Land O’Lakes, Respecting The Past & Rooted In The Future

This latest chapter into Land O’Lakes expansive history begins when career marketing expert Heather Malenshek joined the Twin Cities-based Land O’Lakes team as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer “in the middle of COVID. So, fun times.”

One thing Malenshek has championed from the beginning is that Land O’Lakes is more than your favorite butter. It’s a member-owned cooperative spanning agriculture production to consumer foods and is made up of 4 business units:

• Animal Nutrition
• Dairy Foods
• Truterra
• WinField United

…all focused on “farm to fork” technologies, both standard and ultramodern. 

Says Malenshek, “I’ve worked on a lot of legacy brands in my career. I walked into Land O’Lakes when we were 99 years old and coming into our 100th anniversary.” 

It’s noteworthy that one of Malenshek’s prior companies was the Australian carrier, Qantas, today 103 years old; and another was the American heartland’s, Harley-Davidson, Inc., about 121 this year—so you might say she’s an expert in enduring companies. It’s not surprising then, that the Scottish-born, London City University-educated executive is no stranger to leading through such milestones—and marketing throughout seminal times. 

“One of the things I wanted to make very sure of is that we at Land O’Lakes pay homage to the past and respect what’s come before us,” she says. “After all, we wouldn’t be here otherwise. It’s a very small percent of companies that actually get to the age that we are at, so it’s pretty rare.”

Roots & Branches

It’s important to note that this story is about just one (but so far, one the most successful) of Land O’Lakes campaigns culminating in the concept of “Rooted in Tomorrow.” 

Its phraseology and profound meaning came out of Malenshek’s nearly immediate quest to understand the culture of her new company from its people’s perspective. “I worked with my team – a cross-functional group of people – to really get really clear on our brand purpose.” From its people’s perspective being the critical signifier, because it’s essential to its past and future. 

The idea of the exercise was to be able to “communicate that purpose out and get the whole team rallied around it ... We spent a lot of time,” recounts Malenshek, “really uncovering some of these people’s stories and then developing our brand purpose that would get us into the next centennial …”

“So, we pulled [everyone together] and just started to talk about why we do what we do. And what we do is put farmers and the retailers that support them at the heart of everything we’re about, creating a better world for all of us.”

The team ultimately realized that “We’re all Rooted in Tomorrow. And there’s a lot to that statement.”

“As marketers,” Malenshek admits, “we love to come up with cool taglines. ‘Rooted in Tomorrow’ helped people understand that what came before us really surrounds us as an organization. It’s authentic to who we are, but also includes a heavy focus on the future.” In fact, she argues, the idea perfectly encapsulates the company’s position today, at the confluence of yesterday and tomorrow.

“We do things better together than we do alone.”

Land O’Lakes differs from most US companies, insofar as it’s a cooperative. According to the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), more than 3 million cooperatives exist worldwide, with more than 12 percent of the world’s population – 1.2 billion members – participating in them. In the US, 40,000+ cooperatives serve up to one in four citizens. 

Cooperatives are enterprises based on ethics, values, and principles, Malenshek explains. They aim to reinvest in their communities, promote the well-being of people and the environment, and nurture a long-term vision for sustainable economic growth and social development. 

“The cooperative piece for me was a big part of the reason that I joined Land O’Lakes,” Malenshek says.  “Our success starts with our members’ success. “We are not a publicly traded company. We are owned by farmers – dairy farmers, row crop farmers, and then also local ag retailer cooperatives. So, we have an ecosystem of member-owners. And what it means is basically we are working on their behalf. So, the money that we make actually goes back to our member-owners and ultimately into their communities.”

“And that’s the critical part,” Malenshek argues. “That we’re not here to just make massive amounts of profit. This is actually about us supporting the farmers and allowing them to continue to do the work that they do every day, work that puts food on our tables.”

A Culture of Firm Roots & Future Fruits 

To understand  the company’s purpose, values, and goals, Malenshek followed the “purpose-driven cooperative” ethos that rules the day at Land O’Lakes. That meant “coming together and helping each other and learning from each other and supporting each other” in order to share the genesis of the messaging, to make sure it would take root.

“The entire cooperative – including our members – rallied around the messaging of ‘Rooted in Tomorrow.’,” Malenshek recounts. What comes first in marketing—the chicken (the messaging) or the egg (the mission)? For Malenshek, it’s been the quandary throughout her long career, and the one of the most rewarding aspects. “Both the chicken and the egg are necessary stages of growth, and you can’t have one without the other, she shares.”

“For me, if you think about the job of a CMO today, that’s what we have to do: We have to be able to drive growth. The reason I always think of it as ‘profitable, sustainable growth’ is because you can grow at the expense of some of those things. So, I want to make sure that we’re doing it in a way that’s actually sustainable in terms of growth that’s going to continue over the years, growth with [a positive] impact.”

The impact of Land O’Lakes’ growth can be measured by the numbers:

• $17 BILLION NET SALES
• $179 MILLION RETURNED TO MEMBERS
• 1,263 DAIRY FARMER MEMBERS
• 551 AG PRODUCER MEMBERS
• 895 AG RETAIL OWNERS 

But, perhaps more central to its ethics and purpose, Malenshek measures impact cooperatively: “We think about sustainability as the prosperity of our farmers and vibrancy of the rural communities that they serve.” 

As Land O’Lakes CEO, Beth Ford, says – and as Malenshek states as a mantra: “Our success starts with our members’ success..” The company steadfastly refuses to “make massive profits if it’s at the expense of our members,” says Malenshek. “It’s really about supporting them first and only then, because obviously we’re running a business, so we have to make money—but in service to them.” 

Malenshek’s early and ongoing “marketing” meetings have included “heart-warming time spent with our member owners and their families … You see the impact of the work that we do and the success they’re having in their business—and you learn a little bit more about how they’re doing it.”

“These are super hardworking individuals and families that I respect so much. You must have a tremendous amount of resilience and creativity and passion for what you do, and you really have to have a love for the land.”

Everyone together, Rooted in Tomorrow. 

“So, this job for me is more of a calling than anything before,” says Malenshek. “When I first came into the company, I thought of Land O’Lakes as … butter. And then I looked around, and said to Beth, ‘Oh, my God, all these things we’re doing—people need to know about this! They need to hear this story.” 

And so, the next chapter of Land O’Lakes deeply rooted and future-facing story unfolds.