Top 25 Franchise Marketing Leaders: Kate Doyle-Kwon — Vice President of Communications and Franchise Marketing, Xponential

Name: Kate Doyle-Kwon
Role: Vice President of Communications and Franchise Marketing
Brand: Xponential
Brand Website: https://www.xponential.com/

At Xponential Fitness, franchise marketing is driven by a blend of creativity, data and strategic storytelling — and Vice President of Communications and Franchise Marketing Kate Doyle-Kwon is at the center of it all. She describes her role as a balance between executing campaigns and analyzing their performance, always looking for ways to improve. A key part of her approach is leveraging the success stories of Xponential’s franchisees to engage potential leads and strengthen the connection between brand marketing and the franchise sales process.

Doyle-Kwon believes that showcasing real franchisee experiences — especially those who trust the process, use the available resources, and prioritize growth and team development — is one of the most impactful things marketers can do to support unit-level economics. She also sees major opportunity in highlighting the positive impact new locations have on their communities, especially as Xponential continues to differentiate itself in an increasingly competitive market. Looking ahead, she notes the growing role of AI in streamlining ad creation, media management and lead handling — a shift she’s embracing to drive even greater efficiency and performance across the brand’s marketing efforts.

Q&A With Kate Doyle-Kwon, Vice President of Communications and Franchise Marketing, Xponential

1851 Franchise: What do you love most about franchise marketing?

Kate Doyle-Kwon: I love the balance between the creative process of ideating and executing on campaigns and diving into the data to track and analyze success and where to improve. I also really enjoy thinking through how to leverage creative, all of our incredible stories of our franchisees’ success, drive process so everything flows well, and be a conduit between marketing and the franchise sales process through a lead’s eyes.

1851: What do you see as the single most important thing franchise marketing pros can do to impact franchisees’ unit-level economics?

Doyle-Kwon: Share in as many ways as we can what success looks like from the network of franchisees — hearing it from their diverse perspectives is authentic and engaging — particularly given the common theme across all of our most successful franchisees is that they trust the process, leverage all the resources provided to them, and have a mindset of growth, team and member nurturing, and staying close to the data.

1851: What do you see as a franchise brand’s largest marketing opportunity?

Doyle-Kwon: The franchise industry contributes strongly to the U.S. economy and employs a lot of people, and as a result, the impact a new location can have in a community can be inspiring. Franchisors should be celebrating this in their marketing while also clearly communicating their brand DNA and unique position in the market (at a time when competition across categories is so high) for prospective franchisees to visualize themselves in creating this impact and success for their own lives and communities.

1851: What are the top marketing trends you see in 2025?

Doyle-Kwon: The biggest one I see is companies leveraging AI tools to optimize the manual processes that have been part of media management, ad creation, and lead management in the past.

1851: What is one bold prediction you have for what’s next in marketing?

Doyle-Kwon: Marketers have more considerations to make than ever before, but leveraging AI in the right way will be a no-brainer. Versioning content, in particular, will increase a brand's speed to output, but targeting and personalization will be key. That requires a larger investment in data, which the most driven brands will focus on. 

Growing and selling franchises is difficult. No great franchise did it alone. Want to learn more about how 1851 helps franchisors grow their franchises with confidence? Visit www.1851growthclub.com and see what we can do for you.