---
title: "CMO Q&A: Do You See Vendors as Business Partners?"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/c2724af1-f33e-45ff-b27e-010e5eb9a1ca
source: "Franchising.com"
original_url: https://www.franchising.com/articles/cmo_qa_do_you_see_vendors_as_business_partners.html
author: "Eddy Goldberg"
category: "Franchisors"
industry: "Franchise Industry"
segment: "Franchisors"
topics: ["Technology","People"]
published: 2019-08-25T08:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T04:10:01.751Z
image: https://imgs.franchising.com/art/articles/4787_plate.jpg
---

# CMO Q&A: Do You See Vendors as Business Partners?

**TL;DR:** Franchise CMOs and marketing leaders discuss their views on vendors as business partners, with most seeing them as an extension of their team. They believe that treating vendors as partners leads to a win-win relationship and allows them to take ownership of their tasks for the brand.

*By Eddy Goldberg, originally published in Franchising.com on 2019-08-25. [Read the original](https://www.franchising.com/articles/cmo_qa_do_you_see_vendors_as_business_partners.html).*

## Story

In each issue of *Franchise Update* magazine, we profile franchise CMOs and marketing leaders, asking each the same set of questions. Their responses say a lot about who they are, their culture, their values, and where they're leading their companies. Throughout the year, we'll be selecting one of those questions - and providing answers from recent CMO profiles.

If you like what they say and are curious to learn more about these franchise marketing leaders and their thoughts on other topics, we've provided links to their full profile. This week: *Do you see vendors as business partners?* **Katherine LeBlanc, Chief Marketing Officer, Painting with a Twist** Of course!

Vendors are an extension of your team. Whether they are providing a service to just your marketing team or to your franchisees, they are helping you execute your plans. When you treat vendors as an extension of your team, your expectations of them change: you hold them accountable for more, and they take ownership of their tasks for your brand.

It becomes win/win no matter how long the relationship lasts. Read the full profile here. **Claudia Schaefer, Chief Marketing Officer, Jamba** Absolutely.

We are intentional about who we work with, as we believe they are an extension of our brand. Read the full profile here. **Denise Pedini, EVP Marketing/Chief Marketing Officer, Pizza Inn** Yes.

All our vendors are true partners. We personally selected our print vendor and advertising agency based on the fact that they are small businesses and have the same close family feel that we have at Pizza Inn. Read the full profile here.

**Michael Barrette, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer, Dippin' Dots & Doc Popcorn** We believe in having long-term collaborative partnerships with our vendors. If they are not part of a solution for a particular business problem, then they are part of the problem, as the saying goes. We present strategic business challenges to our vendor partners in packaging, flavors, inclusions for our recipes, or to our agency partners to look for solutions to challenges that are strategic in nature.

Read the full profile here. **Kristina Van Bruggen, Vice President of Marketing, Sizzler USA** Yes, our partners are an extension of our brand. By allowing our partners access to our brand we can take advantage of their skill sets, experience, and diverse business perspectives.

## Entities

- Franchising.com (publication)
- Franchise Industry (sector)
- Eddy Goldberg (person)
- franchise marketing (topic)
- Pizza Inn (company)
- Jamba (company)
- Painting with a Twist (company)
- Sizzler (company)
- Claudia Schaefer (person)
- vendor partnerships (topic)
- business relationships (topic)

---
Originally reported by Eddy Goldberg, Franchising.com (https://www.franchising.com/articles/cmo_qa_do_you_see_vendors_as_business_partners.html). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/c2724af1-f33e-45ff-b27e-010e5eb9a1ca).