01 .Identifying and seizing new trends
Understanding today’s tastes, aspirations and habits while anticipating those of tomorrow is fundamental to our business. This is why internally, Pernod Ricard has been restructuring the organisation of its Consumer Insights department, which focuses on identifying and responding to new trends and consumer patterns. At the same time, its corporate venture arm Convivialité Ventures is looking at new business segments in the world of conviviality.
Getting the best consumer insights
In 2019, the Group restructured its Consumer Insights organisation to increase the value of our consumer intelligence with a more flexible, reactive, fast-to-market approach that capitalises on digital technology to create closer connections with our brands, markets and regions. The new centralised team is divided into four centres of excellences with key areas of expertise: (1) Cultural Foresight, which identifies and monitors trends and consumer opportunities; (2) Equity, Consumer Understanding and Targeting that helps collect consumer data, through social listening for example; (3) Shoppers, E‑shoppers &Travellers, which develops tools and methods for the trade marketing and commercial teams, to help with pricing notably; and (4) Mix Optimisation, for more agility and efficiency in the development of our brand assets.
«Over the last year, our teams have come together and developed new ways of working to ensure we make the best use of our resources throughout the Group. These new centres of excellence have been key in identifying actionable insights and developing global
tools for our markets,» explains Florence Rainsard, Global Consumer Insights Director.
In the context of Covid‑19, the Cultural Foresight Centre of Excellence has proved particularly strategic by allowing our teams to quickly analyse impacts and opportunities and align strategic planning with emerging trends (see pp. 46-47). Relevant
knowledge is shared online, through newsletters, videos, webinars and the Insight Factory, a searchable digital database of resources whose launch was accelerated by the beginning of the crisis. This agile, collaborative approach is helping us to
predict how people will socialise, entertain and consume in a quicksilver context.
Exploring new business opportunities
Investing in emerging new businesses can be more strategic and efficient than building up entirely new projects. Convivialité Ventures, Pernod Ricard’s corporate venture arm, was launched to explore opportunities in the ecosystem of conviviality.
Its mission is to make minority investments in promising startups which complement our core business. To date, Convivialité Ventures has invested in 12 high‑growth companies in the US and Europe in line with key trends identified by Consumer Insights. These include Glovo, an on‑demand courier service for products ordered through its app (see pp. 58-59) and Fever, which offers its platform users a curated list of the best events, things to do and to see in their city – a partner for Pernod Ricard to co‑create, promote and monetise consumer centric and data driven experiences.