Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
- Leaders in Customer Loyalty: for those looking to deepen customer experience, engagement, and brand loyalty. Each episode features innovative brands, industry experts, and executive leaders who share actionable insights, proven strategies, and real-world experiences designed to help marketers and brand professionals stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of customer loyalty.
Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Executive Spotlight Featuring Erik Kapila, Director of Loyalty, Marcus Theatres
In this edition of Loyalty360’s Executive Spotlight, we speak with Erik Kapila, Director of Loyalty at Marcus Theatres. With over 25 years of experience spanning CPG, retail, and entertainment, Erik brings a wealth of knowledge in loyalty program strategy, analytics, and customer experience.
During this conversation with Mark Johnson, Loyalty360’s CEO, Erik shares his journey from Procter & Gamble and Kimberly Clark to launching loyalty programs at Fleet Farm and Marcus Theatres. He discusses the unique challenges and opportunities in entertainment loyalty, the importance of personalization and member value, and the insights that drive meaningful engagement. Erik also offers thoughtful advice for early-career professionals, emphasizing the importance of deeply understanding your customers and solving real business problems.
Good afternoon, good morning. This is Mark Johnson from Loyalty360. I hope everyone's happy, safe and well. It's a Saturday, so welcome back to our Executive Spotlight Series. In this series, you get to meet the individuals all of whom are members of Loyalty360, who are working behind the scenes within organizations to develop and sustain award-winning customer loyalty programs. We're going to explore their personal journeys, dive into their passions, successes and also hear about some of the challenges they may have along the way. Stay tuned as we uncover the stories that drive innovation and impact in the world of customer loyalty. And today we have Eric Capilla. He's Director of Loyalty at Marcus Theaters. Eric, thank you for joining us. How are you today?
Speaker 2:I'm great, mark, nice, to see you again in the team.
Speaker 1:Nice to always. Great to connect with you. You're looking awful spiffy there today, so that's good to see as well. First off, could you please tell us a little bit about Marcus Theatres and your current role there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, marcus Theaters. We're the number four movie exhibitor here in the US, so behind AMC, regal and Cinemark, which are all more national than we are, but we're in. We have 79 theaters across 17 states, where we do have really large shares in the states we do play in. My role here is the director of loyalty, a role that I absolutely love. I have both our free program, magical Movie Awards, and a new subscription program, marcus Movie Club, that we launched back in November. In addition to that, I handle all of our email marketing, of which, when you have new movies, every week, we send a lot of emails personalized to our members' tastes, and then, finally, also just doing all the member research. We do a lot of surveying that we've talked about before and just getting deep into the analytics, which is just a passion of mine, mark.
Speaker 1:Okay, customer loyalty is a very unique, fun, amazing job. We get to do all kinds of things. It's not just the program you know in the series. We like to understand kind of how these leaders who are running great programs, like yourself, kind of got into your role. So how did you get into this customer loyalty industry? What roles led to your current position?
Speaker 2:It's a great question, mark. It kind of evolved over time. I've been working now for close to 30 years, which is really quite something, or at least certainly over 25. And I started my career in CPG at Kid, first at Procter Gamble Procter Gamble, excuse me and then Kimberly-Clark, huggies, diapers, kleenex all that my last role there. For five years I had the national head. I was the national head of category and shopper insights, so I was traveling around to all of the accounts and all the retailers and that was so customer focused, mark, and you get a chance to sit in meetings with.
Speaker 2:I remember being in one with I think it was Dollar General and the CEO was talking about I just remember this quote so clearly what was it? That our customers run out of money before they run out of months. And it just always stuck with me, if you start thinking about it, with loyalty and what we do and value and how important it is in segmenting your customers, and it really kind of meant a lot to me at the time. And in addition to that, I had all the loyalty programs across the US wherever we had them at our retailers. So that's where it really started.
Speaker 2:So I worked in loyalty for several years at Kimberly Clark and then beyond that, I moved to a retailer called Fleet Farm it's a regional retailer and launched a loyalty program called Fleet Rewards. That was both a free program and launched a loyalty program called Fleetwood Rewards. That was both a free program and also a credit program that we evolved over time. So that was really the launch of it. And then came to Marcus, and I've already described what I do here and just my passion behind it.
Speaker 1:Excellent. So what attracted you to movie theater? And, when you look at your current role, what may be different between retail customer loyalty and, you know, entertainment customer loyalty? Yeah.
Speaker 2:I would say I mean going from Kimberly Clark, where we were, you know peddling diapers and you know incontinence products and Kleenex to you know working at Fleet Farm, where we're you know farm equipment. I mean it's a lot more fun industry and it's nice to be an entertainment market. It's a nice change, I'll tell you that. I would say that what is different here, though, is if you think about movies you can see every single week there's a new big release that comes out, so every single week is different. There's new content every week. It's change every week.
Speaker 2:So you've really got to be on your toes and personalization really matters every single week, whereas in CPG, we might have a major you know product improvement to Huggies every three years or so. So it was a lot more about marketing and tweaking of things when I was in CPG and at retailers. At the retailers, that the trip cadence could be once or twice a week here we're talking about. You know you can count on both hands how many trips a regular movie goer makes. So winning that next trip and personalizing and making sure rewards are available to get that trip is incredibly important when you're in movies. So I'd say that's a big difference of just trip cadence and what I described before. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:There's been a big discussion around value recently, kind of front and center, and in many discussions we have the economy, economic uncertainty, potentially economic uncertainty, potentially consumer expectations continue to evolve. How is Marcus Theatres working to deliver value and meeting the changing needs of today's moviegoers?
Speaker 2:I think just stepping back from that, mark, I think it's. By the way, we'll answer the question. I think it's a fantastic question. That's on all of our minds, so you're hitting it right on. I'd say one thing you have to be really careful with we have to be really careful with is.
Speaker 2:I've heard it said before at multiple companies now that we have our best customers, we need to go get the others. You don't. You never have them fully. So being really careful to make sure that we treat our best members fantastically all the time, to make sure we're delivering for them, is so important when it comes to value. So never overlook your best customers when it comes to value.
Speaker 2:I'd say the second thing is, if we, I think the outlook for the next year or two, you can see obviously everyone knows prices are rising I think it's probably going to be even tougher. So the choices of discretionary versus having to buy milk and bread, I think is going to start to become a lot different and a lot tougher. So we do have value programs here called Everyday Matinee, where you can get tickets for $7.50. We also have Value Tuesday for our members tickets for $6. But the question is, what else do we need to go do and with that we're going to look at revamping the program in the next several months Mark to deliver even more value back to our members.
Speaker 1:Well, that's good to hear. I was reading an interesting article, I think, the Wall Street Journal a couple of days ago. Yeah, Even the Economist. Just about many brands have absorbed some of that price cost, right. So you look at the consumer price index at 2.7, I think, last month, but the CPI has gone up a little, simply more right. So you know, look at Ford, Ford took a huge drilling right In regard to kind of their earnings because they're eating the tariffs, right, and the charge of the parts aren't made here to go to the final product. So they think a lot going forward that's going to be passed on. So that's going to have some potentially deleterious impacts for brands. But it's great to hear that you are looking to address that value and bring more value to your customers.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure. I think, like when I worked at a retailer, I mean we would pre-order when we knew things were coming. I think a lot of retailers did that here in the US so they didn't pass it along right away, but I think it's coming. You hit Q4 into next year. It's going to get going to.
Speaker 1:When we look at customer experience. Been in this industry from Kimblee Park, p&g, your new role. What is the single biggest factor that influences a great customer experience?
Speaker 2:I think, if I look at loyalty Mark and just thinking about my role here, I'm constantly looking with the team at a number of things, with the team at a number of things. But if you start at the top of the experience, right, it's delivering that personalized email to Mark Johnson, who we know loves horror movies. Therefore, he's going to get horror movies and thrillers right at the top of you know his email. So stuff like that really does matter, making sure we're personalizing content for our audience and delivering rewards. I think second to that would be when you go buy a ticket, to make sure rewards are accessible, that you can use them if you have them available, that it's easy to use. That when you show up at the theater, that at concessions a member is getting special pricing on certain days or for certain events.
Speaker 2:All of that stuff really matters. And I think just really tying it together is that we, I think, do a really good job of making sure, if someone comes to see a movie, send a nice personalized thank you, a couple of movies that are coming up and then just I mean, I have it every weekend. It hits right where members have issues and they reach out to guest services and or myself, and I'll make sure every single time I'm going to get back to them right away. It's incredibly important and it also shows our theaters that are in it with them that we're paying attention during the so-called off hours.
Speaker 1:So all of those things I think really matter in delivering for your member mark? Absolutely. Uh, when you look at the things that you do outside of work to relax, rejuvenate, uh, you know, is there a passion or hobby that you really enjoy?
Speaker 2:yeah, the other husband I'm. I'm getting a little older, mark. I was thinking about thinking about this the other day that well, I've been playing tennis now for you know, closing in on 50 years my dad was from India, moved to Canada and wanted his kids to play tennis, so that's one of the things that I took up early and I've played for years, fairly competitively less so these days but both my kids are actually my daughter's trying out for a tennis team today at her school back in Appleton, and my son is a very good player and it's kind of carried through the family, so it's a lot of fun for us.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah, tennis is fun. It's great sharing passions with your kids. I played club soccer growing up at university and all my kids play soccer and I don't know if it's good or bad, but they still play one place at the college level. And, yeah, it's great to share passions with your kids. So great to hear that you do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's stuff to do together. It matters. Those are the things I remember when I'm a kid, the stuff I did with my parents, so hopefully it carries over Mark right 100%.
Speaker 1:So can you tell us a little bit more about your family?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we actually. Well, I've been in the US now for almost 25 years. I am Canadian, and my wife and I have been married just over 20 years. We have two kids, hazel, who is 15, just about to turn 16 in a week or two, and our son, oliver, who is going into high school in his first year. Coming up Dog Archie good dog, a little too yappy, but it goes with being a dog right. So, yeah, it's good, life is good. I have no complaints at all and really enjoy what I do here at marcus. They treat us very well, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Speaking of dogs, there's a. I'm bringing up another random article, but uh, on monday in the economist there was a big article about you know the labradoodles, the, uh, the american kennel akc. Right, and they will. They don't recognize them as a pure dog. They're not one of their dogs because they're not pure, pure, pure, bred, right, because they're bred. I guess they're the most popular dog in the world. But the whole doodle breed, they don't recognize them so you can't get papers on. I guess it's a. It's a big fight and it's getting very litigious.
Speaker 2:You can say well it's funny you mentioned that we have a mini Australian Labradoodle, so we know it very well and I can hear him a lot when he barks. So I know he's there and he's a great dog. But his recognition may not come, I guess.
Speaker 1:That's fine. Yeah, it's interesting. And, as you know, labradoodles they were started in Australia. Yeah, yeah, interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very true.
Speaker 1:All right, yeah, interesting, very true, all right, interesting. So you're from Canada, you live in the US. Great company work for you. Know what do you like about the US, what do you like about Canada? You know how does that work for you.
Speaker 2:That is a big question these days, mark, and yes, I will go anywhere in your politics because it doesn't matter for things like this. And I'm, I got to say I mean I love the US, I enjoy it, I love Wisconsin. Wisconsin and Canada feel very similar to me and that's a compliment to both, I think. And just the casualness of Wisconsin and the kind of lack of ego I think is very, I'd say, similar to Canada. I think the sense of humor as well. So I enjoy it, I love it here. It's it's, it's been a great run and we're certainly going to continue.
Speaker 1:Okay, should the U? S annex Canada? No, no, no.
Speaker 2:I hope not these days. You never know, Mark. We'll see what happens though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a wild card these days. It is yeah, where did you attend college?
Speaker 2:I went to school in Canada at a school called Queens university in Kingston Ontario, which in Canada, at a school called Queen's University in Kingston Ontario, which in Canada, it's a very good school, Really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:It's not well known here in the US, but in Canada it is, and it was a great time. Okay, what was your first job after college? I think we talked about that a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it was actually. It was at Procter Gamble I worked for probably I think it was two and a half years before I went over to KC and customer service very entry level at the time. Quite honestly, coming from a smaller town in Canada moving to Toronto, which was big, and working at this massive company it was. It was quite overwhelming and I learned a lot really quickly. I got to tell you that, mark.
Speaker 1:OK, and when you look at that first job, you know what do you remember about the position? Are the things that you brought from that position into your current roles?
Speaker 2:I think anyone who's been working for a while there isn't a job that you do, that, even jobs you hate, and I didn't you learn so much out of it and I think, just honestly, taking care of the customer I was calling customers every day and taking care of their issues and you learn that there's a great diversity in the type of issues. There's diversity in how people you know some are more heated conversations, some are lighter and how to, you know, take down a situation that could get a little bit tougher. And that's no different from things we need to do in real life right and handle yourself with the right you know emotional equilibrium to make sure you keep things settled and take care and loyalty, taking care of your members when they have issues and they're fired up, and how do you do that. It all works together. If you just learn things and pay attention and listen effectively, you're going to continue to grow and do it better.
Speaker 1:That makes perfect sense. You know, when you look at challenges or obstacles you've overcome in your life, you know, is there kind of a big obstacle or challenge that you've faced that you've overcome and maybe had an impact and kind of shaped your kind of perspective today?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. You know, what I'd say is maybe a bit of a weird answer, but being out of work teaches you a lot and I'll say this when I left Fleet Farm, there was a group of us that all got kind of let go on the same day. You know how things go in retail at times, right, and while it was a really tough day searching for a job and starting over and the vulnerability with it and having to look at your resume again and realize that, hey, you know what things have changed since the last time you updated it. And how do you search for a job, how do you make connections with people and get more connections out of them to find your next job? Because that's probably the most effective way and I'd say honestly, it's hugely challenging, but there's a ton of growth that comes out of being out of work and finding a job and interviewing and getting that job. There's a lot of gratification out of it when it does happen, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's a great perspective, and if you go back in time, is there something that you may do differently, maybe change about your life, you know. So what would that be and why? So what would that be and why?
Speaker 2:I think that one thing I've learned over time, quite honestly, is effective listening and how, at times that we all want to kind of jump in oh wow, I've done that too and you want to leap into the conversation too quickly and just taking your time to really ask questions, to learn about the topic the person's describing, to hear their problems, to make a connection with them, it really works for you. It really works for you and I think being in insights and being in loyalty, that's what we're doing right. We're trying to find what really triggers people and I'd say early in my career I talked too much, I'd say. As I've grown, I've realized now it's a lot more effective in taking time to listen and I think that'd be the one thing I would have changed.
Speaker 1:You do a great job. You're definitely very loquacious, but you're very empathetic and listen very well.
Speaker 2:So you're generally a solid person, so it's always a great talk. Well, it's very nice of you. We're all trying, mark. We're all trying, mister, I'll tell you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. If you had the opportunity or time potentially to dive into any facet of your job, you know, what would you like to learn more about?
Speaker 2:Well, I'll tell you my passion, mark and this comes from, you know, kimberly Clark days all the way through to today is just jumping in, figuring out, taking your 100% of your members and your base and diving into the segments, finding out what their behaviors are. I mean, if I could do that all day, every day. It's the only thing I did, because the truth is in there and I used to say this back in the day that you need to go through like levels of pain to get to great insights, and you don't find them in surface level one, two, you find them in surface level eight, nine, and if you really do your homework, you will find something that you can open up and you can really drive with for your business, and so I'd say that's one thing that I would do.
Speaker 1:Okay, we'd like to end these executive spotlights, you know, with a word of advice for people who may be early in their career in marketing customer experience. For people who may be early in their career in marketing customer experience, you know, is there a thing or two that you would recommend to someone who's just getting a start in this field? You know, that would you suggest to them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I'm a huge believer in what I'm going to tell you right now, which is and it's going to sound again very simple but know what problem you're solving. Know what problem you're solving. Know what problem you're solving, because too often we get in a room and people want to go hey, what's the next kind of really cool thing that we could go do without knowing is it actually going to drive your business? Is it going to reach your consumer the way you want to? Are you solving the problem? Is it active? Member rate? It could be very different from a segment that's struggling versus spending is down.
Speaker 2:So really do a deep dive in your business. Take the time to learn your customer, take the time to really dive into the business and that's where you're going to find, as I said, the nuggets that will drive your business. So, if I was going to give any advice to anyone coming in to any loyalty program to a new company take time to understand the customer at a length that you are the expert in the company. I think that really matters and I feel like I try to be that here. But you can never stop. It continues to evolve, mark, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, Eric, now we have our wonderful quick fire questions. Oh boy, I think the second time you've done this, so we have a new set for you. First question is how would you describe your work life?
Speaker 2:Honestly, it's fun. It's really fun. I have a long drive to get here every day, but I'm thrilled to be here and I kind of see I learn a lot off the people that work here. Entertainment's a fun industry and it tends to be a lot of fun here. They take care of us pretty good, so I'd say that, Mark.
Speaker 1:Okay, excellent, if you have a day week off from work. What are you doing if you?
Speaker 2:have a day, week off from work. What are you doing? It's often if I have the time, mark, and I don't know if you're a smoker and when I say smoker I don't mean smoking, I mean literally smoking stuff on my Traeger, if I can do that and I have the time. I love making ribs, I love making bacon on it, whatever it may be, but that's just a lot of fun for me.
Speaker 1:Okay, if you could live in any city, any country, where are you living?
Speaker 2:This one's easy Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Anyone who's been there and has been up to Whistler, it's a beautiful city If you can afford to live there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you could go back to school, what would you study?
Speaker 2:Economics? Yeah, for sure. I have a real interest in how it all works together.
Speaker 1:so and I think it's important even in our jobs here- okay, we talked a little bit earlier, but, you know, is there a facet of your job, uh, that you would like to know more about?
Speaker 2:um, you know what? I think I think I've talked this before partnerships. I don't feel. Feel like I still get how to get a mutually beneficial partnership with a company that would work well and you can actually help feed each other in a lot of ways. I think that's something I'd love to understand better.
Speaker 1:Okay, and is there a facet of a job you would like to know less about?
Speaker 2:But the performance review on myself I need to write by the end of today, Mark, so I don't really want to do that. I don't know. How am I doing? Is it okay? I don't know. You're doing well I think you're doing okay, I guess I'll find out by the end of the day. I'll submit it in and see what my boss says Okay.
Speaker 1:What motivates you when tackling challenges at Marcus Theaters?
Speaker 2:Hey, again, coming from analytics and insights, I love a big, messy problem that, honestly, even if no one else wants to touch it, to me it's fascinating and it's incredibly gratifying because the truth is in the data, it will be there, and so I'm pretty relentless in figuring out how to problem solve so that I enjoy greatly.
Speaker 1:Okay, what do you draw inspiration from? You know what lights your fire.
Speaker 2:You know what it's learning from the people around me and, like I mean, I talked about it at the expo back when was it? Was that in May?
Speaker 1:I think it was in May.
Speaker 2:Honestly. Just you talk to other companies, you watch the presentations, and I really mean that. I mean you gain incredible value if you're you're again listening to what others are doing. You know every idea doesn't need to be your own. Someone else has a really great idea that you could duplicate for your business.
Speaker 1:I think that's a big part of it okay, and is there one skill that you maybe would like to learn?
Speaker 2:you know if the nerd in me would love to learn how to be a really good data scientist? Yeah, I cannot. I can't envision that happening. But you know, you never know, mark.
Speaker 1:Eric, thank you very much for taking the time to join us today on the Except for Spotlight.
Speaker 2:It was great speaking with you, as always.
Speaker 1:Great insight. Thank you for everything that you do for the industry. We appreciate you sharing your insights with our listeners and look forward to learning more from you and your team in the future. So thanks again.
Speaker 2:I always like to see you, Mark. Thanks for your time.
Speaker 1:Also want to thank you to everyone for taking the time to listen and make sure you join us back every Saturday for a new Executive Spotlight interview. Until then, have a wonderful day, thank you.