Pork Innovation Playbook
This 5-part webinar series flips the script on how innovation is typically done. The series shares the work undertaken to understand what it truly takes to enable and create growth for pork in today’s crowded food landscape.
A Consumer‑Led Innovation Discussion
This is a deep dive into the why behind products — why consumers choose what they choose, when and how they engage with food, and where pork can create meaningful associations and ownable positions. Throughout the series, we will explore consumer behavior and engagement related specifically to dishes, products and food occasions — not broad attitudes, but the moments when pork is considered, selected and consumed.
We will take a hard look at pork’s “jobs to be done,” identifying how pork can protect and defend its existing strengths while also uncovering where and how it can break through into new usage occasions. The big “a-ha” comes from going even deeper — into linguistics — to understand how language, meaning and messaging shape choice, and how what we say (and how we say it) can unlock the next wave of pork growth.
Who should watch?
This webinar series is designed for leaders responsible for bringing brands and products to market. If your role spans marketing, brand management, insights, innovation, category management or sales, this series will deliver valuable perspectives to challenge existing thinking and inspire new approaches.
The sessions are intentionally structured to build on one another as the series unfolds. To gain maximum value, we encourage participants to attend live whenever possible — or schedule time to watch each session on demand.
Feel free to forward this webinar series with your organization and teams! We want to help you integrate these learnings as quickly as possible.
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- Innovation, strategy and transformation leaders
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This webinar series redefines how innovation is built — starting with the use and not the user. Through a consumer‑led innovation framework, we explore how pork can evolve to remain relevant, differentiated and growth‑oriented in an increasingly competitive food landscape.
Participants will dive into the why behind products: why certain ideas succeed, why others fail and how innovation can create ownable spaces rather than incremental line extensions. We examine pork’s “jobs to be done,” identifying where the category can defend core strengths while breaking into new usage occasions and growth territories.
The series pushes beyond traditional innovation thinking by integrating behavioral insight, product meaning and linguistic strategy — revealing how ideas, language and relevance converge to unlock sustainable innovation for pork.
- Insights, analytics, research and consumer strategy teams
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This webinar series is a deep, consumer‑led exploration of how people engage with pork — what they choose, when they choose it and why it matters in their lives. Rather than focusing on broad attitudes, the series zeroes in on behavior, including: dishes, products and food occasions where pork is actively considered and consumed.
Using advanced behavioral frameworks, segmentation overlays and linguistic analysis, we unpack how meaning, culture and language shape food choices. Attendees will gain a clearer understanding of pork’s functional and emotional roles, how those roles shift by context, and where unmet or underdeveloped needs represent opportunity.
The result is a richer, evidence-based view of consumers — one that connects behavior, language and motivation to actionable innovation and growth strategies.
- Marketing, brand, sales, category management, retail and foodservice leaders
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This webinar series is built to drive growth. Centered on consumer demand creation, it translates deep insight into practical guidance for where to play and how to win with pork across channels and occasions.
Participants will learn why consumers choose certain pork products, how competitive alternatives are winning share and which behaviors signal opportunities for expansion. The series identifies how pork can strengthen its core, defend critical occasions and unlock incremental growth through new usage moments, messages and products.
By connecting consumer behavior directly to commercial execution — product strategy, positioning, messaging and activation — this series delivers actionable direction to help teams move from demand building to consumers actively demanding pork.
Expert Bios
Kiersten Hafer, M.S.
Vice President, Business Intelligence and Innovation
National Pork Board
Kiersten Hafer brings more than 30 years of leadership experience in brand strategy, marketing, business development, sales and innovation, with deep expertise spanning new product innovation, product launches and brand repositioning. Her career crosses a wide range of categories, including candy, coffee, sauces and condiments, baking ingredients, oral care, pet food, shelf‑stable meals and ingredients, frozen foods, dairy, bakery, meat and poultry.
As vice president of business intelligence and innovation, Hafer leads strategic insight and innovation efforts for the U.S. pork industry, advising producers, processors, packers, retailers and foodservice operators on where to play, how to win and how to drive profitable, consumer‑led growth for pork.
Sarah Showalter
Director, Consumer and Business Insights
National Pork Board
Sarah Showalter is the consumer and business insights manager for NPB. She implements a consumer-focused, producer-led strategy by leading qualitative and quantitative research to answer business questions and identify opportunities. Prior to her role at NPB, Showalter developed strategic insights through research at IRI, Conagra Brands and Hallmark Cards Inc.
Chef Don Walsh
Innovator/Business Development Leader
National Pork Board
Within NPB, Don Walsh identifies new product opportunities for established pork production and distribution channels. He is an industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience in foodservice and retail product design and manufacturing with companies such as Tyson Foods and Cargill.
Christine Thurm
Manager, Insights and Analytics
National Pork Board
Christine Thurm is a marketing and consumer insights leader with more than 25 years of experience helping organizations better understand and connect with their customers. Previously guiding consumer insights and marketing initiatives across a range of industries, Thurm expands her expertise into food and agriculture at NPB. Thurm’s work at NPB spans qualitative and quantitative research, innovation, customer voice and knowledge management.
Lynn Nichols, Ph.D.
Lynn Nichols, Ph.D., holds a doctorate in linguistics from Harvard University. Her expertise includes the science of language structure, meaning and use; lexical (word) meaning; and language and the mind.
Formerly a professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard University, Nichols serves as a language advisory to innovative technologies and products for Silicon Valley and global firms, startups, venture capital firms and nonprofits in the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Asia.
Richard Delerins, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO
Richard Delerins, Ph.D., is an anthropologist and behavioral scientist specializing in food culture, consumer behavior and product innovation. He has held faculty positions at ESSEC Business School and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he earned recognition as a Distinguished International Scholar.
His academic credentials include a Ph.D. in philosophy from Sorbonne University, along with degrees from ESSEC Business School Paris and UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.
Delerins received the prestigious Nivea Prize from CNRS for his research contributions. In 2016, Harvard Medical School’s GET Conference recognized him as one of the “100 Leading Thinkers” in his field.
Arunima Kumar
Vice President
Arunima Kumar is a food consumption expert who specializes in identifying and mapping food and beverage industry innovations across multiple product categories. She has extensive experience helping food industry players align their strategies with emerging consumer preferences and evolving consumption practices.
Kumar holds a Master of Science in management from ESSEC Business School Paris (Grande École) and graduated with honors from Delhi University. Her previous experience with Deloitte Audit enhances her ability to provide comprehensive evaluation and due diligence services at Food Analytics.
Lorie Kim
Managing Director (USA and Asia)
Lorie Kim brings diverse experience across telecommunications, media and food industries, having worked at AT&T, produced television content for a European cable channel and spent a decade driving food innovation and marketing at a Japanese food company. As an expert on Gen Y and Gen Z consumption patterns in Korea and Japan, she now leads our U.S. and Asia operations.
A graduate of the University of California San Diego (UCSD), Lorie is fluent in English, Korean and Japanese, and conversational in French.
