bring people along the journey and invite ideas from anywhere. Sometimes, leaders think good ideas can only come from new people. But veterans with deep context can also be the originators of the best new thinking.” 

Everybody has a role to play, and the more a change agent can encourage and incentivize fresh ideas while breaking down the walls of fear or discomfort, the more likely they are to succeed in creating an increasingly relevant brand.