SushiDog – Marketing Strategy

Founded by Greg & Nick in 2018, SushiDog was created to provide grab and go SushiDogs, Sushi Bowls and Salads designed to be eaten on the go.

I was engaged by co-founder Greg to provide senior-level strategic marketing support across the business — effectively acting as a Fractional Marketing Director for this growing quick service hospitality brand.

How I helped SushiDog develop a diversified, data-driven hospitality marketing strategy with long-term resilience.

With ambitious regional expansion plans and a strong social media presence already in place, my focus with SushiDog was on:

• Diversifying the marketing mix beyond social virality

• Building more sustainable, conversion-led growth

• Strengthening data-driven decision making

• Developing the in-house team structure and leadership capability

• Supporting long-term strategic planning and budgeting

Strategic Focus Areas

1. Diversifying the Marketing Mix

SushiDog had built impressive awareness through social media — but as many hospitality brands know, virality itself is not a strategy. Algorithms shift. Reach fluctuates. Conversion isn’t guaranteed. Over-reliance on social media created risk, particularly for a scaling hospitality business expanding beyond London. Awareness is powerful — but conversion, retention and frequency drive sustainable growth. My core recommendation was to de-risk growth by expanding beyond organic social. Together, we expanded focus to include:

• Local store marketing

• Loyalty strategy optimisation

• Email marketing and CRM

• Partnerships and community-building

• Smarter use of paid media

This strategic steer was embedded into 2026 budget planning, with clear direction toward allocating experimental brand-building budget alongside performance channels.

2. Regional Expansion Strategy

Expanding regionally as a London-born brand comes with risk. Rather than replicating high-impact London launch tactics, I recommended a more locally sensitive approach. The focus shifted from “big launch moment” to long-term local trust building:

• Prioritising local partnerships

• Entering new regions with humility

• Building local relevance before scale

• Extending the “tail” of launch marketing activity beyond opening week

The in-house marketing team reflected this beautifully in their launch planning — ensuring post-launch momentum was sustained rather than front-loaded.

3. Embedding Data-Driven Marketing

Strong creative needs strong commercial grounding. A major part of my work as a Fractional Marketing Director for hospitality brands is ensuring data informs everyday decisions — not just quarterly reviews. Now embedded within SushiDog’s marketing rhythm:

• Weekly channel performance analysis

• Sales data reviews across sites, channels and day parts

• Deep dives into loyalty performance

• Ongoing optimisation of spend and tactics

• Structured quarterly reflection sessions

This shift has strengthened confidence in decision-making and aligned marketing more closely with commercial performance.

4. Team Development & Leadership Support

A key part of the project focused on strengthening internal capability and leadership. For Catherine, Senior Marketing Manager, this included refining her role description in line with business growth, developing a clear PD plan, introducing a structured monthly reporting framework (delivered alongside Megan), and ongoing mentoring across 2026 strategy and budgeting — enabling her to step confidently into a more strategic leadership position.

For Megan, Content & Community Manager, we refined her role and PD plan while mentoring her on reporting discipline, linking social strategy to wider business objectives, taking creative risks and building deeper community engagement — evolving her remit from simply posting content to driving measurable business impact.

Results & Impact

While many outcomes are long-term and structural rather than campaign-specific, key shifts include:

• Reduced strategic reliance on social virality

• More resilient and diversified marketing mix

• Stronger local connection in regional openings

• Improved reporting clarity and decision-making confidence

• Elevated leadership capability within the marketing team

Most importantly, SushiDog now operates with greater strategic control of their marketing — rather than reacting to channel performance fluctuations.