Talking Lately

  

Retro is the new retro: The challenges of building a nostalgia brand into an icon.

A Q&A with Michael Keller, CEO, Pearson's Candy Company.

 


Michael Keller spoke at the May 6 Brand Matters program about nostalgia, brand equity and his leadership experiences. The only regular speaker series of its kind and stature in the Twin Cities, Brand Matters was launched in 2000 to explore brand issues, trends and the people who shape them.

 

For those of us that don't know, care to share the  

story of Pearson's?

 

Essentially, three brothers started the company in 1909 and introduced the Nut Goodie three years later. The Nut Goodie brand basically remained unchanged for more than 100 years, which is quite remarkable. Then, during the Great Depression in 1933, the Salted Nut Roll was introduced and would help grow Pearson's and increase the company's visibility. Over the last 5 decades, ownership of the company has changed a few times (now owned by Brynwood Partners) and a variety of brands were launched or acquired, most recently Bit-O-Honey.

 

How did you come to Pearson's?

 

My career has been mainly in the food industry and I've had the opportunity to work for great brands such as Dairy Queen, Nestl� (Butterfinger), Baskin-Robbins and Jamba Juice. Most of these brands have something in common - they are iconic and carry a lot of history that adds intrinsic value to the brands. But they also carry a risk of becoming irrelevant if not cared for properly. History is littered with brands that are no longer around because their relevance eroded over time. At Pearson's we have the opportunity to avoid this trap and so far we are succeeding.


What sets Pearson's apart?

 

Pearson's has been around for 105 years. There are people, families even,
who love these brands and have been enjoying them for decades. They look for
us on shelves. The quality of our products, the authenticity of our history and the strong connections that consumers have with our brands set us apart. Our
brands are "iconostalgic."

 

Iconostalgic? Care to elaborate on that one?

 

Absolutely. You obviously have iconic brands that become a part of culture. They rise above their category and even their industry. Take the iPhone, for example; that is an iconic product and an iconic brand. At the same time, they arguably haven't been around long enough to build historical equity, or to make positive personal associations with the past. Additionally, there are lots of brands that serve as portals to the past, these are nostalgia brands, but they may not have the recognition or the staying power to be called iconic.

 

At Pearson's, some of our brands are both iconic and nostalgic: iconostalgic.

 

That's great. So what's it like trying to cultivate a brand like that in the candy category?

 

Well, it's not the easiest thing! We are actually part of an enormous category: $15 billion to $20 billion in annual sales. It's very crowded, highly competitive and dominated by some truly incredible brands. And these brands don't rest. In many cases they are well-oiled machines that don't stop moving forward. So, we have to be very smart, thoughtful and creative with our ideas and solutions.

You're a CEO now, but you've also been a CMO. Care to share some leadership insights?

 

Absolutely. One of the most interesting things for me is that at a certain level, to achieve business success an organization has to move beyond strategy, branding and systems. It becomes more about company culture as the key factor that determines whether an organization can change and/or grow to survive and thrive.

 

It doesn't matter if you're a CEO or a CMO or a brand manager or whatever. Your strategy will amount to nothing if the culture and the people surrounding that strategy aren't aligned and willing to move in the same direction.

 

As a prominent hospital CEO once told me, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."


Words of wisdom. And what about from your years as CMO?

 

One thing I've learned is that it's all about alignment. If a CMO falls out of alignment with the rest of his or her senior team, particularly the CEO, then that CMO is not going to be around for long. It's just the way it works. You could look at CMO tenure and factors that drive that tenure and one of the most correlative factors will be CEO alignment. A CEO is naturally busy and has a limited amount of bandwidth. So, to continually execute the vision of the stakeholders and move forward, everyone needs to be facing the same direction, including the CMO.


What does the future look like for Pearson's?

 

Our brand has a great history. There are many things about it that make us incredibly unique. And I think that will contribute to us having a bright future, as well. Our business is transforming. It's changing every day, right before our eyes. The next several years are going to be about leveraging this evolution and the assets that come along with it. We're looking to grow the company by two to three times in five to seven years. And so far, we're making good progress.

 

To learn more about the many ways Yamamoto can help celebrate your brand, contact Shelly Regan at 
612-375-0180 or email sregan@go-yamamoto.com.