Thursday, August 14, 2025

Register Now: Driving Demand: Identifying your target consumer and crafting a story that will sell webinar on Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Driving Demand: Identifying your target consumer and crafting a story that will sell

August 27, 2025, 12:00 PM CST | 1:00 PM EST

Join the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center and Integral CPG for a webinar on August 27, 2025 to learn how customer alignment and branding can increase sales.

Food and beverage brands in the Midwest will engage with the team at I ntegral CPG to learn innovative strategies for market development.

Meeting host Jamie Rahrig, MSU Center for Regional Food Systems, Product Center, and Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center, will be joined by Glenn Pappalardo and Arwen Kimmell of the food and beverage branding firm, Integral CPG, to address how answering these key questions can drive customers to a brand:

Who is the product for?
Why would a consumer buy the product?
What products are they currently buying?

Our Featured Speakers

Glenn Pappalardo. Glenn has over 20 years of experience in developing winning growth and innovation strategies for companies in the food and beverage industry, in both consulting and corporate leadership roles He has been a member of executive teams at both RXBAR (International, COO) and Kashi (Strategy, International) and led multiple consulting firms specializing in the space (JPG Resources, Integral CPG). In addition, his 15+ years of consulting experience includes time at multinational firms PwC and Deloitte, in the Consumer Products industry practices of each. Glenn holds an MBA in Management, Marketing and Organizations.
Arwen Kimmell. With 20+ years in wellness, insights, and brand strategy, Arwen brings deep expertise in innovation, segmentation, and behavioral research for companies in the food and beverage space. She has also led insights for purpose-driven brands like Newman’s Own, Kashi, and Bear Naked, giving her unique perspective into those specialized company environments. Arwen holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology and is certified in Behavioral Economics and UX Research.

Join us August 27, 12:00 PM CST | 1:00 PM EST on Zoom, to learn more about how packaged food brands can increase demand.This session will be recorded and shared at glm-rfbc.msu.edu and on Youtube.

Link to register: https://bit.ly/DrivingDemandForPackagedFood

For more information, email glm-rfbc@msu.edu or visit glm-rfbc.msu.edu.

About the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center

The Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center is dedicated to offering coordination, technical assistance, and capacity building opportunities for farmers, producers, and other food business owners, in support of a more resilient and competitive food system. Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems (MI) coordinates the Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center that is comprised of network coordinators – Chicago Food Policy Action Council (IL), Northwest Indiana Food Council (IN), Food Finance Institute of the Universities of Wisconsin System (WI), and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and Food Systems – who seek to take a transformational, rather than transactional, approach. Learn more at glm-rfbc.msu.edu

Per the USDA announcement on July 15, 2025, the Regional Food Business Center program has been terminated. The Great Lakes Midwest Regional Food Business Center will continue operations through mid-September. More information is available here.