The soda industry is bubbling with change. As we move into 2025, brands must keep up with shifting consumer behaviors, evolving health priorities, and the surging demand for functional beverages. Big players like Coca-Cola and Pepsi are reformulating their offerings, while challenger brands like Poppi are shaking things up with bold marketing and fresh ingredients.Overall, there are three key factors driving the future: flavor innovation, heightened competition, and evolving consumer preferences. Now more than ever, brands need real-time insights to optimize product development, marketing strategies, and competitive positioning.

The good news? The Suzy platform provides a full suite of methodologies that brands need, including the brand-new AI-moderated conversational research methodology, Suzy Speaks.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through a playbook for how beverage brands can use Suzy to stay competitive in the modern soda movement. We’ll break down key methodologies, industry challenges, and real-life applications to help you:

• Test and launch new flavors with confidence
• Conduct competitive research to sharpen your market strategy
• Test concepts and develop high-impact ad campaigns
• Stay ahead of rapidly shifting consumer preferences

Let’s jump right in.

1. How to Test and Launch New Flavors with Your Consumer Segments

With consumer preferences and attitudes changing rapidly, staying close to the consumer feels like a must for beverage brands. In fact, consumers have an appetite for new and fresh flavors, with 55% of consumers having tried new flavors of soda since late 2024. Additionally, new flavor adoption is on the rise, reflecting a growing appetite for bold, functional, and better-for-you ingredients. Innovation is the key.

The Challenge

Flavor innovation is exciting, but getting it right is critical. To stay relevant, brands must keep a pulse on shifting consumer preferences and attitudes in real time. But how do beverage brands achieve this when they have a mixture of existing and potential new flavors? Failure to accurately measure consumer sentiment can result in misalignment with preferences, wasted resources, and underwhelming sales.

Any of the following scenarios likely require a regular ongoing effort to collect real-time feedback from consumers:

• Previously successful flavors are failing to gain traction due to shifting health-conscious trends,
• Consumer excitement around limited-edition flavors fades quickly,
• Retailers demanding proof of consumer interest before dedicating shelf space to new offerings,
• Launching a new flavor or product line.

The Solution

Before investing in new flavors, brands need research-driven insights to pinpoint what will resonate with consumers, maximizing both impact and innovation spend.

Key research methods used	MaxDiff analysis to determine winning flavors and combinations, rapid A/B testing for optimization, and Suzy Speaks for deep qualitative insights.
Why they help	This combination of methods will help you determine and optimize for the most appealing combination of ingredients and formulations, and Suzy Speaks uncovers deeper motivations and emotional connections to potential flavors.
Key questions answered	Which flavors generate the highest purchase intent? What ingredient combinations resonate most with different segments of consumers (for example, health-conscious consumers)? Why do certain flavors have higher preference levels for consumers?
What outputs you can expect	A prioritized ranking of consumer-preferred flavors. Clear guidance on formulation adjustments before launch. Consumer-driven insights to shape flavor innovation strategy.

Deep Dive: Suzy Speaks

Suzy Speaks transforms qualitative research with AI-driven, voice-based conversations that capture authentic, in-depth consumer insights in real time. Unlike traditional qual, there’s no scheduling hassle or long wait times, just instant, actionable data. This is because Suzy Speaks does not require delays for scheduling and is cost efficient, helping brands understand the “why” at scale. Utilizing this method will allow brands to capture spontaneous emotional responses and subconscious triggers that influence how consumers really think of flavors and products. The insights gained will provide brands with a more holistic understanding of consumer preferences.

PLUS -> this new AI-moderated conversational methodology is now available from Suzy, alongside all of your other methodologies.

The Bottom Line

Beverage brands should take a data-driven approach to flavor testing to ensure new product launches align with shifting consumer preferences and maximize sales potential.

2. How to Undertake Competitive Research to Sharpen your Presence

Legacy and challenger brands equally need to stay on top of this shifting competitive market. With major retailers dedicating more shelf space to modern soda brands, understanding the competitive landscape is more important than ever. And the competition for important shelf space has truly started, with brands like Walmart, Target, and Kroger expanding shelf space for modern soda challengers like Poppi, Olipop, and Zevia.

The Challenge

Keeping up with competitors in a fast-moving soda market is a challenge, but falling behind isn’t an option. So how do brands stay on top of shifting consumer preferences and competitive dynamics? Ultimately, brands that fail to track competitors risk falling behind in flavor innovation, marketing, pricing strategies, and losing shelf space and market share.

The following scenarios likely mean that your brand needs to deploy research methods to regularly collect competitive insights:

• Established brands seeing their dominance being eroded by challenger brands, 
• New brands struggling to differentiate themselves in the modern soda market,
• New flavors and products not able to establish a foothold.

The Solution

To stay ahead, brands need ongoing research that cuts through the noise, delivering sharp, actionable insights that drive shelf space and market share.

Key research methods used	Shopper insight surveys to determine how modern soda brands are discovered, heatmapping to identify winning packaging and placement strategies, and social listening plus Suzy Speaks to dive deeper and understand which brands are favored and why.
Why they help	These methods will help you understand purchase decisions and what influences them, which physical elements help grab attention, and capture real-time shifting perceptions across competitor brands.
Key questions answered	Which retailers are most influential in the modern soda space? How do consumers compare legacy brands to emerging brands? What messaging, packaging, and branding elements create strong recall?
What outputs you can expect	A competitive landscape analysis highlighting top-performing brands. Data-driven recommendations for branding, packaging, and marketing strategies. Real-time consumer sentiment on competitor strengths and weaknesses.

Deep Dive: Heatmapping

Heatmapping pinpoints exactly what grabs consumer attention in those critical first seconds, helping brands perfect packaging, shelf placement, and in-store displays. Using AI-powered algorithms, it measures visual saliency, gaze pathing, and attention distribution to highlight key elements that drive purchase decisions. By testing and refining label designs, promotional claims, and product positioning, brands can enhance shelf visibility and shopper engagement. When combined with methodologies like monadic testing or in-home usage tests, heatmapping provides actionable insights that improve in-store performance and drive sales​​.

PLUS -> our AI-powered Heatmapping offering leverages real-life data from over one million eye tracking studies.

Example of Heatmap showing the highest saliency scores (74-80) occurring at the top and middle shelves

The Bottom Line

Staying ahead requires continuously tracking competitor strategies and aligning innovation efforts with market trends.

3. How to Test Concepts and Launch Game-Changing Ads

Did you notice Poppi’s Super Bowl ad campaign? It turns out that plenty of consumers did. With the campaign leading to a +25.0 brand impact score, proving that bold advertising moves can create mass awareness. And this campaign ranked as the highest among all 2025 Super Bowl advertisers and significantly boosted brand awareness.

The Challenge

Launching an ad campaign without consumer insights is a gamble, one that could cost brands time, money, and impact. If messaging does not align and resonate with the consumer segment, ad campaigns might struggle to make an impact. So how do brands stay attune to shifting consumer expectations and deliver the best shot at resonance and impact?

Brands can be experiencing any of the below scenarios, indicating the need to deploy concept testing ahead of ad campaign spending:

• Underwhelming engagement on digital campaigns, 
• A lack of differentiation in crowded advertising spaces, 
• Difficulty reaching or proving ROI for large-scale marketing investments.

The Solution

As part of the ad campaign process, brands should deploy concept testing methodologies to inform the best approach that is most likely to lead to the biggest impact. Helping to optimize the approach prior to spending large amounts of budget.

Key research methods used	Monadic ad testing to determine which concepts perform best, Video Open Ends (VOEs) to collect real consumer reactions, and message testing surveys to refine storytelling angles.
Why they help	These methods will help you isolate each ad concept and likely performance prior to launch, drive optimization by capturing real reactions to ad concepts and campaigns, and ensure resonance with your target audience(s).
Key questions answered	Which ad concepts generate the highest brand recall and engagement? What emotional triggers drive consumer response to soda ads? How does messaging impact purchase intent and brand perception?
What outputs you can expect	Identification of the most effective ad concept for launch. Consumer-driven insights into the emotional and rational ad effectiveness. Optimized messaging for maximum impact.

Deep-dive: Video Open Ends (VOEs)

Video Open-Ends (VOEs) provide beverage brands with richer qualitative insights by capturing real consumer reactions to ad campaigns through recorded video responses. Video Open-Ends (VOEs) go beyond text-based surveys, capturing tone, facial expressions, and genuine consumer reactions for a deeper, more actionable understanding. This method is especially valuable for testing digital and in-store ad placements, helping brands refine visuals, messaging, and calls to action based on authentic consumer feedback in real time.

PLUS -> it’s easy to turn VOEs into a showreel directly in the Suzy platform.

Example of a VOE showreel, that is easily created from VOE results within Suzy

The Bottom Line

Data-backed advertising strategies help brands launch high-impact campaigns that drive brand awareness and sales.

4. How to Stay Ahead of Shifting Consumer Preferences 

As modern soda consumption continues to increase, consumer preferences are rapidly evolving, with 68% of consumers prioritizing lower-sugar sodas and 56% seeking functional benefits like probiotics and antioxidants.

The Challenge

Consumer preferences change fast. Without ongoing insights, brands risk falling behind—and losing market share. So how should a brand capture these shifting preferences and maintain a historical context to ground the insights? After all, insights without accurate context present a challenge in determining what is wrong and why.

As a beverage brand, you may experience these scenarios which likely mean you would benefit from accurate long-term data on consumer preferences and the changes:

• Once-popular formulas decline in sales as consumers shift toward functional beverages, 
• A rise in demand for ingredients that were once considered niche, like adaptogens or plant-based sweeteners, requiring quick adaptation to new trends,
• Shifts in the effectiveness of retail and distribution channels, like the move towards direct-to-consumer (DTC).  

The Solution

Thinking about long-term shifts in preferences helps brands stay ahead and identify future opportunities. The key is to end up with accurate and up-to-date data and insights that you can rely on.

Key research methods used	Brand tracking studies will help establish an accurate picture of trends over time, in-home usage tests uncover the real-world consumer experience, and Suzy Speaks can help capture real reactions to emerging trends at scale.
Why they help	The combination of these methods will help you uncover real-world and emotional responses to shifting trends, consumer satisfaction and repeat purchase behavior, and then establish an ongoing accurate tracking of consumer attitudes and perception shifts.
Key questions answered	How are consumer preferences and attitudes evolving over time? What new functional ingredients or benefits are gaining traction? How do consumers respond to innovative soda formulations?
What outputs you can expect	Continuous insights into shifting consumer preferences. Data-driven recommendations for future innovation. Real-world feedback on soda product experiences.

Deep-dive: Brand tracking

Brand tracking is a research methodology that helps beverage brands continuously measure and analyze how consumer attitudes, preferences, and perceptions evolve over time. By collecting ongoing data on brand awareness, purchase intent, loyalty, and competitive positioning, brands can identify shifts in consumer sentiment and adjust their strategies accordingly. This is especially crucial in the fast-changing beverage market, where trends like health-conscious choices, sustainability concerns, and new product innovations influence buying behavior. With brand tracking, beverage companies can assess the impact of marketing campaigns, product launches, and industry disruptions, ensuring they stay relevant and competitive in a crowded market.

PLUS -> Suzy provides brand tracking alongside your other research methodologies.

Example report out for a brand tracking survey

The Bottom Line

By implementing continuous research and consumer tracking, brands can make informed decisions to adapt and innovate in real-time.

Final Thoughts

Success in the modern soda market isn’t just about launching new drinks, it’s about staying ahead of consumers, competitors, and trends. The right insights make all the difference. By leveraging advanced research methodologies, beverage brands can create the next big thing in fizz and stay ahead of the competition.

Want to launch the next big soda sensation? Suzy’s real-time insights can help you get there. Book a demo today!