Karcher Enterprises Hires Taco Bell Operations Expert : Management: Karen B. Eadon will direct advertising and other marketing programs for the Carl’s Jr. chain.
Carl Karcher Enterprises Inc. has raided the executive offices of fast-food competitor Taco Bell Corp., hiring operations expert Karen B. Eadon to lead a new marketing strategy.
Eadon, 39, will begin her duties at Karcher Enterprises, which operates the Carl’s Jr. chain of restaurants, on April 27, the company announced Wednesday. As vice president of marketing services, she will be responsible for directing advertising and other marketing programs.
Eadon said Wednesday that she will look into slimming down the menu at Carl’s Jr. as well as working with the company’s advertising agency, Goodby, Berlin & Silverstein in San Francisco, to better target potential customers.
One of Eadon’s first duties will be to direct a new TV advertising campaign to try to boost business, said Donald E. Doyle, Karcher Enterprises’ chief executive.
In a telephone interview, Eadon said that “it is too premature” to say what changes might be made in the fast-food chain’s TV commercials. She also said that she does not have an immediate impression of what changes the typical Carl’s Jr. customer would like to see.
She succeeds John Farrar, who left Karcher Enterprises five months ago. The privately held company would not say what her starting salary will be.
“She has a very impressive background and has essentially done everything we are looking for,” said Doyle, who took the reins of the 52-year-old company on Jan. 1.
“We have some challenges internally to get more of our advertising budget on television,” Doyle said. “We need someone who could build the marketing team. We are lacking that.”
He said that Eadon was approached through a executive search firm and won the job over “quite a few candidates.”
Eadon joined Taco Bell, a subsidiary of Pepsico Inc., in 1985. While working at Taco Bell’s Irvine headquarters she was responsible for the operational support of the chain’s 3,700 restaurants.
