[Webinar Recap] - Four Ways PepsiCo is Preparing Category Insights for 2026

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Four Ways PepsiCo Is Preparing Category Stories for 2026

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PepsiCo’s Shopper Behavior team set out to better understand how shopper needs are evolving across hydration, drink mixes, and ready-to-drink teas. The challenge was to validate emotional drivers and category shifts using real-world signals, and to do it faster than traditional research cycles allow.

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In partnership with Harmonya, the team explored four core approaches for turning shopper sentiment into strategic insights that support 2026 planning.

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1. Testing Hypotheses Using Shopper Language

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PepsiCo began with internal hypotheses informed by survey work. The goal was to validate those hypotheses against large-scale, unprompted shopper feedback. Using Harmonya’s enriched product data, the team analyzed thousands of verified reviews to evaluate how often and in what context key ideas appeared, including Zero Sugar, flavor variety, and taste satisfaction.

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The analysis confirmed that shoppers increasingly associate Zero Sugar with “tastes good” and “no compromise,” aligning with internal hypotheses that better-for-you does not mean less enjoyable. This allowed the team to support their survey insights with real-world language at scale.

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2. Quantifying Emotion in Consumer Feedback

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PepsiCo had already identified emotional drivers such as nostalgia, excitement, and fun through qualitative research. They used Harmonya’s AI to analyze review sentiment across relevant subcategories to determine if those themes were present in unstructured consumer feedback.

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Terms like “brings me back,” “reminds me of childhood,” and “something new and fun” were commonly used to describe certain flavors and product formats. Quantifying these sentiments gave the team stronger footing for positioning flavor launches and category growth narratives.

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3. Exploring Category Signals in One Place

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To understand how “Zero Sugar” and “diet” callouts were performing across the category, the team needed to explore sales, sentiment, and product positioning without switching between platforms. Using Harmonya’s Insights Agent, they were able to analyze product tags, shopper feedback, and performance data in one environment.

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This enabled faster analysis of sugar-related claims, functional callouts like “vitamin C,” and shopper reactions to both. Teams could pivot quickly to explore additional questions about flavor, preparation method, or packaging form factors without requiring a new request or dataset.

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4. Translating Analysis into Category Insights

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The final step was to convert those signals into clear, persuasive insights that could inform strategic planning. Rather than stitching together disparate data sources, the team used Harmonya to create a unified point of view that reflected what shoppers are saying, how that sentiment shows up in performance data, and where future growth may come from.

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This approach improved internal alignment and positioned the Shopper Behavior team as a strategic voice in category conversations.

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Conclusion

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PepsiCo’s approach reflects a broader shift in how category teams are using data. By combining emotional insight, real shopper language, and performance metrics in a single platform, the team moved from hypothesis to partner-ready insights in days rather than weeks.