The Purposeful Business of Land O'Lakes

Purposeful business: The company can have a profound impact on improving lives by connecting those in need with wholesome, affordable food. Beth Ford is the CEO of Land O'Lakes, a farmer-member-owned company with businesses focused on agricultural production and consumer foods. She spoke to CNN+ about what she sees beyond business in rural America. Ford stated that it is very painful to watch a family struggle or to hear that they are doing their best but still worry about how they will feed their own children. Land O'Lakes has determined that their brand belief is that farmers are the entrepreneurs who truly change the world for the better. They also believe that their purposeful business can have a profound impact on improving lives by connecting those in need with wholesome, affordable food. Land O'Lakes created a persona to personalize the brand purpose and make it more tangible. Kim helped conceive a three-year plan around this digital divide initiative with Beth as the primary voice. The first year focused on building awareness of Beth as the new CEO and the brand. The second year centered on driving advocacy for closing the digital divide. Beth discovered people were receptive to her message and largely didn’t know about the issue. Kim says when working with the media, momentum is key. A few initial placements lead to more, usually more high-profile placements. Now we are one big step closer to achieving our goal of ensuring that all Americans, regardless of where they live, have access to high-speed internet. Land O’Lakes created the American Connection Project (ACP) in order to bring attention to the digital divide and gain support to close it. The ACP policy coalition included 177 companies from different industries who all understood the importance of broadband access for rural communities. In the second year of the initiative, Land O'Lakes invited 60 Minutes to film at a member’s farm in Pennsylvania. The program aired in October 2019 and proved to be very successful. It not only created a lot of awareness, but also opened the door to more opportunities. In November 2021, Beth Ford was present at the White House when the president signed the historic infrastructure bill into law. This is a huge step forward in our goal to ensure that all Americans, no matter where they live, have access to high-speed internet. After Land O'Lakes implemented their initial communications plan, they realized that they needed to have a stronger presence in the business world. Beth and other members of the executive team joined The Business Roundtable, a nonprofit association of CEOs of major U.S. companies. This way, they were able to have a collective voice and influence the world of business. From this story, we can learn that it's important to have a detailed plan when communicating in a company. It's also important to remember that it might take a long time to see results.

(source: https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/land-o-lakes-brand-mission)