Brinker International is elevating Chili’s Chief Marketing Officer George Felix to the position of executive vice president, CMO for the overall business, according to a press release.
The promotion puts Felix in charge of marketing for both Chili’s and Maggiano’s Little Italy, where he will support a “Back to Maggiano's” strategy aimed at sharpening the brand’s positioning and execution. The executive will continue reporting to Brinker CEO and President Kevin Hochman from his new post.
Since joining Chili’s from Tinder in 2022, Felix has transformed the dine-in chain into a marketing powerhouse that has gained market share by attacking the rising prices of fast food rivals versus focusing on its traditional competitive set. The value-oriented strategy has resonated with consumers contending with economic pressures, a factor that has hammered other areas of the restaurant category. Brinker’s market capitalization meanwhile has jumped from $1.3 billion to $6.25 billion during Felix’s four-year tenure, the release noted.
"George has proven that when you deeply understand your guests and stay relentlessly focused on what makes a brand special, extraordinary results follow. His leadership has shaped the entire guest experience and delivered sustainable results by making Chili's more relevant than ever," said Hochman in a statement.
Brinker’s goal is for Felix to replicate his successful Chili’s playbook for Maggiano’s, which has lagged behind its sister brand’s eye-popping run of sales growth. While Chili’s saw comparable sales rise 8.6% year over year in Brinker’s fiscal Q2, Maggiano’s declined 2.4% for the period ended Dec. 24. “Back to Maggiano’s” is meant to revitalize the brand’s food, service and restaurant atmosphere, Brinker has said.
Along with developing elaborate experiential activations and viral social strategies around popular menu items like the Triple Dipper for Chili’s, Felix has also emphasized the importance of a hands-on approach to functions outside of the traditional marketing and advertising remit, including restaurant operations.
“My advice is: the more that marketers are willing to stretch beyond what might be considered traditional marketing and get more involved in the broader business and operations, [the better],” said Felix during a fireside chat at Marketing Dive’s CMO Summit virtual event last week. “One, I think it'll make you more … effective as a marketer. Great operations are the best ROI driver of marketing there is.
“The more marketing can get integrated into the rest of the business, I think the stronger marketers will be, and the more integral we’ll be to driving the success of the brand,” Felix added.
Chris Kelly contributed to this story.
