Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Spartannash
Search every verified Erin Storm interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Erin Storm, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at SpartanNash, has discussed her transition from an 18-year career at Kellogg/Canova to the grocery retail space. She said she was surprised by "how little brand management there is" in grocery retail compared to CPG, noting there is "a lot of marketing execution, but not as much of that long-term planning." Storm stated she has reorganized her team to add more insights and brand management roles, and described hiring for open positions to build that capability. Storm has outlined a strategy for managing marketing across SpartanNash's 200-plus stores and multiple banners. She said the company is "bucketing" its banners into groups such as mainstream and upmarket, executing similarly within each bucket while maintaining "creative nuances and logos." Storm noted that local banner names carry community equity and that wiping them away "takes away a little bit of that community involvement." She also said the company is working on its first-party data capabilities and standing up a retail media network that is "more consumer-based than banner-based." Regarding assortment, Storm said the company is looking at the balance between new health trends and established products, and that the own-brand portfolio is being evaluated for healthier offerings.
“Something that surprised me though was how little brand management there is. So, there's a lot of marketing execution, but not as much of that long-term planning that you maybe see in the CPG space, right?”
“I've reorganized the team and added in actually more insights to make sure we're grounded in the shopper and brand management roles into the organization.”
“I really wasn't ready to leave that and saw this, you know, retail food distribution as just another way to build my skill sets and like somewhat adjacent business.”
“From the own brand side it's kind of like a mini CPG within a real retail space. I have to sell in my products to my category managers just like I would in a CPG space. So we've got to make sure we've got innovations that are growing the category and we're marketing our brands in a way that is of interest to shoppers.”
“Across those 200 stores, we've got several banners, which is what drives some complexity, but at the same time, we're a community groceryer, and a lot of times those names have meaning in those local communities. So to wipe away all of that equity and to say, 'Hey, we're just going to call everything family fair,' it k...”
“What we're doing is now bucketing our banners. If it's a mainstream banner versus an upmarket banner, each one of those banners does not need a completely different way to go to market, it just needs to be relevant with the shopper base that it is serving.”
“I might have five banners that I put in one bucket and execute all the same way with the only differences being really the creative nuances and logos and things like that. So I don't need all completely different go-to-market strategies. I just need to sort of bucket them into different groups.”
“This is a new process we're going through right now. We will look at things like assortment. Even within my own brand's portfolio, we've got Finest Reserve, which is more of a premium offering. I may put more distribution of that in my upmarket stores and fewer in the mainstream. It doesn't mean I shouldn't have it, bu...”
“We just presented yesterday to the vendors about the idea that we're going to be separating like this and give more opportunities to differentiate across our programming. So, we're not all the way there yet. That's the journey we're on.”
“Something that surprised me though was how little brand management there is. So, there's a lot of marketing execution, but not as much of that long-term planning that you maybe see in the CPG space. So, that's something that I'm bringing to the table now.”
“We've reorganized the team and added in more insights to make sure we're grounded in the shopper and brand management roles into the organization. So, I'm hiring. I've got a lot of open roles to build up that capability in the team.”
“On the retail side, across those 200 stores, we've got several banners, which is what drives some complexity. But at the same time, we're a community grocer, and a lot of times those names have meaning in those local communities. So to wipe away all of that equity and to say, 'Hey, we're just going to call everything F...”
“What we're doing is now bucketing our banners. So if it's a mainstream banner versus an upmarket banner, each one of those banners does not need a completely different way to go to market. It just needs to be relevant with the shopper base that it is serving.”
“We pull all of that data together and use it as one broader audience. We do a lot of geo also. So the banners that are in certain markets are only going to market to those markets. We are also working on our capabilities to build up our first-party data. We are launching a lot of personalized offers and obviously the m...”
“From a retail media standpoint, we are standing up a retail media network right now. It's based on targeting, so if you're looking for a certain type of shopper, it might be a shopper at Family Fare or BG. It's less about one specific banner and more consumer-based than banner-based. It's all one pool considered one po...”
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