When most people think of Land O’Lakes, they think of its butter. They don’t think of the zoo.
But as a farm-owned cooperative, the company actually has a broad footprint in agriculture. That includes, besides dairy products, data-driven tools to protect crops, and a sizable animal nutrition arm.
“Even though you know us for our dairy products and our butter and cheese, it’s the smallest part of our business,” said company CMO Heather Malenshek on stage at Marketing Vanguard’s invite-only session during ADWEEK’s September Brandweek event. “We feed about 100 million animals a day. We feed zoo animals.”
That expansiveness is as much an opportunity as it is a challenge. It’s tough to find an authentic way for a brand with so many diverse interests to go to market cohesively—especially when it’s trying to participate in the cultural conversation.
Malenshek spoke with ADWEEK’s chief brand and community officer Jenny Rooney onstage about how she’s cracked that problem.
This interview has been edited and condensed for flow.
ADWEEK: What’s your background?
HEATHER MALENSHEK: Previous to Land O’Lakes, I was the CMO at Harley-Davidson for about six and a half years. I was the first female CMO and one of only two CMOs.
I’ve actually had the opportunity to work on some incredible legacy brands in my career. I’ve worked on the Jeep brand when I was on the agency side. I worked on Budweiser. I worked way too long on Bud Light, just like working with a frat party every day. And I worked, obviously, at Harley-Davidson, which is an amazing brand. I’m a rider at heart, so it was great.
When I came to Land O’Lakes, I had really no idea what Land O’Lakes had to offer until I spoke to the CEO, [Beth Ford], who I fell in love with immediately—her leadership and how she cares so deeply about what we do.
You’ve led transformations in brands with deeply loyal, sometimes fiercely protective audiences. How do you tell the difference between what’s authentically core to it and what’s just the way it’s always been done?
We’re 106 years old, and after 106 years, there are a lot of practices that are part of what the company does. When I joined six years ago at Land O’Lakes, I was blown away by how diverse the businesses were. We have three distinct businesses with different audiences and different goals. It felt very siloed to me.
