塔可钟的核心理念：“保持谦逊”|《财富》专访

不管是听起来，还是感觉上，热门的德墨菜系快餐连锁塔可钟都跟其他快餐有些不一样，这并不是偶然。这家快餐连锁很有趣，偶尔有点傻，但很有自知之明。

推动这项策略的是该公司全球首席品牌官玛丽莎·塔尔伯格。《财富》杂志在本月的早些时候采访了这位高管，探讨了塔可钟风格的来龙去脉，以及为什么会有人选择在塔可钟快餐店结婚（这可是真事）。

《财富》杂志：加入南加州的塔可钟前，你是雅诗兰黛驻纽约的营销高管。从各种层面上来说转型都相当大。

塔尔伯格：没错，是这样。我大概三年半以前来到塔可钟，原先在相差甚远的高档美妆行业。品牌在公司文化里的地位很有意思。在塔可钟，有很多机会玩品牌概念，打造得比之前更大、更耀眼，也更有活力。

在这里，品牌打造变成了追求极富创造性、激发食欲还要价廉物美。我很喜欢现在工作的目标，让人们吃上想要的食物，而不仅仅是买得起的食物。我也喜欢不完全拘泥于行业既有模式的感觉。作为市场人员，在人们的心目中有一定名声的品牌和企业对我很有吸引力。在雅诗兰黛待了八年后，我已经准备好改变。塔可钟和我都赌了一把。

但一定会有些相似之处吧？

从某种角度来说，我们是食品界的快时尚。我们的产品规划和各种源源不断的创意非常棒。创意从想象转化为现实的过程中，可以在近7000家快餐店里推广。我们永远在创新，推出限量产品让顾客和员工兴奋。但有些方面一定要坚守。我们一定会保证安全、迅速、便捷而且价值很高。便宜的食品不难找，难找的是有品位、口味好而且让人满足的食品——正是这一点让塔可钟变成独特又亲近的餐饮概念。

你领导的是一个已经很热门的品牌。工作重点放在那里？

这个品牌有突出的文化特征，很有历史。我们在这方面做了很多文章，主要想让人们觉得这个大品牌很独立、很特别，还很愿意为粉丝着想。这真的很重要，因为顾客对品牌的诉求是联系和信任。我们的规模可能很大，但从未以大品牌自居。我们认为自己处于下风，是挑战者。

我很高兴能推动品牌发展到别人很难想象的程度，而且顺理成章，一方面让人大吃一惊觉得很古怪，仔细一想又觉得合情合理。举个例子，我们在拉斯维加斯大道开了间堪称旗舰店的Cantina餐厅，专门卖酒。这可是拉斯维加斯，所以我们想，承办婚礼怎么样？真的有很多人在结婚时选择塔可钟。你知道吗？这家店已经承办了100多场婚礼。

我们不光是延续文化，还在创造文化。灵光一闪很重要，也需要智慧。知道自己在宇宙中的位置真的很重要。

市场上到处都是承诺能改善客户关系的软件和工具。对此你怎么看？

嗯，数字化方面我真是刚刚起步。想想电子商务要解决的问题，也就是速度和便利，其实早已融入了快餐店的流程中。有意思的是，我身处的快餐业很晚才开始利用电商和外卖。在母公司百胜餐饮集团的帮助下，我们跟外卖网站GrubHub达成了协议，也一直在和移动外卖和订餐公司合作，所以已经实现数字化。但得确保有最现代的营业网点。怎么让顾客在自家店里享受独特的体验呢？

That Taco Bell, the popular Tex-Mex food chain, sounds and feels different than its quick-serve restaurant peers is no accident. The chain is playful—silly, even—and always self-aware.

Driving that strategy is Marisa Thalberg, global chief brand officer for the company. Fortune caught up with the executive earlier this month to discuss the ins and outs of Taco Bell’s voice and explain why someone might want to get married in one of its stores. (Yes, really.)

Fortune: Before joining Taco Bell in southern California, you were a marketing executive at Estée Lauder in New York. That’s quite a change, on several levels.

Thalberg: Yes, it is. I joined the company about three and a half years ago from a completely different industry, luxury beauty. Brands sit in an interesting place in culture. At Taco Bell, there was a lot of opportunity to take it and play with it and make it bigger, brighter, and more vibrant than it already was.

At Taco Bell, everything is incredibly creative, crave-able, and affordable. I love this idea that we create access to food people want, not just what they can afford. And I love not feeling particularly wedded to any industry’s playbook. As a marketer, I’ve really gravitated to brands and businesses that have a certain cachet in people’s hearts and minds. After eight years at Estée Lauder Companies, I was ready for a change. Taco Bell and I made a bet on each other.

Surely there are similarities, though.

In some ways, we’re the fast fashion of food. We have an incredible product calendar, an incredible pipeline of ideas. You go from imagination to commercializing it to be made in close to 7,000 restaurants. We’re always innovating and bringing out limited products that create excitement for consumers and employees. But certain things are not up for negotiation. We have to be safe, fast, convenient, with incredible value. Cheap food is not hard to find, but food with taste, flavor, gratification—that’s what makes Taco Bell unique as an accessible food concept.

You’ve got your hands on the wheel of an already-buzzy brand. Where do you focus your effort?

The brand has a salience in culture. It has a past. We’ve been blowing a lot of wind on that to allow this big brand to feel more indie, more cult, more “in it” with fans. That’s really important as consumers look to brands for connection and trust. We may have the scale of a big brand, but we never think of ourselves in that way. We think of ourselves as an underdog and a challenger.

What delights me is being able to take the brand to places that no one really saw coming and having it make sense—completely surprising and whimsical, but makes sense. For example, we opened what could be considered our flagship location on the Las Vegas Strip—our Cantina concept, which serves alcohol. This is Vegas, so we asked: What about weddings? We already had enough real behavior of people going to Taco Bell on their wedding day. And you know what? We’ve had more than 100 weddings at that location.

We’re not just living culture, but creating it. There’s a little bit of intelligence with the wit. It’s really important that you know your place in the universe.

Marketers are drowning in software and tools promising better relationships with customers. What’s your take?

Well, I was really early in digital. If you think about what e-commerce is solving for—speed and convenience—quick-service restaurants already have that baked into the process. In a funny way, this industry I’m in has been on the later end of adoption of e-commerce and delivery. Thanks to our parent company Yum! Brands, we have a deal with GrubHub, and we’ve been working with mobile delivery and ordering to make that possible. But you’ve got to make sure you deliver up-to-date access points. How do you make the experience uniquely yours?

说说让你特别兴奋的项目。

我们正在试点“塔可钟派对”。这是快餐店婚礼自然发展的结果。怎么才能推广到其他地方的店里？我们推出了专门的派对菜单。把塔可钟不只当成吃快餐的地方，更是一种生活方式，首先在10家店启动了服务。通过在线预约系统可以预定一家店，选好菜单，同时预定聚会上需要的有趣又奇妙的道具。从此派对主人办聚会有了新选择。

我们在今年10月的洛杉矶Worldz峰会上见过面。《财富》杂志公布了最有希望实现突破性增长的未来50强排行榜。当时塔可钟参会有何打算？

嗯，我们搞了个启动仪式。但其更重要的是社区。作为高管，很清楚去参加会议，离开办公室，多受些启发很重要，但实际上在这些方面投入时间可能好坏参半。PTTOW!社区聚集了营销、娱乐和社会活动领域的人士，如此人员搭配能激发出的影响一定超越自己。

Worldz不太容易归类。结合了商务会议和TED，也许还有一点儿火人节（“火人节”始于1986年，基本宗旨是提倡社区观念、包容、创造性、时尚以及反消费主义——译者注）的感觉，很有意思。也正因为具有这些特点，所以有激励作用，而且也符合我的理念，即最好的灵感不是来自具象思维，而是发散思维。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

Name one project you’re particularly excited about.

We’re piloting something called Party by Taco Bell. It’s a natural evolution of the Taco Bell wedding. How do we transfer that to select stores across the nation? We’ve created special-edition party supplies that you can order. We’re thinking of Taco Bell as more of a fast-food destination, a lifestyle. We’re doing this in 10 stores to start. We have an online reservation system. You can book a store, decide what the menu will be, and order party supplies that have an absolute charm and whimsy. Party hosts will have a whole new place to throw their parties.

You and I crossed paths at the Worldz Summit in Los Angeles in October. Fortune was there to reveal its Future 50 list of companies best positioned for breakout growth. What brought Taco Bell?

Yes, we did an activation there. But for me, it’s really about the community. As an executive, you get to a point where, conceptually speaking, you know that going to conferences, leaving the office, and getting inspired is important—but in practice, they can be a mixed bag in terms of time invested. The PTTOW! community has people from marketing, entertainment, social action—a bundle that makes for inspiration about impact that’s larger than you.

Worldz is not perfectly easier to categorize; it’s an interesting combination of a business conference, TED, and maybe a little bit of Burning Man. That’s what makes it stimulating. And that tracks back to my own philosophy: The best inspiration comes not from literal thinking, but lateral thinking.