About the foresight formula at Mars Wrigley
Mars Wrigley’s Global Foresight Lead, Joanna Lepore, reveals how foresight-driven strategies help predict consumer trends and navigate market uncertainties.
IndustryConsumer goods & retail
Consumer goods innovation software
Consumer preferences move faster than product cycles. Winners in consumer goods spot demand shifts early, kill weak concepts fast, and get the right products to shelf before the window closes.
Adapt to consumption shifts
By the time a trend hits the trade press, the fast movers have products in development. Scan consumer behaviors, flavors, and channels continuously. Prism clusters the signals and flags what fits your portfolio. You see the shift while it is still an advantage.
Find white space in crowded categories
Line extensions do not grow share in saturated markets. New space does. Prism scans adjacent categories, start-ups, and technologies and flags openings that fit your portfolio. You evaluate a shortlist of real gaps, not a report full of trends.
Co-innovate with your customers
Your customers already know what they want next. Most companies collect that input and let it die in a spreadsheet. Run submission campaigns, evaluate every idea against clear criteria, and move the winners into development. Contributors see what happened to their input, so they keep contributing.
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Partner with start-ups before competitors do
The startup that fixes your packaging problem already exists. Give it a door. Run a submission portal where startups pitch directly into your pipeline. Score each proposal on fit and maturity, and move the strong ones into pilots. No more pitches lost in a sales inbox.
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Know when your pipeline turns incremental
Portfolios drift toward safe bets. Every single decision looks fine. The sum is a pipeline full of variations and no breakthroughs. Map all initiatives in one view, split by ambition and cost. The drift shows up before the growth gap does.
Best-practice stories
Mondelēz International: Trends in the snack industry
Barbara Schandl, Insights & Strategy Lead at SnackFutures Ventures, Mondelēz, reveals how the snack industry evolves, leveraging startups, trends, and strategic partnerships.
How to build a global trend scouting community
DMK Group, one of Europe’s leading dairy firms, relies on ITONICS for trend scouting, ensuring early detection of food trends and market shifts.
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