Area Director of Marketing, Restaurants - Doc Crow’s & Joella’s Hot Chicken

Schulte Hospitality Group•Louisville, KY

12h

About The Position

Schulte Companies is seeking a strategic, commercially minded, hands-on Area Director of Marketing to lead brand strategy, marketing execution, and business growth for Doc Crow’s Louisville, Doc Crow’s Indianapolis, and Joella’s Hot Chicken. The position is the senior marketing leader responsible for building demand, strengthening brand relevance, increasing guest frequency, and driving revenue performance across the locations. The director owns the marketing ecosystem across brand strategy, content, social media, creative development, paid media, public relations, local marketing, partnerships, guest experience initiatives, and performance measurement. Working closely with operations and corporate leadership, the director develops annual marketing plans, oversees multichannel execution, manages agency and creative partners, guides local activation, and ensures marketing investments contribute to traffic, sales, loyalty, and profitability. The role also directly manages and coaches the Doc Crow’s Private Events & Marketing Ops Manager and provides strategic oversight of Doc Crow’s events and catering sales, while leading Joella’s catering sales strategy in partnership with operations. The role is based preferably in Louisville, Kentucky, and requires travel to restaurant locations and markets as business needs require. The hiring process may include interviews, a drug screen, background and reference checks, and a potential employment assessment. Specific compensation and benefit details will be discussed during the interview process.

Requirements

5–7 years of progressive marketing experience.
Demonstrated experience leading multi-unit restaurant, hospitality, lifestyle, or consumer-facing brands.
Demonstrated success developing content strategies, creative campaigns, social media programs, and integrated marketing plans.
Experience managing social media performance, content production, influencer partnerships, and brand storytelling.
Understanding of experiential marketing, events, local-store marketing, and community engagement strategies.
Ability to balance strategic leadership with hands-on execution in a fast-paced, multi-location environment.
Experience directing agency partners, content creators, photographers, videographers, and other creative resources.
Ability to lead distinct brands, develop integrated annual plans, and translate strategy into measurable local sales and traffic performance.
Understanding of restaurant economics, promotional effectiveness, catering and private-event demand, and guest purchase behavior.
Excellent communication, creative judgment, project management, and analytical skills; proactive, collaborative, and comfortable working hands-on.
Ability to travel to restaurant locations and markets as required.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, communications, hospitality, or a related field preferred.
Restaurant or multi-unit food-and-beverage marketing experience strongly preferred.
Louisville, Kentucky base preferred.

Responsibilities

Own distinct brand positioning, voice, messaging, and visual consistency for Doc Crow’s and Joella’s across channels, campaigns, menus, and restaurant touchpoints.
Develop annual brand marketing plans, quarterly priorities, integrated promotional calendars, campaign playbooks, briefs, toolkits, and measurement standards aligned with revenue goals and market opportunities.
Monitor guest insights, competition, menu trends, and market performance to identify growth opportunities and strengthen brand relevance.
Own content strategy, editorial calendars, and storytelling; lead creative development and establish standards for photography, video, design, menus, digital advertising, websites, email, in-store materials, and campaigns.
Direct social media strategy, content planning, community engagement, and channel performance across locations and platforms; develop influencer, creator, and ambassador partnerships.
Lead strategies to grow awareness, visits, check average, and repeat frequency through brand, value, promotional, and occasion-driven marketing.
Direct Joella’s brand calendar, value and traffic strategy, product and limited-time-offer launches, family occasions, local-store marketing, and market-specific demand plans.
Strengthen Doc Crow’s destination dining and local relevance through dining occasions, bourbon and culinary storytelling, neighborhood outreach, game-day and event demand, and restaurant-specific marketing.
Partner with operations and finance to align campaigns with menu economics, capacity, dayparts, sales pacing, and profit contribution, adapting plans based on results.
Own digital acquisition and retention across websites, local search, paid search and social, online ordering touchpoints, and guest communications; lead CRM, loyalty, and lifecycle marketing strategy.
Direct paid media and agency partners, set objectives, oversee budgets, optimize for qualified demand and attributable sales, and manage annual media strategy and channel mix.
Allocate marketing investments across brands, markets, and channels; establish audience strategies, KPIs, attribution frameworks, and reporting standards.
Establish local-store marketing frameworks and operating rhythms; manage community partnerships, sponsorships, local events, business relationships, and promotions with measurable commercial benefit.
Lead brand public relations and communications priorities, including openings, seasonal initiatives, earned media, reputation management, and issue response in coordination with leadership.
Provide operators with marketing toolkits, timelines, and performance visibility, while retaining marketing ownership.
Directly manage and coach the Doc Crow’s Private Events & Marketing Ops Manager, setting sales targets, pipeline expectations, conversion goals, and performance reviews for both locations.
Oversee Doc Crow’s event and catering prospecting, account development, lead generation, repeat business, and sales enablement; hold the manager accountable for day-to-day execution and follow-through.
Partner with restaurant leaders on event packages, menus, collateral, tour experiences, pricing inputs, and operational readiness; lead Joella’s catering sales strategy with operations.
Serve as the primary marketing partner to operations leadership and align marketing strategy with restaurant execution, guest experience, and commercial performance.
Manage annual marketing budgets, agency scopes, vendor relationships, and resources across the two brands.
Balance long-range planning with hands-on execution across restaurant locations, traveling as business needs require.
Partner with operations to translate marketing initiatives into strong on-property guest experiences; develop signature activations, seasonal events, community partnerships, and experiential programs.
Lead marketing for restaurant events, local promotions, culinary experiences, bourbon-focused programming, community engagements, and strategic partnerships.
Collaborate with culinary, operations, and restaurant teams on menu launches, limited-time offers, and promotional programs; monitor guest feedback, reviews, and sentiment trends.
Build reporting that connects campaign activity to traffic, sales, guest frequency, product mix, acquisition cost, CRM engagement, and ROI; review performance by brand, location, campaign, and channel and recommend corrective actions and investment shifts.
Track Doc Crow’s private-events and catering leads, pipeline value, conversion, booked revenue, and repeat account growth with the Sales & Marketing Manager.
Present concise performance reporting, insights, and recommendations to senior marketing and restaurant leadership.

Benefits

Daily Pay (work today, get paid today)
Free telemedicine and virtual mental health care access for all associates starting day one
Multiple health insurance options
Life insurance options
401(k) plan with company match
Paid time off for eligible associates in accordance with company policy
Holiday pay
Pet insurance
Employee Assistance Program
Schulte Savings Marketplace discounts on event tickets, electronics, gym memberships, and more
Flexible work environment
Career growth opportunities