Lanessa Aurand, PLANTERS Brand Manager, Hormel, shares her take on generating social buzz, the debate of using celebrities or influencers, and her favorite cashew flavor to snack
on.
Do you prefer brand awareness or performance? What is your preferred marketing channel? In this series, we get to know past Insider Summit attendees and ask
about their preferences.
Lanessa Aurand, PLANTERS Brand Manager, Hormel:
Peanuts or
Cashews: I’ve got to go with cashews. We have a Dill Pickle cashew that I had to stop keeping at my desk because I can eat a full bag before 10 am. Dangerous stuff.
Performance or Brand: I have to say Brand, I am a Brand Manager! Of course, as we discussed at the Nashville CPG
Insiders Summit the answer is always a balance of both.
In-Store or Online
Shopping: I am an in-store shopper whenever possible. Especially with food! I could spend hours walking the aisles of a grocery store, I love it. (Yes, I realize I need new
hobbies when this is my idea of excitement)
Tried & True Channels or Bold New
Tactics: Cheat answer here but both! We must be willing to try new avenues (and potentially fail at them) but a lot of the tried-and-true channels are tried-and-true for a
reason, especially for food.
Social Buzz or In-Store Sampling: Social Buzz
will win for me every time. Something really catching on and generating word of mouth will out wildly outperform the best in store sampling execution we could ever pull off. Generally for way less
investment as well.
Celebrity or Influencers: Influencers tend to provide a much more
compelling reason to believe than celebrities. They build true communities and fans actively look to them to influence their purchasing decisions in a way that is different from how fans interact with
most celebrities.
Human Touch or AI: Human Touch will never be replaced.
If you’re interested in submitting content for future editions, please reach out to our Managing Editor, Barbie Romero at Barbie@MediaPost.com.