How Two Major Brands are Preparing for an Uncertain 2021

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Marketing and data insights execs from Mondelez and PepsiCo discuss lessons from an unprecedented year and share the plans (and the tools) that will give them an edge as the calendar flips to 2021.

It’s forecasted that total retail sales will have declined by more than 10% by the end of 2020, wiping out three years of growth. Yes, e-commerce has boomed since the beginning of the pandemic, but not every company was in a position to optimize digital sales when it arrived.

Organizations fortunate enough to have skated by during this difficult stretch would be best served by learning all they can from it. Only then will lemons be made out of lemonade.

For PepsiCo, they’ve learned “more agile and more human ways to stay in touch with and keep a pulse on the consumer,” said Abby Finnis, Senior Director of Portfolio and Insights, on a panel during Suzy’s inaugural digital summit. “Boy has that saved us.”

Finnis was joined by Lori Herman, Mondelēz International’s Senior Marketing Research Manager, as well as Katie Gross, Suzy’s Chief Customer Officer, who served as moderator.

Gross said that if any good is going to come out of this year for businesses it’s that they’ll be more prone to “looking at consumers as people again, rather than just consumers of a category.”

Mondelēz International appears to be operating by that ethos as well.

“Anything that we were planning to do in person that was qualitative, we quickly modified and adapted,” Herman said. “We did and still are doing all of our qual virtually, and really figuring out how do we reach consumers where they are, and get the learning we need in the most realistic way.”

Herman revealed that, since some social distancing restrictions have been eased in parts of the U.S., Mondelēz International has performed controlled testing in a few facilities, but with new safety protocols in place.

“As the winter comes upon us and we don’t really know what’s forthcoming, I think we’re going to have to continue to adapt how we do things and be prepared for constant change,” Herman said.

Such changes will be put in place to help build on whatever growth companies like PepsiCo and Mondelēz experienced this past year. 

How to sustain or build on the growth in 2021 

“It always comes back to really understanding who your consumer is,” Herman said. Brands must recognize consumers’ “unmet needs,” she added, as well as “the occasions during which they use your products,” while asking “is that shifting?” and “how do we have to adapt for that and be sure that we have the right product in the right place at the right time?”

Finnis said the PepsiCo team is “thinking a lot about the role of innovation and, within that, the role of channels.”

“With the penetration of e-commerce now and just the change of what a shopper’s trip looks like to our traditional channels,” she continued, “I think we’re really thinking about where to best meet particular moments of demand, so we can meet consumers with their new needs and do it in the right place.”

One piece of innovation that was new to Mondelēz International this past year was the Suzy platform. Herman sang its praises, saying “based on the type of work I anticipated us needing to do, I felt like it was a critical resource for us to have and we wound up using it in so many different ways.”

Finnis mentioned foot traffic data, saying it’s “a human and real way to get a lot of insights.”

“You can monitor how frequently, compared to the year prior, consumers are going to all different types of outlets, whether it’s parks and recreation or the grocery store or a movie theater.”

For 2021, Finnis suggested that companies “overlay restrictions-lifting and use that as a really intelligent observation of re-emergence.” This could help answer a question like: “As restrictions lift, how quickly does a population in an area go back out and start returning to activities?”

A longtime Suzy user, Finnis added that the platform has also been vital to whatever success PepsiCo enjoyed this past year. 

“It’s been our only way to quickly answer those last remaining, dot-connecting insights,” she said, “so that’s not going to change.” 

For more information on ways brands can navigate the coming year, watch the Suzy Summit, State of the Consumer: 2021, at Suzy.com.