Builders Wanted Engaging Consumers Through Human-Centric Strategies with Umi Patel, VP of Consumer Insights & Analytics for PepsiCo’s North America Beverage Portfolio
This episode features an interview with Umi Patel, Vice President of Consumer Insights and Analytics for North America PepsiCo Beverage Portfolio. Umi began her career as the Brand Manager for Labatt Brands, before joining PepsiCo in 2007. Here, she has held numerous positions including Customer Marketing Manager and Senior Director of Marketing.
In this episode, Kailey sits down with Umi to discuss permissible enjoyment, macroeconomic trends, and storytelling through data.
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Key Takeaways:
- Pay attention to the macroeconomic conditions of the world and how they may impact your consumer. Some people may be rethinking their spending habits, so marketing to them in a way that offers them a solution during tough financial times is critical.
- When planning processes, it’s important to implement collaboration and debate among your partners in marketing, insights, and business stakeholders. This creates a collective ownership of the strategies that are then put into place to act on that data.
- Developing relationships with consumers hinges on simple storytelling. Gathering data, analyzing it, and then turning it into a conversation with your consumer is key.
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“The real definition of good data is really about making sure that we are simplifying it and being able to tell a simple story that people can act on. [...] We want to develop plans that are hinged in this data or this story that will help us have a conversation with consumers that will help us develop a relationship with consumers.” – Umi Patel
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Episode Timestamps:
*(01:49) - Umi’s career journey
*(05:22) - Industry trends in customer engagement in the beverage industry
*(11:09) - Challenges in the consumer engagement journey
*(13:14) - How Umi defines “good data”
*(20:21) - How PepsiCo is using good data to build consumer engagement
*(23:52) - An example of another company doing it right with consumer engagement (hint: it’s the entertainment industry)
*(30:43) - Umi’s favorite piece of data
*(33:12) - Changes in the next 6-12 months in marketing
*(34:54) - Umi’s recommendations for upleveling consumer engagement
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