Episode 558: Hershey's Stacy Taffet on Keeping Nostalgia Sweet While Modernizing a Legacy

Stacy Taffet (0:00)

Modernization in our company is not about changing the story. It's about taking what is so special about the legacy of our company and telling those stories in a way that is relevant for a new generation.

Lance (0:16)

Stacy, thanks so much for joining us. Happy to have you here.

Stacy Taffet (0:18)

Thanks for having me, I'm excited.

Lance (0:20)

So Hershey is one of the most recognized brands in the world, over an 103rd year old legacy behind it. When a company has that kind of brand history, that kind of legacy, that rich tradition associated with it, how do you think about innovation and the idea of bringing something new and obviously telling a story that's been told over the last 130 years, but telling a new story in the same way too?

Stacy Taffet (0:43)

Modernization in our company is not about changing the story, it's about taking what is so special about the legacy of our company and telling those stories in a way that is relevant for a new generation.

The core of our brands and the core of how Milton Hershey founded our company was actually about innovation, accessibility, the highest quality products offered to people en masse. We still aim to do that, but the way we bring our portfolio, our marketing, our brands, our products to people is totally different now because we follow what the consumer is looking for and try and stay ahead of those trends.

Lance (1:21)

And how do you think about the concept of a trend versus just noise, right? Because there's noise all around us and there's noise when it comes to obviously a different, very different things in part of our lives.

Some having to do with things like a Hershey bar, some having to do with things unrelated to food and food service and so on and so forth. So how do you think about distinguishing the trend from the noise and making sure that you don't lean into the noise, that you identify the trend and then adjust based on that?

Stacy Taffet (1:50)

Correct. Well, first of all, no one's ever right 100% of the time. So we set up the way that we innovate, the way that we go to market with as much agility as we can. We are obsessed with the consumer and what they do. And what that means is we use a combination of, of course, AI and technology to get as much information as we possibly can. But then more sophisticated analysis and insights processes to try and extract what is a lasting insight and what is a lasting foresight versus things that are moving.

Now that said, we still know we're not going to always get it right. So we try to be, we try to plan about 80% of what we do from an innovation and marketing perspective and then have 20% of it be reactive and agile. And that 20%, some of it lands and some of it doesn't, but it's okay because we plan for it and we learn and we adjust and we, we try again.

Lance (2:41)

Is there trepidation?

I'd even use the word caution to at times when going public with a new product, with going live, because history has such a tradition. And there's the tried and trues, there's the Hershey bar, there's the Hershey Kiss, there's the Reese's, there's the Kit Kat. There's the tried and true products that everyone grew up with, everyone loves, and then you introduce new products to the market. Is there any trepidation or caution? How do you feel, let's say the day before a new product is going to go live, and a new story is going to be told for Hershey about that specific product. What are your feelings around that?

Stacy Taffet (3:15)

Yeah, it's really exciting. Every time we're about to launch something, it's like first day of school, and you get a little bit of, and today is my kid's first day of school, so it's very top of mind, but you get a little bit of butterflies in your tummy, and you're excited, and you're a little bit nervous and anxious. But we're really precious about our brands.

Brands like Hershey's, and Reese's, and Kit Kat, and Skinny, but these are iconic brands. And so we don't introduce new things that we think have any possibility of really hurting those equities. What we do is we try to maintain what's special about the brands, and then modernize them and introduce new ways to enjoy them. So I have sitting in front of me here our latest, which is Hershey's creme bars. So we have affogato, and we have salted caramel creme. Would you like to try one?