Brand and Marketing Lead

About us

Ben's Fast Food Restaurants is a delivery-first restaurant group on a mission to make healthy food the most delicious, affordable food there is. We run four brands, Ben's Fast Food, Palmita, Umami Express and Lotus & Lime, out of 22 kitchens across 11 US states, with more opening. Every kitchen cooks all four brands for delivery, takeout and catering only; there is no dining room. Our food is made from scratch around vegetables and slow-roasted proteins.

We have grown to this size without a marketing team. The founder has done all of it himself. This role changes that.

The role

You will be our first marketing hire, and you will own the brands. That means the brand story and point of view, a visual refresh, our four websites, our Google and Apple listings for every kitchen, social media for all four brands, campaigns, and local activation in our cities, all run remotely.

This role is a contractor role, fully remote, with flexible hours. Some meetings will be in US time, but the bulk of your work can be done at your discretion.

You report to the founder and you will get about an hour of his time each week. You set the agenda, bring the proposals, and run. If you need a manager to tell you what to do next, this is not the role.

What you will not do: run paid ads on DoorDash or Uber Eats (the founder keeps those), answer customer reviews (our support team does), or build dashboards (our data warehouse and AI tooling supply the measurement; you read it and act on it).

What you will own

• The brand refresh, Ben's Fast Food first, working with a freelance designer you help choose. Ben's Fast Food has "fast food" in the name and sells bowls, salads and smoothies. Making that name an asset is job one.
• Brand voice and point of view for four distinct brands, and the campaigns and content calendar that carry them.
• Instagram and other social accounts for all four brands: strategy, content, scheduling, community.
• The four Squarespace websites and every location landing page, including how we show up in search.
• Google Business Profile, Apple Maps and Yelp listings for every kitchen and brand: complete, accurate, on-brand.
• Photography and video: shot lists, art direction, hiring and managing local photographers and videographers in our cities, and editing for a consistent look across kitchens.
• Local activation designed by you and executed on the ground: creator seeding, partnerships with gyms, offices and community groups, and launch playbooks for new cities, run with our kitchen managers and local freelancers.
• The packaging inserts and the other touchpoints that move customers to order from us directly.
• Measurement: every campaign is pre-registered and read out with our analytics tooling, and you adjust from what it says.
• The marketing playbook itself, which you will write as you go.

Your first quarter

• Agree the scorecard and baselines with the founder.
• Audit and fix our Google, Apple and Yelp listings.
• Start the Ben's Fast Food refresh: identity, photo style, templates.
• Restart social on all four accounts with a monthly calendar and two measured campaigns.
• Build the launch kit for Brooklyn, Charlotte and St. Louis.

What we are looking for

• Seven or more years in brand, content or social marketing for US consumer brands, ideally including food or restaurants, with a portfolio we can see.
• Fluent in US culture, brands and social trends. You know what is happening on US feeds this month, not last year.
• Excellent writing and real taste. Witty when it fits, never corporate.
• Hands-on with Canva and the Adobe suite (Lightroom, Photoshop, Illustrator), Squarespace, Google Business Profile and Instagram's business tools.
• Experience briefing and managing photographers and designers remotely.
• Comfortable reading a metrics report and changing course because of it.
• A self-starter who is happiest with a lot of autonomy and very little management.
• Fluent English, a secure computer, fast and reliable internet, and at least three hours a day of overlap with US Central time.

Nice to have

• Spanish.
• Experience with delivery-only or multi-location restaurant brands.
• Experience in a small team where you did the work yourself.

Job Types: Full-time, Contract

Pay: R50 000,00 - R75 000,00 per month

Application Question(s):

• Have you worked for at least 2 years on food, restaurant, beverage, or consumer packaged goods brands?
• Can you personally produce finished design work in Canva, Figma, or Adobe tools (not only direct others)?
• Paste a link to your portfolio and name the one piece in it you're proudest of and why.
• Name one restaurant or food brand doing a great job on marketing and branding and explain what they get right.
• This role requires occasional communication with our team and partners during US business hours M-F 9am-5pm CST. All other work can be done at times you choose. Does this work for you?
• What experience and skills do you bring that would make you a good fit for this role?
• Describe a time you hired and managed a freelancer remotely. What went wrong and what would you do differently?

Experience:

• Marketing: 7 years (Required)
• US consumer marketing: 5 years (Required)

Work Location: Remote

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