The Joint Chiropractic recently opened its 900th location, and new chief marketing officer Lori Abou Habib is working to help the brand reach 1000.
Lori Abou Habib, The Joint Chiropractic’s new chief marketing officer, is looking forward to something of a career change. For the last 15 years, she’s held marketing roles at Sonic Drive-In, most recently as CMO. Now, she’s bringing her experience to an entirely different industry.
“The brand is built on the spirit of innovation,” said Abou Habib of The Joint. “There’s a lot here that makes me excited and reminds me of Sonic in the early days.”
Before being promoted to CMO at Sonic in 2017, Abou Habib moved through almost every stage of marketing management the company had to offer. Her “sweetest gig at Sonic” was as brand manager for ice cream, drinks and snacks before stepping into the CMO role.
“It was a fantastic run, but I’m excited to do something really, completely different,” said Abou Habib.
The Joint’s new CMO, Lori Abou Habib.
A chiropractic franchise, The Joint focuses on pain relief and preventative care. It recently crossed the 900-unit mark and is one of the largest chiropractic franchises in the United States.
Related: The Joint Chiropractic Ranks No. 18 on Franchise Times Fast & Serious
While Abou Habib was looking to change up her career, going from food to medical wasn’t the jump she was initially seeking.
“I wasn’t looking for a specific change,” she said. “Having been in restaurants and being in a pivotal spot in my career, I could certainly keep going with restaurants or take an opportunity to try something new.”
At Sonic, working with franchisees had the biggest impact on her work life, Abou Habib said. Getting to know their lives and helping improve their businesses was the experience she truly wanted to carry over, regardless of what industry she ended up in.
After a conversation with The Joint CEO Peter Holt, she was in.
“I knew nothing about franchising compared to this guy, and he was so passionate about it,” said Abou Habib. “It was infectious and I thought maybe I was on to something.”
She met the rest of the team and knew The Joint was where she wanted to be. Not only was the culture what she was looking for, she saw “entrepreneurial spirit” in The Joint as a franchisor.
The Joint covers different kinds of pain and works to reduce it and help patients through their healing process.
Since being hired this summer, Abou Habib said she is adjusting to the small changes between CMO roles. One of the first steps is getting to know the current marketing methods. She also wants to bring in some of the tactics she learned and developed at Sonic to help attract new customers to The Joint’s clinics.
The next goal for the brand is to reach 1,000 open locations. Personally, Abou Habib wants to keep awareness of consumer needs at the forefront. “The marketing team is already incredibly strong,” she said. “They’ve already started down the path of understanding the patients really better than anyone else, and I think that’s going to be a clear part of my charge is bringing that understanding to the organization.”