Word & Mouth Blog

Where food, hospitality, branding, and human behavior all crash into each other. I write about restaurants, wine, placemaking, customer experience, and the small details that make people talk about a business long after they leave.

For even more snarky takes on marketing, pop culture, branding, and the internet, visit my Substack, Burnt Popcorn & Branding: Substack

A mix of hospitality, branding, customer psychology, hospitality culture, and internet behavior from someone who’s worked behind the scenes in marketing long enough to know what feels authentic and what feels painfully forced.
Yes. Especially if your marketing currently sounds like ChatGPT wrote it.
No LinkedIn thought leadership energy here. Just strategy, storytelling, and occasional side-eye toward trends, Chat-GPT written branding advice, and “disruptive” ideas that all look the same.
People in marketing, hospitality, branding, retail, wine, or anyone who secretly judges restaurants by their menu design before reading the food list.

Shana Bull 3/31/25 Shana Bull 3/31/25

I Haven’t Emailed My Community in Two Years- Let’s Talk About That

Why I stopped emailing, what’s changed, and what you can expect from me now—no noise, just real insights and honest connection.

Shana Bull 9/29/24 Shana Bull 9/29/24

5 Reasons that Branding Matters in Social Media Marketing

Five reasons why branding matters when it comes to social media marketing. Your brand is how you connect with your community.

Shana Bull 3/31/20 Shana Bull 3/31/20

Restaurant and Winery Marketing Gets Creative While We Shelter in Place

With the shelter-in-place order, wineries and restaurants all over California are having to rethink their traditional model of people coming to them. Creativity tends to flourish during times of crisis, so I wanted to give a few shoutouts to brands that I think are doing a great job of embracing the horrible reality that we're dealing with right now.

Shana Bull 3/18/20 Shana Bull 3/18/20

Virtual Happy Hour - Keeping People Connected through Video and Wine

A Virtual Happy Hour is a great idea for friends and family to connect, even when in quarantine during this coronavirus pandemic. Here are some tools on how to set up your virtual happy hour (wine, and a husband, not included).

Shana Bull 3/28/18 Shana Bull 3/28/18

How I Spent my Vacation: Goal Planning

Goal Planning is an important part of any marketing strategy - figuring out WHY you want to accomplish your goals and breaking them down into tasks makes them more manageable. Here are a few tips I have learned over the years on how to create goals for marketers.