‘Digital is No Longer an Island’: At Hormel Foods, Brand Success is Data-Driven and Interconnected
LIKE ANY BRAND MARKETER, Hormel Foods strives every day to perfect its go-to-market success across all selling channels.
With more than $12 billion in annual global revenue and about 40 household-name brands in its portfolio (think Skippy, Spam, Planters, Natural Choice, Wholly Guacamole, and more), the stakes are high and the playing fields extend across physical and digital retail.
For Lisa Selk, senior vice president of Brand Fuel at Hormel Foods, every day presents challenges across a range of disciplines ranging from understanding consumer behavior to implementing digital brand strategies.
She oversees the company’s Brand Fuel center of excellence, described as the company's hub for innovation, consumer and shopper insights, brand diagnostics and technology. In the following interview, Selk taps into the broad range of her expertise and shares her perspective on how brands must make smart use of data and pursue a unified strategy:
CPGM:
With online grocery becoming a daily reality for so many, what is the foundational business challenge we’re seeing, and what must we fundamentally change to succeed?
Selk:
The fundamental challenge is that a disparate digital commerce strategy is a losing one, especially since online grocery sales hit $10 billion last summer. To truly succeed, especially as online shopping grows, organizations must stop viewing digital as an island. We need to focus on breaking down internal walls and building company-wide strengths that ensure speed, drive profitability, and, most importantly, deliver real value and relevance to our shoppers, no matter where they are.
CPGM:
Thinking of the future, what are some of the indicators that confirm grocery is moving toward interconnectedness and data reliance?
Selk:
Two new trends we’re watching closely are the rise of retail media networks (RMNs) and agentic artificial intelligence (AI). These two factors confirm that the grocery environment is becoming one intelligent, data-led flow. This shift is imperative because success online isn’t just about technology or marketing; it’s about building the right capabilities and culture across the entire organization. These trends, along with the need for in-store efficiency, confirm that the grocery environment is moving rapidly toward an interconnected, data-driven ecosystem.
CPGM:
How should CPG brands prioritize success metrics (KPIs) to ensure their strategy is effective?
Selk:
Organizations need to root their strategy in a few core metrics that directly influence our profitability and purpose. Specifically, we’d suggest they look at measures like digital share of shelf, conversion rates, and product availability. These metrics help inform organizations where energy and resources are making the most meaningful impact for shoppers.
CPGM:
Besides tracking performance metrics, why is it important to check assumptions and conduct periodic strategic reviews?
Selk:
It's all about staying relevant. Conducting periodic strategic reviews of shopper behavior, product performance, and campaign effectiveness helps to affirm that investments remain aligned with evolving shopper needs. This allows leadership and teams to identify areas for improvement quickly, ensuring every decision supports both short-term results and long-term growth objectives. For example, being able to monitor out-of-stock alerts and act immediately not only recovers lost revenue but also reinforces a brand’s reliability and commitment to always being available.
CPGM:
Success on the digital shelf used to be just for marketing and e-commerce. Which teams across the company now realize they must share responsibility for this success?
Selk:
As the digital commerce landscape has progressed, the responsibility has expanded to every team that touches the product journey, including sales, supply chain, consumer insights, and brand management. When an organization aligns all of these teams around a shared purpose and common objectives, it fosters transparency, accountability, and the coordinated execution needed to truly serve our consumers.
We recently completed a comprehensive digital shelf maturity assessment at Hormel Foods to pinpoint exactly where we need to concentrate resources. These insights are now being used to establish enterprise-level objectives and key results (OKRs) that align our cross-functional teams and drive measurable progress. Cross-functional dashboards and scorecards are key to visualizing each team’s contribution.
CPGM:
In addition to cross-functional collaboration, what is equally essential for success, and how can it be encouraged?
Selk:
Leadership engagement is equally essential. While executives don't need to manage day-to-day activities, they require timely, actionable insights to make informed strategic decisions. When leadership can see the direct, measurable impact of initiatives (like how content optimization leads to better shopping experiences) it naturally encourages them to invest in our future without getting caught in the operational weeds.
CPGM:
We hear about AI everywhere. How does the strategic deployment of AI help distinguish your brands from the competition in digital commerce?
Selk:
Basic AI, things like optimizing paid search or making simple content recommendations, is quickly becoming the expected standard, or "table stakes". The real difference maker is the strategic, thoughtful deployment of AI that aligns directly with our mission: meeting the unique needs of our shoppers. At Hormel Foods, we leverage advanced AI tools to refine our creative assets and tailor the copy to ensure our marketing speaks directly to shoppers’ preferences, driving deeper engagement and stronger brand connection.
CPGM:
What specific shift in consumer search behavior must CPG brands adapt their digital content strategies to accommodate?
Selk:
I think it’s really important we prioritize natural language search – how shoppers naturally ask questions and discover products. They are increasingly asking questions like, “What are the best healthy snacks for a road trip?” instead of just typing keywords like "peanut butter".
Organizations must implement AI-driven systems to map products to the life moments and use cases a shopper is searching for, ensuring that our content surfaces naturally in these rich, human contexts to provide real value and maintain brand availability wherever they are searching.
This intentional strategy moves us from merely participating in the digital shelf to genuinely keeping the shopper at the center of every decision.
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Lisa Selk is senior vice president of Brand Fuel at Hormel Foods where she oversees the Brand Fuel center of excellence, which is the company's hub for innovation, consumer and shopper insights, brand diagnostics and technology.
