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In an era where consumer preferences shift at the speed of culture, heritage brands face a critical question: How do you honor decades of tradition while remaining culturally relevant? This challenge defines modern CPG (consumer packaged goods) marketing, and few leaders understand it better than Gail Hollander, Chief Marketing Officer at The J.M. Smucker Company.
On October 22, 2024, Matt Britton, founder and CEO of Suzy, the AI-powered consumer intelligence platform, hosted Hollander on the Speed of Culture Podcast (Episode 135) to discuss the art of modernizing beloved household names like Jif, Folgers, and Café Bustelo without compromising their fundamental essence.
With more than two decades of experience spanning both agency and brand leadership, Hollander brings a nuanced perspective on driving long-term brand value while staying attuned to cultural shifts, consumer behavior, and the integration of emerging brands like Hostess Brands into the Smucker portfolio.
The conversation reveals a sophisticated approach to heritage brand strategy: understanding the cultural truth, consumer truth, and brand truth that anchors each product.
"Today, it's critically important to understand your brand truth, your consumer truth, and the cultural truth because that's the only way to remain relevant over time."
This philosophy underscores The J.M. Smucker Company's competitive advantage in a marketplace where innovation and authenticity must coexist. The discussion covers critical topics for marketing leaders, including the evolution of agencies in an AI-driven world, the importance of balancing short-term wins with long-term equity, and the mechanics of breathing new life into timeless brands without losing their beating heart.
For CMOs, brand strategists, and marketing professionals grappling with the challenge of modernizing legacy products, this episode offers actionable insights grounded in real-world application at one of America's most recognizable CPG companies.
Heritage brand modernization begins with understanding three interconnected dimensions: the brand truth, the consumer truth, and the cultural truth. These concepts form the foundation of effective positioning for organizations like The J.M. Smucker Company, which manages an extensive portfolio of beloved household names.
Brand Truth represents the core DNA of a product—the fundamental promise and values that have sustained consumer loyalty across generations. For Jif Peanut Butter, this means quality, taste, and the role it plays in family moments. For Folgers coffee, it's about warm mornings and connection. These truths remain constant because they reflect genuine product benefits and emotional associations built over decades.
Consumer Truth addresses how contemporary consumers perceive, use, and value products within their daily lives. Consumer behavior has fundamentally shifted with digital shopping, demographic changes, and evolving dietary preferences.
Today's consumers seek transparency, convenience, personalization, and alignment with their values—whether that's sustainability, diversity, or social responsibility. The J.M. Smucker Company must understand these evolving consumer needs to maintain relevance with both longtime customers and new generations.
Cultural Truth represents the broader zeitgeist—the conversations, movements, and values dominating the cultural moment. This includes everything from trending topics on social media to macro shifts in consumer consciousness about health, inclusivity, and environmental impact.
The intersection of these three truths creates a space where heritage brands can thrive. Hollander emphasizes that brands cannot succeed by clinging solely to tradition or chasing every trend. Instead, the goal is alignment: How can the brand's fundamental promise evolve to reflect contemporary consumer needs and cultural values?
This balanced approach explains why Jif can launch viral campaigns like “Jif vs. Gif” while remaining the trusted peanut butter brand millions grew up with.
Hollander's career trajectory offers crucial lessons for marketing leaders facing pressure to balance immediate results with sustainable brand building. Having spent two decades at Publicis Groupe before moving to The J.M. Smucker Company, she has operated from both sides of the marketing ecosystem.
Her agency experience shaped a philosophy that modern marketing leaders urgently need: the ability to hold two opposing ideas simultaneously. On one side, agencies must deliver measurable results, drive immediate revenue impact, and prove ROI. On the other, they must build brand equity—the intangible asset that ensures long-term customer loyalty, premium pricing power, and competitive differentiation.
Working across multiple product categories at Publicis gave Hollander broad exposure to diverse marketing challenges, consumer insights, and creative solutions. This cross-category fluency develops what she calls agility and curiosity—the ability to recognize patterns across industries and adapt proven strategies to new contexts.
This perspective becomes invaluable at Smucker, where the portfolio spans peanut butter, coffee, jams and preserves, pet food, plant-based proteins, and acquired brands like Hostess. Each category operates in different competitive landscapes with distinct consumer bases, yet underlying principles of brand building and cultural relevance transcend product categories.
Hollander advocates for brands to remain connected to agencies and external partners who can help them stay ahead of the curve by offering predictive data modeling and forward-looking consumer insights rather than purely historical analysis.
The Jif Peanut Butter example illustrates how heritage brands can innovate without losing authenticity. Jif has dominated the peanut butter category for generations, representing quality, reliability, and family staples.
Rather than defensively protecting the legacy or abandoning heritage positioning, The J.M. Smucker Company has positioned Jif at the intersection of tradition and cultural relevance. The brand has embraced pop culture collaborations, participated in viral cultural moments, and launched limited-edition flavors that reflect contemporary taste trends.
This strategy works because it respects the three truths outlined earlier. Jif's brand truth—quality peanut butter that brings families together—remains intact. The campaigns demonstrate that Jif understands contemporary culture and exists within the cultural conversation.
Simultaneously, the company has expanded its product line to address evolving consumer needs, including flavored varieties and protein-enhanced options reflecting dietary trends. These innovations honor the brand truth while responding to consumer truth.
Hollander introduces a concept central to her philosophy: each brand has a “beating heart”—a foundational truth that must remain intact as the brand evolves.
The example of Café Bustelo illustrates this principle in action. The brand has deep roots in Latin American communities, particularly within Puerto Rican and Dominican American cultures.
Rather than diluting this heritage to appeal to a broader market, The J.M. Smucker Company doubled down on Café Bustelo's cultural authenticity while expanding its relevance to new consumer groups.
This principle prevents two common errors:
The J.M. Smucker Company's modernization strategy extends beyond product and brand positioning to encompass the entire customer experience.
As shopping habits fragment across e-commerce platforms, subscription services, traditional retail, and membership clubs, heritage CPG brands face unprecedented complexity in reaching consumers.
Smucker's approach focuses on seamless customer experience across channels, investment in direct-to-consumer capabilities, and subscription and convenience models.
This omnichannel transformation requires collaboration across marketing, supply chain, digital commerce, and finance to align around consumer-centric objectives rather than channel-specific metrics.
Looking forward, Hollander identifies emerging challenges and opportunities shaping heritage brand marketing—chief among them the evolving relationship between brands and agencies in an AI-driven landscape.
AI should augment both creativity and analytical capability. It can automate routine tasks, analyze vast datasets, and predict consumer behavior based on historical data.
However, the more valuable application lies in predictive modeling—forecasting where consumer behavior and cultural trends are headed rather than simply analyzing where they have been.
Heritage brands succeed by identifying their beating heart—the foundational truth that must remain constant—and innovating around everything else. This approach honors historical identity while adapting product, packaging, messaging, and channels to reflect contemporary needs and cultural values.
Cultural understanding is essential because consumer preferences and behaviors are shaped by the broader cultural environment. Brands that authentically engage with cultural moments demonstrate relevance while building affinity.
The J.M. Smucker Company is investing in seamless customer experiences across channels, direct-to-consumer platforms, and subscription services. The goal is consistent brand experience, pricing, and product information wherever consumers shop.
Effective CMOs need deep brand strategy expertise, cultural intelligence, data and analytics capability, cross-functional collaboration skills, and comfort with ambiguity. They must balance modernization with preservation of core identity.
The Speed of Culture Podcast and its parent platform, Suzy, represent important resources for marketing leaders seeking to understand contemporary consumer behavior and cultural trends.
The conversation between Matt Britton and Gail Hollander illustrates a critical insight for modern marketing: heritage and innovation are not opposites. The brands that thrive are those that honor their history while remaining authentically engaged with contemporary culture.
Meta Title: Legacy in Every Jar: How J.M. Smucker Modernizes Heritage Brands in CPG Marketing
Meta Description: Explore how CMO Gail Hollander at The J.M. Smucker Company balances heritage brand modernization with cultural relevance through cultural truth, consumer insight, and innovation.
Focus Keywords: heritage brand modernization, CPG marketing strategy, Smucker brands, cultural relevance, brand modernization, legacy brands, consumer insight, omnichannel retail
Article Category: B2B Marketing / CPG Strategy / Brand Management
Publication Date: October 22, 2024
Content Type: Podcast episode recap + strategic analysis + executive guidance
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