Top 25 Franchise Marketing Leaders: Ashley Mitchell — Vice President of Marketing, East Coast Wings + Grill

Name: Ashley Mitchell
Role: Vice President of Marketing
Brand: East Coast Wings + Grill
Brand Website: https://eastcoastwingsfranchise.com/

Ashley Mitchell didn’t set out to work in franchising. Like many in the industry, she “fell into it.” After leading local marketing for The Walt Disney Company in Michigan, her role shifted to Burbank. Not wanting to relocate, she began consulting and eventually took on a project with Goldfish Swim School, which was just beginning its national expansion. When Goldfish decided to bring more marketing in-house, Mitchell joined the brand and launched her franchise career. She has been in the franchise world ever since.

Mitchell’s approach to franchise marketing is grounded in partnership. She understands that franchisors own the brand, but franchisees own the business. Today, at East Coast Wings + Grill, she applies that philosophy to help local operators grow while maintaining the strength of the brand system. She is also the vice president of marketing for Sammy’s Sliders and the chief marketing officer of ZorAbility, the franchise management and development consultancy.

Q&A With Ashley Mitchell, Vice President of Marketing, East Coast Wings + Grill

1851 Franchise: How did you find your way to franchising and franchise marketing?

Ashley Mitchell: I fell into franchising in 2014, as I’ve learned over the years that most people do. I was leading the local marketing arm for The Walt Disney Company in Michigan and they decided to move everything to Burbank. I didn’t want to move to California, so I did some consulting while figuring out my next move.

One of those consulting gigs was with Goldfish Swim School, which was really just starting to ramp up at the time. They decided they needed to bring more marketing in-house and the rest is history. I’ve been in the franchise world ever since.

1851: What makes franchise marketing uniquely challenging (and rewarding) compared to corporate-only marketing?

Mitchell: Franchise marketing is unique because while you as the franchisor own the brand, you don’t own the businesses, so you don’t have full control — which can be tricky.

Learning how to balance the brand message while giving franchisees the autonomy to add their local flair, while staying within brand guidelines, is a constant balancing act. Franchises are local businesses and need to be able to showcase that — people buy from people, not brands — but they also need the power of the brand behind them, which is why franchisees bought in to begin with.

While it provides its own challenges, it’s also rewarding because everything you do helps small business owners achieve their own goals and dreams. There is something really special about being a small part of that.

1851: What is the single most powerful lever a marketing team can pull to directly impact franchisees’ profitability at the unit level?

Mitchell: You mean the silver bullet? I’m afraid to answer this because we all know there isn’t one.

If I had to pick one thing, it’s talking to the franchisee. The marketing team will never understand their market better than they do. Once we get insights from the franchisee about their market, we can help them craft a local marketing strategy that fits their location specifically.

Every franchise says “my location is different,” and they are right. Every location is different. We need to understand what makes it different so we can ensure we’re providing the right guidance for them to execute what is going to work best in their specific area.

1851: What is an untapped marketing opportunity you see for franchise brands?

Mitchell: Most franchise brands are still underutilizing their franchisees and their team as local brand builders, not just operators.

We talk a lot about local marketing, but very few systems actually equip franchisees with the tools, confidence and guardrails to show up authentically in their communities. The real opportunity is in empowered localization: giving franchisees plug-and-play content, training and light personalization so they can tell local stories, build relationships and humanize the brand without going rogue.

The brands that win will be the ones that stop trying to control every message and instead coach franchisees to become credible, consistent local marketers — which is much easier said than done.

1851: What is one marketing fad or buzzword that you believe will actually deliver real results in the coming year?

Mitchell: “Community” is overused, but it’s one buzzword that actually matters when it’s done right.

For franchise brands, this means shifting from transactional marketing to relationship-driven ecosystems: loyalty programs that feel personal, social content that invites conversation instead of broadcasting offers and local activations that connect the brand to real people, not just promotions.

Consumers are tuning out generic ads, but they still engage with brands that feel familiar, human and rooted in their neighborhoods. Franchise systems that invest in true community-building — both digitally and locally — will see stronger loyalty, higher lifetime value and better franchisee buy-in.

1851: What’s your boldest franchise marketing take?

Mitchell: National marketing that isn’t built to support local execution will become obsolete.

In the next five years, the most successful franchise brands won’t be the ones with the flashiest national campaigns; they’ll be the ones that design marketing systems backward from the local customer experience. National teams will act as enablers, not just creators, and success will be measured by franchisee adoption and local performance, not just impressions or brand awareness.

The bold shift is this: Marketing leaders will be judged less on creativity and more on how effectively they drive system-wide behavior and results at the unit level. Brands that embrace that now will be miles ahead of those still chasing vanity metrics.