What Wagamama’s New CMO Teaches UK Startups

A big brand doesn’t hire a senior marketer to “do more social posts”. It hires them to make the brand easier to choose, easier to remember, and easier to buy.

That’s why Wagamama’s appointment of Claire Farrant—whose recent experience spans Lidl UK, BP Retail (Europe), Morrisons and Tesco—matters well beyond the restaurant world. It’s a clean signal about where growth is coming from in 2026: brand salience plus sharp customer experience plus disciplined commercial thinking.

This article sits in our Startup Marketing United Kingdom series, and the point is simple: you don’t need a CMO-sized budget to think like one. You can borrow the operating system. And if you do, your digital marketing stops feeling like a set of random tasks and starts behaving like a growth engine.

“Most companies get this wrong: they treat marketing as output (posts, ads, emails) instead of a system for predictable demand.”

What Wagamama’s CMO hire signals about marketing in 2026

Answer first: Wagamama has chosen a marketer with deep retail and category-growth experience because hospitality growth now looks a lot like retail growth: win on value perception, availability, convenience, and repeat behaviour—not just “cool campaigns”.

Wagamama has appointed Claire Farrant as CMO, following the departure of Emma Colquhoun (who has moved to Wingstop as chief growth officer). Farrant’s background is telling: eight years as Lidl UK marketing director, senior marketing leadership at BP’s retail division in Europe, and prior roles at Tesco and Morrisons.

Here’s what that combination usually brings to a brand:

• Commercial literacy. Retail-trained marketers talk margin, basket, frequency, and distribution without flinching.
• Category warfare experience. Lidl’s rise has been about consistent distinctiveness, price-value messaging, and repetition over time.
• Operational respect. People who’ve worked close to store networks (or forecourts, in BP’s case) tend to prioritise execution, not just ideas.

For UK startups and small businesses, the message is encouraging: the fundamentals are back in fashion. If you can improve how often your brand gets noticed, remembered, and recommended, you can outgrow bigger competitors who rely on sporadic promotions.

The shift: from “campaigns” to “momentum”

Farrant described Wagamama as having “huge momentum” and spoke about building “brand buzz and food love”, “strengthening salience”, and “deepening connections”. That language matters.

Salience isn’t a fluffy brand term. It’s the practical outcome of consistent reach, consistent creative cues, and consistent customer experience. In digital marketing terms for a British startup, salience looks like:

• You show up on Google for the same few high-intent searches every week.
• Prospects recognise you on LinkedIn/Instagram before they click.
• Your reviews repeat the same strengths (fast, friendly, reliable, worth it).
• Returning customers need less convincing each time.

Retail lessons small businesses can steal (without the corporate overhead)

Answer first: Retail CMOs win by making the buying decision easy: clear offer, clear proof, consistent presence, and minimal friction. UK startups can copy that with tighter messaging, stronger proof, and a simple funnel.

Big retailers don’t succeed because they’re clever every week. They succeed because they’re consistent every week. Lidl, Tesco, and Morrisons grew with systems—range, price architecture, store experience, repeated messaging—not endless novelty.

Here are three retail-grade principles that translate cleanly into small business digital marketing.

1) Build a “value story” you can repeat for 12 months

If your homepage headline changes every two weeks, you’re forcing customers to relearn who you are. Most startups do this because they’re bored. Your customer isn’t bored; they’re busy.

A repeatable value story has:

• One primary audience (not “everyone”).
• One main problem you solve (not a list of services).
• One clear reason to believe (proof).

Example (service business):

• “Same-week boiler repairs in Leeds.”
• “Fixed-price call-out, no surprises.”
• “1,200+ local 5-star reviews.”

That’s not glamorous. It’s the point.

2) Treat “availability” as a marketing job

Retail marketers obsess over availability because you can’t sell what isn’t there. For startups, availability means:

• You’re visible when buyers search (SEO + Google Business Profile).
• You respond fast enough to win (speed-to-lead).
• You’re easy to book/buy (frictionless checkout or scheduling).

A practical target I like for lead-based businesses: respond to inbound enquiries in under 10 minutes during business hours. If that sounds intense, use automation:

• Web form → instant SMS/email acknowledgement
• Calendar link for booking
• Pre-qualification questions to reduce back-and-forth

Most small businesses lose growth because they’re “closed” digitally, even while the owner is working flat-out.

3) Make your brand distinctive, not complicated

Bigger brands spend years building distinctive assets: colours, tone, photography style, taglines, sonic cues. Startups often skip this and end up looking like templates.

Pick a small set of assets you can stick to:

• 1–2 brand colours used consistently
• One photo style (e.g., bright natural light, real customers, not stock)
• A repeatable phrase that signals your category (“fixed-price”, “same-week”, “plant-based”, “made in Britain”)

Distinctiveness is an efficiency tool. It reduces the cost of being remembered.

Hospitality growth is loyalty growth (and that’s mostly digital now)

Answer first: Restaurants live or die on repeat visits; startups live or die on repeat purchases and referrals. The digital systems are the same: capture, nurture, reactivate.

Wagamama’s brief—build buzz, deepen connections, drive impact—reads like a modern hospitality playbook. The sector is dealing with cost pressure, cautious consumers, and intense competition. Sound familiar? UK startups are dealing with the same climate.

So the winning move is to build retention into marketing, not treat it as “customer service’s job later”.

A simple retention loop for UK small businesses

Here’s a workable loop that doesn’t require a big tech stack:

1. Capture: email/SMS at checkout, enquiry, or first visit
2. Nurture: 3–5 message onboarding sequence (what to expect, FAQs, proof)
3. Prompt repeat: timed reminder based on typical repurchase cycle
4. Ask for proof: review request at the moment of satisfaction
5. Reactivate: seasonal offer or new release to lapsed customers

If you’re a startup thinking “we don’t have time for this,” that’s exactly why it’s worth doing. Retention is the cheapest growth channel you’ll ever run.

January matters: New Year behaviour is a real advantage

It’s January 2026. People are resetting routines, cutting waste, and choosing fewer, better brands. That’s a gift for small businesses who communicate clearly.

Use the season to tighten:

• Your “why us” statement (what’s the one promise?)
• Your proof (reviews, case studies, before/after)
• Your offer (simple, not sprawling)

The brands that win Q1 usually aren’t the loudest. They’re the easiest to choose.

“Do I need a CMO?” No. You need CMO thinking.

Answer first: A CMO is a role; strategic marketing leadership is a capability. Small businesses can build that capability with a lightweight plan, clear metrics, and consistent execution.

Hiring a senior marketer is a luxury for many startups. But marketing leadership is still required—someone must decide what you’re known for, who you’re targeting, and how you’ll measure progress.

Here’s what “CMO thinking” looks like when you don’t have a CMO.

The 90-day brand-and-demand plan (steal this)

Weeks 1–2: Get focus

• Choose one priority segment
• Write one positioning statement: “We help X do Y without Z.”
• Audit your top 10 competitors’ messaging and offers

Weeks 3–6: Fix the conversion path

• Homepage: clear promise + proof + one CTA
• Lead capture: form + calendar + auto-response
• Add 5–10 FAQs that remove purchase anxiety

Weeks 7–10: Build consistent demand

• Publish 4–6 SEO pages/posts aimed at high-intent queries
• Run retargeting ads (small budget) to stay familiar
• Start a simple email newsletter (twice a month is enough)

Weeks 11–13: Measure and double down

• Track: leads, conversion rate, cost per lead, repeat rate
• Keep what works, cut what doesn’t

If you do only one thing from this article, do this: set one metric for salience (e.g., branded search volume, direct traffic, repeat visitors) and watch it weekly. You can’t manage what you don’t measure.

People also ask: what can startups learn from Wagamama’s new CMO?

What’s the main lesson? Consistency beats novelty. A clear promise repeated over time builds brand salience faster than constant reinvention.

How do I build “brand buzz” as a small business? Pick one story you can own (value, speed, quality, ethics, locality) and show proof relentlessly: reviews, behind-the-scenes, case studies, customer photos.

What’s the fastest digital win in 2026? Speed-to-lead and friction reduction. Many businesses can increase conversions without increasing traffic simply by replying faster and simplifying booking.

Next steps for your startup marketing in the UK

Wagamama hiring a retail-heavy CMO is a reminder that marketing is not decoration. It’s how you create preference, habit, and repeat behaviour—especially when consumers are careful with money.

If you’re running a small business or startup, your advantage is speed. You can decide this week what you want to be known for, tidy up your funnel, and show up consistently where your buyers already are.

The question I’d sit with is this: if someone saw your brand twice this month—once on Google and once on social—would they recognise you instantly, and would they know exactly why to choose you?