Trendtracker helps us zoom in on the trends that matter to our categories. Being able to tailor insights really makes a difference - PepsiCo, Global Consumer Insights

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For PepsiCo’s Global Insights team, the challenge was clear: their critical need for real-time, global market intelligence often felt reactive and incredibly resource-intensive. It was a process of manually connecting broad societal and technological shifts to actionable opportunities across their vast portfolio — a process that required significant evolution.

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PepsiCo's shift to proactive global foresight

PepsiCo recognized that true competitive advantage wouldn't come from sporadic trend reports but from a dynamic, continuous, and always-on understanding of its external environment and consumer segments. This wasn't about simply preparing for a workshop; it was about embedding foresight into the very core of strategic decision-making. The company needed to move beyond generic summaries to a system that could assess emerging trends and deliver a flood of strategic recommendations with speed and precision.

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This vision led them to integrate Trendtracker as the cornerstone of their Change Compass process. As an AI-powered strategic intelligence platform, Trendtracker now profoundly understands PepsiCo's unique external environment and consumer segments, allowing them to scout, analyze, and forecast market shifts within the crucial 0-5 year timeframe.

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This means they can now assess a cascading view, moving from broad landscapes to meta-trends and specific trend manifestations, a capability that truly empowers strategic choice.

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→ Learn more in the Use Case: Market and Consumer Insights

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Localized market understanding through regional trend analysis

A global company needs global insights — but with localized relevance. While PepsiCo’s Global Insights team drives the overall strategy, they understood the necessity of supporting local teams, which is precisely where Trendtracker proves its value.

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For instance, in 2024, the firm successfully onboarded its LATAM team, simultaneously adding Spanish sources to Trendtracker. This ensures richer, more nuanced localized insights, allowing teams to act with cultural and market specificity.

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Their immediate priorities for expanding this localized intelligence include the APAC and AMESA regions. This strategic rollout underscores how they’re not just deploying a tool, but building a truly global intelligence network. The team actively creates trend boards tailored to specific regions — such as the US, UK, Canada, and Europe.
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This approach enables them to meticulously analyze regional differences, ensuring that global strategies are effectively adapted to local market nuances.

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There’s even a dedicated board focusing on Retail trends, reflecting another critical dimension of their market understanding.

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→ Read: How to Get Market-Specific Trend Insights (regional + Industry)

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Ultimately, the company is striving to digitize its entire existing trend structure. This means taking internal input, conducting research through Trendtracker, and meticulously mapping everything from mature trends to nascent signals. The goal is to continuously monitor all changes happening in the world, ensuring they remain firmly ahead of the market.

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How PepsiCo’s teams use Trendtracker — from insight to action

PepsiCo’s Global Insights team leverages Trendtracker across multiple stages of its Change Compass process — from identifying trends to translating insights into strategic actions.
Here’s how the platform supports their day-to-day foresight and strategic work:

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1. Trend Discovery & Monitoring

Scout and monitor emerging trends across markets and categories. Build an always-on Trend Radar to track key signals.

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2. Trend Analysis & Prioritization

Assess trend maturity, map trends to business and consumer dimensions, and prioritize trends based on strategic relevance.

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3. Regional & Category Insights

Develop tailored trend boards for key regions (US, UK, Canada, Europe, APAC, LATAM) and categories (such as Retail), enabling local market understanding.

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4. Strategy & Execution Alignment

Feed insights into the Change Compass process to inform strategy discussions, innovation pipelines, and product and marketing roadmaps.

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How always-on insights drive tangible business value and growth

The profound value Trendtracker brings isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about tangible ROI, competitive advantage, and significant performance gains. What was once a reactive, high-effort intelligence process has evolved into a dynamic, continuous, always-on AI analyst.

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This new capability understands PepsiCo’s intricate external environment, consumer segments, and more, delivering a constant flow of strategic recommendations.

This means their teams can:

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• Gain Regional Clarity: Easily visualize and analyze trend insights across diverse regions, supporting highly localized strategies and innovation initiatives.
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• Drive Data-Backed Discussions: Inform strategic conversations with rich, real-world examples and trend manifestations, allowing them to move from vague concepts to focused opportunity areas with confidence.
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• Accelerate Innovation Cycles: Rapidly identify and validate emerging trends, which helps inform product development, category expansion, and critical consumer engagement strategies.
  
  → Learn more in the Use Case: Innovation Management & Product Development
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• Ensure Global Alignment: By providing a central source of truth for trend intelligence, Trendtracker fosters consistent understanding and strategic alignment across all their global operations.

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Ultimately, for PepsiCo's Global Insights team, Trendtracker is more than a research tool. It is the very engine behind their Change Compass process, enabling them to not just react to the future, but to actively shape it.

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This fundamental shift from high-effort, reactive research to proactive, AI-powered insight provides PepsiCo with a perpetual competitive advantage, ensuring they remain a leader in the global food and beverage industry.

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Discover how Trendtracker can transform your market foresight and strategic planning. Speak with an expert today.

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