Aaron Kennedy: It’s His Nature

For the Noodles & Company founder and State of Colorado CMO, golf has been a mainstay

Jon Rizzi | Colorado AvidGolfer

Noodles & Company founder and State of Colorado CMO Aaron Kennedy’s passion for golf took root in rural America but it goes back centuries—all the way to Scotland.

What's the state's Chief Marketing Officer Doing On a Tractor?

A cynic might say he’s trying to polish his image with the rural state representatives who want voters to reject the controversial snowcapped “CO” green triangle his team developed as the Colorado brand.

The cynic would be wrong.

What could be a Dukakis-in-the-Tank Moment for Aaron Kennedy turns out to be anything but. Yes, the onetime Pepsico executive and founder of Noodles & Company restaurants knows a little something about creating an image, which is why in 2012 Governor John Hickenlooper made him the state’s first-ever CMO with the charge of developing a “cohesive brand that would help attract talent, trade and tourism to the state.”

However the 51-year-old Kennedy, who grew up on a farm “where Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin meet,” knows just as much about cultivating crops. And on the days he doesn’t report to the Colorado State Capitol, he pursues his agricultural passion on his 20-acre property on the eastern edge of Boulder County.

Kennedy calls his acreage Flapjack Farm, and he works it with his Deere. In the shadow of the stunning 6,700-square-foot, solar-powered custom home he shares with his wife of 21 years, their two children and dog grow all forms of organic vegetables and legumes, as well the peach, apple and pear trees whose fruit he turns into jams and syrups. He has sold 250 oak trees from his on-site nursery.

The land also doubles as a practice range. His Pings and shag bag sit by the barn. As a neighbor’s cows low on the other side of the split-rail fence, Kennedy spills out a bunch of Titleists (not Noodles) and compresses them with the easy swing he first developed as a teenager in Illinois and has refined over the years at Boulder Country Club, Nebraska’s Dismal River Club and the Old Course at St. Andrews.

He fell in love with the game at the age of 14.
“I’d ride my bike with my friend Miles Douglas to Oakville Country Club, a nine-hole public course in Mount Carroll, Illinois,” he remembers. “I loved the joy of walking, of being in nature.”

He doesn’t lose sleep over bad rounds.
“When I go to bed after playing golf, instead of counting my shots, I remember the beauty of the course, the genius of the designer, the smell of the turf. I love when the dew is still on the grass. But I also love the sound of hitting the ball squarely. Pure golf.”

Don’t bet against him.
“I’m a 9.6 index, so I’m a competitive player. But I don’t like to bet. Wagering changes the game and takes the fun out of it. I always wiggle out of gambling. I like to play with people who have the same approach to the game I do.”

Be a good partner.
Prior to starting Noodles & Co., Kennedy says working with the firm that designed the brand identity for the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida was his “funnest” project—“even though I played with a VP from the Tour who had to win at everything,” he says with slight exasperation.

It’s a golf course, not an office.
“I dislike talking business on the golf course,” says Kennedy. “I like getting to know people and see how they react. At Noodles’ annual company tournament, I’d sometimes play with vendors or potential vendors. I’d watch their behavior to see if I could trust them. With a fairly big contract on the line, one of these guys started slamming his club after almost every shot. He just couldn’t help himself. I took him down and didn’t give him the contract.”

What’s a golf widow?
In addition to regular mile-long passeggiatas along the perimeter of their property, Kennedy and his wife, Jenifer—a biomedical engineering PhD and the co-founder of JustRight Surgical— play rounds on foot at Boulder Country Club and annually travel to St. Andrews, where they are members of two clubs (“only about £140 per year,” he says) and rent a second-story flat overlooking the 18th green and first tee of the Old Course.

“Any time it’s not raining is my favorite time to go to Scotland.”
Kennedy’s best memory of the Old Course is being 3-under after five holes the first time he played it. He finished with a 7-over 79 after some trouble in the Valley of Sin.

He’s a fan of the dead Kennedys—and live ones.
He can trace his family back to Scotland in the 1100s. They’re mainly from Ayrshire, about a three-hour drive southwest of St. Andrews on the Firth of Clyde and home to Royal Troon, Prestwick and Turnberry. “The Kennedy family built Turnberry,” he says. “I went to a bar there and met Lord David Kennedy, who took me to the ruins of Dunure Castle, the clan’s ancestral point of origin, and to Culzean Castle, which was owned by the Marquis of Ailsa—the chief of Clan Kennedy— but is now in the hands of the National Trust.”

He links to the past…
Kennedy collects vintage clubs. Among his 20 hickory-shafted models from the late 19th Century is a putter by Ben Sayers, the legendary pro and clubmaker from North Berwick Golf Club in Scotland.

…and to the future.
After taking Noodles & Co. from its original Cherry Creek location to 170 restaurants across the country, Kennedy retired to Flapjack Farms and the joy of “savoring every word” of The New York Times every morning. “More than just raising produce, berries and groves of trees,” he writes on his website, “Flapjack Farms is about but about growing powerful ideas into viable, sustainable enterprises.”

Which includes the State of Colorado.
Although he says he’s “allergic to politics,” Kennedy accepted the governor’s invitation to serve the state for two years in 2012. The new CMO set out to create a unified, authentic brand identity that would help attract talent, trade and tourism to Colorado. “It would have been easy to hire a New York branding agency like Nevada did,” Kennedy says. “But we’re better than that.”

“We” means all Coloradans.
Ultimately, the “It’s Our Nature” campaign resulted from input from nearly 200,000 people from across the state, along with a Brand Review Board and Brand Advisory Council comprised of some the state’s foremost marketing and business minds. A website solicited feedback received more than a half-million hits. The process was exhaustive and inclusive. “If we build a reputation only around skiing, that’s not good; it’s only one dimension.” Kennedy says surveys proved the license plate was more recognizable than the state flag (which is in the public domain and can appear anywhere— including marijuana shops), and “we draw energy from our mountains.” Ergo, “the logo’s peak shape, which also acts as an upward-facing arrow that suggests and embodies our state’s upward ascension.”

“We expected pushback.”
Kennedy knows not everyone likes the new logo, but he believes in its power to market and position the state in a way “that allows us to continue our upward mobility and provide residents with the life they want to live.”

The next thing.
With his CMO commitment coming to an end this year, Kennedy finds himself looking for the next startup. “I like bringing something to life from nothing,” he says, looking at his harrowed fields, for now seeded only with dozens of golf balls. The planting season begins with the golf season, during which he and his wife have already planned two trips to St. Andrews.

Scroll down for more photos from St. Andrews and Scotland!

Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com. Jon Rizzi is the founding editor and co-owner of this regional golf-related media company producing magazines, web content, tournaments, events and the Golf Passport.