Table Talk: Erin Dress, Director of Retail Marketing, Impossible Foods

We’re so pleased with this Table Talk interview between Yuni Sameshima, Chicory’s CEO and Co-Founder, and Erin Dress, Director of Retail Marketing at Impossible Foods, a mission-driven plant-based meat company. Erin was a panelist on Chicory’s first virtual panel (watch the full recording here) in November 2020, where she offered exceptional insights on shopper and retail marketing for specialty brands. So we thought she would make the perfect guest for Yuni’s next Table Talk interview. 

Here, Erin will dive into the continual rise of omnichannel and the impact on retail marketing, what it’s like marketing a challenger brand, and how contextual and off-platform strategies will play a part in the future of shopper marketing.

How did you get started at Impossible Foods and what do you do now at the company?

I had the pleasure of joining Impossible Foods as Director of Retail Marketing in March 2020, when we were only distributed at 142 grocery stores and as COVID was sadly taking a hold of the U.S. 2020 was always intended to be the year of Impossible Foods’ retail expansion, and I worked closely with our Retail Sales team to support the expansion to about 17,000 stores (including launches at Walmart, Target, Kroger, Albertsons, and more). My team also launched our direct-to-consumer business with a lot of cross-functional support. And beyond traditional shopper marketing (both in-store and digital, from coupons to omnichannel search & display), I also help us enter home chef-relevant channels like Pinterest, YouTube, and of course targeted recipe advertising with Chicory!

With the rise of omnichannel, how have you seen retail marketing transform, if at all?

My previous role was leading an omnichannel team, and COVID has intensified what was already trending in omnichannel and digital marketing trends. With fewer shoppers physically visiting stores, it isn’t just about your shelf presence and breakthrough - it’s also important to have a winning digital presence and a full-funnel digital marketing suite that can intercept shoppers along their path to purchase. Search has also been expanding beyond Google and onto other retailer.coms (including omnichannel services like Instacart). As a mission-driven brand, Impossible Foods can leverage the rise of retail-oriented search to target meat eaters who might otherwise buy meat from animals. 

Were there any changes to the way you approached retail marketing for Impossible Foods during this past holiday season compared to previous years (or previous plans)?

COVID certainly changed how consumers and marketers approached the 2020 holiday season. Entertaining recipes were less relevant, and that was born out in the search and recipe data. We ended up leaning into “comfort foods,” which have been on the upswing as more consumers are cooking at home. Additionally, with our new DTC platform, we were able to both offer a gifting experience and launch a giving promotion “buy one, give one,” supporting Impossible Burger donations to Feeding America.

With extensive experience in so many marketing functions like ecommerce, omnichannel and retail, what advice do you have for budding marketers on their career path? 

I originally pivoted my career from my roots in brand management into a multi-lane career because the senior marketers I most admired had sales experience and I recognized the need to understand point of sale and commercialization. When I had the chance to get a front seat to the rise of ecommerce, which sits at the intersection of sales and marketing, I jumped at the opportunity. As ecommerce sales increase from a fringe part of most brands to a significant revenue channel (and also one where store shoppers may research or be influenced online before heading to the store), CPG organizations approach the challenge of how to better sync their retail, ecommerce, and marketing teams. I certainly encourage rising marketers and sales professionals to seek out opportunities to learn from or even experience other roles, as that cross-functional experience will make them better in whichever function they serve.

Impossible Foods began as a foodservice product. Were there any challenges in pivoting your marketing plan to focus on retail and grocery shoppers? As one of the most well-known challenger brands on the market, to what do you attribute Impossible Foods’ skyrocketing popularity?

Impossible Foods learned a lot from top chefs and restaurant partners in its first years, and bringing the raw product to home chefs has been a fun way to democratize who gets to #CookImpossible. Impossible™ Burger is an incredibly versatile product, as some of our consumers’ favorite recipes suggest - meatballs, chili, and tacos are among the many ways Impossible Burger transcends the hamburger bun. Teaching consumers where to find Impossible Burger in their grocery store (usually in the fresh meat section, depending on the retailer!) was part of the challenge. We also needed not only to inspire home chefs with an array of recipes but also teach them how to cook Impossible Burger and how closely it performs to ground beef, with campaign headlines like “Cook It Like Ground Beef.” 

Impossible Foods is all about trying to solve the climate crisis by targeting meat eaters. Our success is rooted in delicious, quality products that appeal to meat lovers - the vast majority of our consumers previously purchased meat. Impossible Foods also appeals to consumers looking to make sustainable swaps in their diet. Tasting is believing, and Impossible fans are instrumental in helping us spread the word that you can now buy Impossible Burger to cook at home.

As a panelist on our specialty foods virtual panel, you mentioned that it can be difficult to  measure the difference between in-store sales lift and ecommerce sales. Can you elaborate on this? How does this impact your marketing/advertising spend?

Certainly. Marketing has gone digital and traceable ahead of grocery sales - especially for a refrigerated or frozen category like meat. So while categories like beauty can do half or more of their sales in ecommerce and DTC channels, the vast majority of refrigerated grocery sales still flow through stores and omnichannel, and it can be hard to directly link store sales lift to digital media. Online sales actions are easier to trace (CTR, orders sent to basket, etc.), but the question, given that household penetration for online grocery ordering is still below 25%, is how to measure the digitally influenced in-store sales lift. Working with advertisers, retailer partners, and third-party measurement specialists, we are starting to get a better picture of the true ROAS, or return on ad spend, of our marketing spend. Once you understand that full-funnel sales impact, you can make smarter optimization decisions.

As retail media and the value of retailer data grows rapidly, how do you expect this to transform shopper marketing? How do you see contextual and off-platform strategies playing a role here? 

The rise of “retailer as media” has been a long trend. More retailers are realizing how to monetize their data, convert their platforms and loyalty data into smarter targeting, and leverage partnerships both with brands and with other media platforms to help drive full-funnel marketing. When a shopper lands on a retailer.com, they’re often fairly low in the funnel and focused on their shopper journey, and a tactic like search is important for helping ensure your product appears on the relevant digital shelves. It’s hard to generalize the wide range of contextual and off-platform media, but it includes what I consider the mid-funnel of recipe/inspiration search, where Chicory sits. Offering consumers relevant and omnichannel-enabled ads connected to their retailer is a great way to bridge from the upper or mid-funnel to a site where shoppers can learn more about the product and convert, or add it to their shopping list for the next time they are in store. These media partners have to work together to take consumers from inspiration and awareness through to conversion and proven results.

Follow Impossible Foods on LinkedIn and Twitter, and follow Erin on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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