Pepsico

Situation: PepsiCo aimed to catalyze change and strengthen PepsiCo’s future.

Challenge: In collaboration with C-suite execs from PepsiCo Global Snacks, Beverages, and Food Service, plus outside partners, we set out to build concept businesses that exist at the intersection of global mega trends, consumer needs, value creation paradigms, and the threats of inaction.

Solution: Our research helped us align on 3 food truths at the core of all Food & Beverage experience – Health, Joy, and Ease. From there, we identified plausible future scenarios that could open up innovation pathways, each one starting with a provocative question. Crowd favorites read “What if PepsiCo products improved work performance?” or “What if processed foods were as nutritious as whole foods?” We envisioned five new business, including product, brand, service, and environments, that meet enduring consumer needs.

At large corporations, change often seems impossible because executives are incentivized for short-term wins. To spark real change, we generated top-down excitement from the C-suite level to reinvent the energy, water, and snacking portfolios.

1:5

What if PepsiCo products improved work performance?

Always on, On Demand

Highly personalized and functional foods and beverages that keep consumers ‘on’ from morning to night. In the future, our products will be more than an occasional indulgence or convenient tradeoff, they’ll be an all day, every day necessity. By reconfiguring snacks into mini-meals with targeted benefits, like PowerStart, QuickLift, or RestUp, we’ll support all day energy and nutrition needs. Far from empty calories, our products will be delicious, high-performance options that consumers will rely on.

2:5

What if packaged foods were as nutritious as whole foods?

Freshly Made

The nutrition of whole food meets the convenience and cost of ready-made. In the future, PepsiCo will go beyond finished products sealed in a bag, bottle or can. By choosing to process raw ingredients far less than we do now, we’ll offer consumers the building blocks of healthy, wholesome meals and snacks. Our products will still be safe, consistent, and fairly-priced, but they’ll be sold in the supermarket permiter, not the aises, next to the fruits and vegetables they’re made of.

3:5

What if we could shrink the distance from farm to table?

Making Goes Local

Local production matches the big manufacturers in taste and convenience, wherever consumers live. In the future, PepsiCo will be a local brand. Starting with Lay’s, we will work to bring agriculture, production, and distribution much closer to home. The movement will start at convenience stores, expand to food service and restaurants, and then scale up to decentralized factories in the communities they serve. We will change the paradigm in processed food to one where every chip, crisp, or frita is made right… Right here.

4:5

What if we venture product innovation through entertainment venues?

Take the Stage

Build upon PepsiCo’s strength in entertainment to create win-win partnerships and innovate faster than ever. In the future, PepsiCo will partner with food startups to offer drinks and snacks at concerts, games, and festivals that are as memorable as the event itself. We’ll introduce new-to-world brands to huge audiences and gather realtime market feedback.

5:5

What if water were accessible and profitable beyond the plastic bottle?

Water for Everyone

Uniting a successful water business with PepsiCo’s philanthropic mission to make water a human right. In the future, water will be a scarce resource and everyone will have a responsibility to protect it. Through public-private partnerships, our business model will go beyond bottled water to include water-access infrastructure, like modern drinking fountains and in-home systems that offer flavorful and nutritious water enhancements.