The job of chief marketing officer at a major fast-food chain has never been what you might call restful, but the position at Wendy's comes with its own particular inheritance.
Tariq Hassan, who assumes the role after a career that has wound through several corners of the marketing world, takes the reins at a company that has spent recent years in an unusual position: celebrated for its social media wit, respected for its food quality claims, and yet perpetually third in a race where third is not where anyone wants to finish.
The Wendy's brand, which is owned by the Wendy's Company and based in Dublin, Ohio, managed to surpass Burger King in 2021 to claim the No. 2 spot in the American burger hierarchy, behind the seemingly immovable McDonald's. Whether that ascent represented a breakthrough or merely a reflection of Burger King's own difficulties is a question Mr. Hassan will have time to consider.
His background is varied, which in the parlance of executive profiles means he has done several different things and will now be asked to do something else. The quick-service restaurant category — a term the industry prefers to "fast food," for reasons that have never been entirely clear to anyone who has eaten at one — demands a marketing executive who can toggle between value messaging, brand positioning, and the occasional viral tweet, sometimes in the same afternoon.
(The tweets, of course, were never really the strategy. They were the pleasant surprise that became an expectation, which is a different thing.)
Mr. Hassan inherits a brand that knows what it wants to say about itself. Whether the consumer is still listening with the same attentiveness is the part that remains to be solved.
Original story published in adweek.com: "Wendy’s New Marketing Chief Tariq Hassan Has 3 Big Problems to Solve"