Jami Horowitz Kimbrough has led marketing initiatives for hospitality brands of various scales, including The Coca-Cola Company, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Fifth Group Restaurants, and Moe’s Southwest Grill.
Kimbrough joined Tropical Smoothie at a pivotal moment in the brand’s history, where unit growth exploded from 300 to over 500 locations in just a few years. Initially, she worked with a conservative marketing budget, but this taught her to be resourceful. She carried this scrappy attitude to Moe’s, which had a considerably larger budget, fueled by restaurant conglomerate GoTo Foods (formerly Focus Brands).
“Working with large brands taught me about the art of what’s possible. It’s fun to do high-production campaigns, but I’ve bounced between big, medium, and small brands, and I’ve learned how to get things done on a shoestring budget,” Kimbrough says. “You can get crafty with your numbers and learn how to filter out what you do and don’t need to be successful.”
Kimbrough was ready to put her stamp on a brand when she came across Surcheros, a southern Tex-Mex chain with 25 units poised for aggressive expansion. She was one of several strategic hires Surcheros made in 2023 to strengthen its leadership team in marketing, operations, technology, people, and business development.
“I met with the founder Luke Christian, and I knew he had the heart and vision for where he wanted Surcheros to go. I wanted to hop on his wagon and take the journey with him to grow his brand,” Kimbrough says. “This gave me a unique opportunity to have a seat and a voice at the table, which isn’t always possible with big brands. I’m able to impact more than just marketing—I’m involved in long-range trajectory planning with the senior team and rounding out my skill set.”
Kimbrough began by addressing inconsistencies in the way Surcheros was being represented, such as replacing outdated signage in the field. She then spent a few months proposing a full repositioning project, which included a guest segmentation strategy, fresh branded assets (colors, logos, and accent illustrations), a revised brand tone, and an off-premises dining strategy. In 2025, the next step will be menu innovation and development.
“What Surcheros hasn’t had the bandwidth to do yet is dig deeper into our product mix and design our menu in a way that supports our financial goals while also meeting the needs of our guests,” Kimbrough says. “We’re also looking at revisiting our loyalty program and undergoing a digital refresh. This project is super exciting for us.”
Kimbrough is also pushing Surcheros toward more research and development, focusing on profitable catering offerings and introducing desserts without the use of freezers. She highlights the brand’s ability to experiment with both creative and strategic initiatives to improve operations and guest feedback, while staying true to its promise to provide fresh-made food.
“We’re putting our own unique spin on Tex-Mex—we call it Fresh Mex. Everything is made fresh daily, and we feel this is a big differentiator in a competitive category,” Kimbrough explains. “We’ve been doing a lot of testing on all fronts, and we’ve noticed our sales are up almost 4 percent year-to-date. Our guests are feeling heard and seen, and they’re showing us.”
The brand has also seen a significant return on investment by highlighting third-party channels like DoorDash and leveraging paid media to drive transaction rates. Kimbrough notes smaller brands and budgets need to see an immediate increase in performance, even if it means tentatively skipping awareness campaigns.
“We all know awareness is key—it’s at the top of the brand funnel—but I would argue that for smaller brands, you have to skip this and go straight to the conversion level to drive transactions,” Kimbrough says. “Then it’s up to the restaurant to drive loyalty, repeat visits, and really create a connection with customers.”
Alongside the senior team, Kimbrough has spent the past year fortifying Surcheros’s processes and systems, steering it toward growth. The brand inked an ambitious development deal in July, bringing seven units to the Nashville market for the first time. The first location is set to open in October, with six more to follow.
Surcheros aims to grow from 30 to 100 restaurants in the next five years, focusing first on Southern markets. Kimbrough says the development pipeline has more than enough to hit this goal, and the work she’s doing to streamline marketing and operations will serve as a strong foundation in the long run.
“We’re excited to take our homegrown approach to hospitality into new markets,” Kimbrough says. “We treat our guests and each other with kindness, we focus on the prosperity of our communities, and we want to take this with us as we grow. I love how we’re bringing the Surcheros spirit to life as we continue to serve more guests.”