The CPG Guys speak with Bret Thurston, Director of eCommerce & Shopper Marketing at Hostess Brands, a leading sweet snacks company focused on developing, manufacturing, marketing, selling and distributing snacks in North America sold under the Hostess® and Voortman® brands. 

Follow Bret Thurston on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thurston-9a161b7/
Follow Hostess Brands on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hostessbrands/
Follow Hostess Brands online at: https://www.hostessbrands.com/

Bret answers these questions:

1) Bret, what drew you into your career path that finds you squarely in the transformational world of eCommerce and shopper marketing? I shared a bit about your background in my introduction but would love to hear a bit more about your career journey.
2) The pandemic had a definitive impact on omnichannel grocery. You’ve been working in perishable categories in you last 2 roles. How big was the growth of eCommerce for these categories and where did you focus on building core capabilities that didn’t exist or were under-resourced?
3) With respect to shopper marketing what were the mains areas of focus that you learned into over the last few years to ensure omnichannel success?
4) How have the “resource asks” from your retail customers transformed over the last 3 years” and where have you found the most success in supporting them?
5) Have we reached a point yet in customer joint business planning where eCommerce is a standard component of the process involving merchants? What does best in class look like?
6) To be successful in eCommerce, you need lots of tech stack partners. What are the primary functional areas where you’ve had to source capabilities to scale your growth? How do you manage a world where the “Martec Landcsape” map of service provider logos seems to grow exponentially each year?
7) The return to stores was an underlying theme at the CPG presentations last week at CAGNY. What are your thoughts on this and how are you helping Hostess Brands bridge the spectrum of omnichannel conversion opportunities through content, experiences, whatever?
8) What does the future hold in this eCommerce space for perishable foods?  What should eCommerce Marketers be thinking about for tomorrow and beyond?

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