Consumerism From The Lens of Gen Z with Shaan Modi (we met at CAGNY)

Summary

Podcast Summary: The CPG Guys – "Consumerism From The Lens of Gen Z with Shaan Modi"

Release Date: May 5, 2025

---

Introduction

In this insightful episode of The CPG Guys, hosts Shree Rajagopalan and Peter V.S. Bond delve into the evolving landscape of consumerism through the unique perspective of Shaan Modi, a senior high school student and the first Gen Z guest on the show. Recorded at the Mass Market Retailer (CAGNY) flagship store on 6th Avenue, the conversation unpacks how Gen Z consumers interact with brands and retailers in a digitally driven world.

---

Meet Shaan Modi: A Gen Z Perspective

Shree Rajagopalan introduces Shaan, highlighting his longstanding engagement with industry conferences since childhood and his keen interest in consulting and private equity. Shaan’s attendance at CAGNY 2025 was driven by a desire to understand company strategies and offer Gen Z insights to the CPG industry.

Shaan Modi [04:42]: "I'm really interested by company strategy... I wanted to see how companies talk about and present their strategies."

---

Shifting Perspectives on Frozen Foods

One of the standout moments in the discussion centers on Shaan’s experience during the ConAgra presentation. Traditionally, Gen Z associates frozen foods with low quality and unhealthiness. However, ConAgra’s emphasis on quality sourcing and partnerships with renowned restaurants like Wendy's and P.F. Chang's reshaped Shaan's views on frozen ready-to-eat meals.

Shaan Modi [07:02]: "Seeing how they really cared about the quality of the food... changed my perspective on frozen ready to eat meals."

Peter V.S. Bond and Shree Rajagopalan emphasize the importance of authentic representation in marketing, noting that exaggerated portrayals can deter Gen Z consumers.

Peter V.S. Bond [10:54]: "If you're a CMO... you probably need to look for a new line of work."

---

Authenticity and Influencer Marketing

Shaan underscores the critical role of authenticity in marketing. Gen Z consumers are adept at distinguishing genuine brand messages from forced or overly polished ones. He highlights the effectiveness of influencer collaborations when they resonate authentically with the audience.

Shaan Modi [20:47]: "We can tell when something's forced versus genuine... Podcasts are really key to genuine marketing."

The hosts agree, stressing that brands must engage with social media trends and influencers authentically to capture Gen Z’s attention.

Shree Rajagopalan [20:48]: "We got to scratch our heads. But wait, there's another message I took away..."

---

Viral Trends and Brand Adaptation

Shaan discusses the Dubai Chocolate trend—a viral social media phenomenon involving the layering of pistachio cream and pastry threads with melted chocolate. He suggests that brands like Hershey and Mondelez could capitalize on such trends by either developing their own products, creating DIY kits, or merchandising necessary components together.

Shaan Modi [31:18]: "They can merchandise it together with the chocolate, the pastry thread, and even..."

Peter V.S. Bond agrees, highlighting how quickly trends can peak and the necessity for brands to act swiftly to harness their potential.

Peter V.S. Bond [22:12]: "...they just need to advertise and leverage their existing products on the trending usage occasions."

---

Personalization and AI in Marketing

The conversation shifts to the role of AI and data-driven personalization. Shaan expresses comfort with brands using his data to tailor marketing efforts, provided it enhances his consumer experience.

Shaan Modi [35:35]: "We are much more comfortable than generations have been in the past with giving away our data as long as we're able to get something out of it."

The hosts discuss the balance brands must maintain between leveraging consumer data for personalization and respecting privacy concerns.

---

Future Trends and Recommendations

Looking ahead, Shaan advises brands to embrace co-creation with Gen Z and leverage AI to track and respond to viral trends in real-time. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining product quality and authenticity to sustain engagement and loyalty.

Shaan Modi [37:23]: "If companies were able to market behind trends, they could keep it alive longer."

He also recommends that brands engage directly with Gen Z through interactive social media campaigns, such as polls to choose new flavors or products.

---

Key Takeaways and Conclusion

Shaan Modi provides a fresh lens on how Gen Z perceives and interacts with brands, emphasizing authenticity, trend responsiveness, and personalized experiences. The hosts, Shree Rajagopalan and Peter V.S. Bond, acknowledge the necessity for the CPG industry to evolve by integrating Gen Z insights into their strategies.

Shree Rajagopalan [44:52]: "If there was a one last message... as a Gen Z wearing the Gen Z hat, what would that be?"

The episode closes with encouragement for brands to engage more thoughtfully with younger consumers and to adopt agile, data-driven approaches to stay relevant in a rapidly changing market.

---

Notable Quotes

• Shaan Modi [07:02]: "Seeing how they really cared about the quality of the food... changed my perspective on frozen ready to eat meals."
• Peter V.S. Bond [10:54]: "If you're a CMO... you probably need to look for a new line of work."
• Shaan Modi [20:47]: "We can tell when something's forced versus genuine... Podcasts are really key to genuine marketing."
• Shaan Modi [31:18]: "They can merchandise it together with the chocolate, the pastry thread, and even..."
• Shaan Modi [35:35]: "We are much more comfortable than generations have been in the past with giving away our data as long as we're able to get something out of it."
• Shaan Modi [37:23]: "If companies were able to market behind trends, they could keep it alive longer."

---

Conclusion

This episode of The CPG Guys offers invaluable insights into Gen Z consumer behavior, highlighting the need for brands to prioritize authenticity, agility, and personalization. Shaan Modi's perspectives serve as a crucial reminder for the CPG industry to adapt and innovate in alignment with the evolving expectations of younger consumers.

---

For more content from The CPG Guys, visit cpgguys.com. To engage with the hosts or suggest topics, email [e-mail].

Transcript

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Chain Drug Review's focus is on reaching the key decision makers across all retail channels, delivering comprehensive coverage of the latest shopping trends and in depth category analysis on health, beauty, over the counter products and wellness. Whether it's the latest trends, emerging technologies, or strategies for adapting to new consumer behaviors, Mass Market retailers deliver the critical information retailers need to navigate this dynamic environment. To subscribe to the newsletters of CDR and mmr, simply follow the hyperlinks in the digital liner notes of this episode. Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers are published by Retail Media iq. Welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast. Your host, Shree Rajagopalan and Peter V.

[Peter V. S Bond]

S Bond explore how brands and retailers.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Engage consumers in an increasingly digitally driven world.

[Peter V. S Bond]

And now, here are the CPG Guys.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Hello everybody and welcome to this episode of the CPG Guys Podcast. I'm of course Sree, co founder and co host of the CPG Guys. Co founder and partner of Think Blue Consulting is Builders, Connectors and Amplifiers. We shape the future of commerce to help you drive your growth. Please do listen to my older daughter Rhea Raj's music www.riaraj.com that's R H E A R A J and a new song, Hot Couture, which has been out for a month. And my younger daughter Laura Raj is a member of the Geffen Records Universal Music Group Cat's Eye. Joining me today is my fellow co founder Peter Vs. Bond, who of course has chosen to wear LA Dodgers jersey. And when he's not co hosting this podcast, he serves the head of Industry and client engagement at Flywheel, the E Commerce acceleration division of Omnicom. At the time of this recording, to be noted, we were at the MLP flagship store on 6th Avenue yesterday and I can see he didn't waste a minute and he has unveiled his new LA Dodgers possession the very next day. How you doing man?

[Peter V. S Bond]

Hey man, good to see you in New York yesterday we had a lot of fun. Went to the Mass Market Retailer Retailer of the Year award ceremony in Midtown. Saw a lot of old industry friends, met a lot of new people, booked a couple of podcast episodes. I think we did pretty well yesterday. Shree, how about you?

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Yeah, my hats off also to rmiq. They had an amazing audience of very senior leaders. Diaspora of the industry from chain drug to grocery to dollar. My hats off to Jeff Friedman for his leadership. Then the wonderful work they do. And it was good to see all the honorees in person receiving the awards. Congratulations to every single one of you. Before we get to our guest, let me ask you to Consider following us on Apple Podcast and leaving us a rating. The rating tells us how we're doing as a podcast. The review will tell us whether having the right conversations. We're also honored to be rated in the top five top three spots specifically for retail and number two for CPG podcast according to the latest feed spot charts. We've been in and out of number one and number two on a weekly basis. But we're excited we can maintain our place right up top off the Speed Feedspot charts. And now I'm gonna head over to the main events. Today is a very special guest and we're gonna have a very special conversation. We actually met him down at Cagni down in Florida. As we start having this discussion, we will decompose what CAGNI is for you. Sean is a Gen Z who was in attendance and gave us a pretty good summary of what he saw from the lens of today's young consumer and tomorrow's wallet. In fact, it was so good we said, hey, can you talk about what you said to us, to the industry so the industry can actually hear it from the lens of a Gen Z. A much missing opportunity for insights, learning and education in the CPG industry and retail. Gen Z, of course, is not just tomorrow's wallet, but also influences today's wallet. He's a senior at Chatham High School and he's looking forward to attend Pace University in the fall of this year. Sean, congratulations to you in the next steps of your future and welcome to the CPG guys. You are our first Gen Z guest. So congratulations man. Pleasure to have you.

[Sean]

I'm honored. Thank you. I've heard a lot about the show, so I'm really excited to get going today, Sean.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

You bet. So let's get on with it, man. So I'm going to get started right away and ask you the most important question, but a simple one, but very important one. We didn't see a lot of Gen Zs out there and the ones we saw were at the pool or they were at perhaps hanging out at a restaurant or probably left the property to go somewhere else. But what inspired you as an 18 year old to actually use vacation time to show up@cagny 2025? And how did you prepare to get them? How do you even know what Cagny is?

[Sean]

Well, I've been attending the conference since I was a little kid, I think five or six years old as far as I can remember. Yeah, so I've always been the little annoying kid running around just trying to grab free cereal boxes or like the Cool candy bar that I saw online. But now that I'm a senior, we're.

[Peter V. S Bond]

The old guys that ran around the table trying to get all the Monoles candy stepping over people. We, we. We were ruthless in pursuit of those Toblerone eggs. Let me tell you, Sean, I saw.

[Sean]

A couple of elbows being thrown, so.

[Peter V. S Bond]

That was right there. Elbows up. That's what we Canadians do.

[Sean]

Elbows up, elbows out. Yeah. But now that I'm a senior in high school and I understand the world of business, I'm really interested by company strategy. And, yes, I was also in Florida for the nice weather and the nice food. And luckily it lines up every year with my February winter break that I get off for school. But my dad gave me a challenge to give Gen Z's perspective on the conference as a whole. And since I'm heading into college next year and I'm really interested in the world of consulting, private equity investing, I really wanted to see how companies talk about and present their strategies. And now that I think of my future careers, I just really had to think about how I would advise these companies as if I was already in one of those jobs, and there's really no better place or time to get a head start.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

I got to tell you, man, if you want to get into the world of private equity consulting and be in the business of overall investment management, I can't think of a better place for you to get started than Cagny.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Over to you, Peter Sree. When I was a senior in prep school getting ready to go to college, I was thinking about drinking beer and, well, chasing girls.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

I was going to say. Don't complete that sentence.

[Peter V. S Bond]

You know, I'm sorry. It just. It is what it is. Sean, welcome to the podcast. We're really happy to have you. You know, Sri and I are a little jaded. We go to. We see these investor presentations all the time, and some of them, some of them are. Most of them, I say, are what we expect. Every once in a while, we get surprised. I guess my question to you is this. As you sat there and watched through them, were there any moments during the conference, be it something that happened on stage or even something you heard out in the hallway amongst other people talking, that really shifted your opinion about a brand or a specific product?

[Sean]

Yeah, 100%. So what really opened my eye was during the ConAgra presentation when they shifted to the conversation of frozen foods. So one common thing among my generation is that frozen food is commonly associated with bad quality or as being unhealthy for you, like for example, when I. When I come home from school and open the freezer and I think of a frozen meal, just the first thing that comes to mind is frozen Mac and cheese, frozen chicken nuggets, or even a frozen pizza. And when I was watching the presentation, seeing how they really cared about the quality of the food and how they actually got the food in the first place really changed my perspective on frozen ready to eat meals in the sense that I don't immediately have that bad for you association with it anymore. And to add on to that, one more thing that I really thought was unique was their partnerships with other restaurants to do with their frozen foods. For example, their Wendy's Bean chili or even the P F Chang's Orange Chicken, which I love, by the way. I really thought that was unique. And one thing that I thought that they missed out on just a little bit was some trendy restaurants such as the In N Out or the Dave's Hot Chicken. And I feel like if they included those, it could really be a hit for them.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Living in California, we may know a thing or two about the In N Out stuff. There's one half a mile down the street from me and usually there's a line of no less than 50 cars, 24 hours of the day, no matter what time it is. I don't get it, but it's an insane trend. So you are obviously in the mix of consumer analysts from various banking institutions and investors, but your perspective was a Gen Z consumer. How did it differ from the analysts or executives that you actually may have interacted with at the event?

[Sean]

Yeah, so one thing that I noticed while I was down there is that many of the analysts I spoke to and even in the company's presentations that I attended, they really focused on the margins and market share. But what I was personally looking for was for the cultural relevance of the products and brands. Now, I do understand that the conference was geared towards investors, so probably that's why the discussion skewed more towards those areas. However, there were a lot of things that I noticed that they were missing that could really help them in the long run gain market share and produce better margins. Just one example that I have is during the General Mills presentation. They spoke a lot on the idea of innovation, which was awesome. But what they didn't touch on was how they can leverage their core brands to tailor to trendy ideas. Now, as a Gen Z, I spent a lot of time on Instagram and TikTok and two trends that I really, really noticed was that they didn't really speak on or leverage the viral cereal as an ice cream topper trend when people are just pouring general mills ice cream or cereal products on top of their ice cream and mixing it in, having a delicious sundae or the second one is a cereal rice cake trend which many people don't know about, but it's where people have been crushing up certain cereal products and pouring it on a bed of peanut butter or melted chocolate and then creating a delicious snack. And at the end of the day, these companies just really need to be more consumer centric in my opinion.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

To me, Peter, I think the big miss on that is when, when I hear someone agency Sean here in this case speaking about very specific trends. Right. I feel, and I'm not taking potshots at any brand or agency over here, I think most of the innovation still heavily relies on old school methodologies of sourcing the data and insights and doing a B testing. And one of the reasons for that is the ability for a large market cap brand to react and quickly form. An innovation just doesn't exist because of the lines challenging existing lines that may be manufacturing anything or going to contract manufacturers which might take forever. And so it's an Achilles heel for large brands to be able to react to trends quickly.

[Peter V. S Bond]

You know, Sri, a really wise man recently said that if you're a CMO or a senior brand manager, you don't have TikTok on your phone and you're not watching what's going on. You probably need to look for a new line of work.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

In my opinion, it's a crime if you're in marketing. Listen to my words. It's a crime if you're in marketing of a brand today, a consumer product, and you're not watching. I'm not asking you to post. I don't expect you to post because your comms team will decide that and that's perfectly okay. But if you're not absorbing content and learning, you're depending on someone else's PowerPoint presentation. I'm sorry, you're not a marketer.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Yeah, shree, maybe. Maybe it's just they don't have TikTok in Minneapolis. I don't know. I think I might be wrong about that.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

I don't. This is not a Minneapolis phenomenon, Peter.

[Peter V. S Bond]

My message is I'm being facetious.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

You pick Nebraska, you pick New Jersey. It's not going to differ. If you're a marketer today, you must follow social trends. There's no excuse.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So Sean, I think what we saw in particularly the ConAgra presentation you brought it up was this. They may not have used the term, but they were certainly talking about it when they got to GLP1s. This concept of better for you trends reflecting authentic health concerns. What are your thoughts as a gen zer? And are these really mostly marketing tactics or are they something that you actually pay attention to?

[Sean]

Well, here's the thing, and I don't think this is just with my generation, but taste will always be paramount. But there are ways that other generations, and even our generation is able to get the best of both worlds. And those two worlds being good taste and healthier products. For example, one of my favorite things to drink is a Coca Cola vanilla float. And what I would usually do is come home from school, get a glass, and I would pour in a can of Coke and then one scoop of vanilla Breyer's ice cream. And if I'm feeling good about myself that day or I did good on a test, maybe it's two. But I've been on a little bit of a health kick recently. And one thing that I've been substituting the ice cream with is the core power vanilla protein. And what I've been doing is mixing that with Coke and making myself a protein Coke float. So I'm getting best of both worlds in the sense that I'm getting a great tasting drink, but I'm also getting however many grams of protein are in that protein shake. And another thing I want to add on is that my generation is much less trusting of institutions than other generations have been in the past. But we are more likely to trust things we see within our social network, even if we don't personally know them. For example, if I were to walk into the grocery store and see a cereal, say 50% less sugar and 10 more grams of protein, I wouldn't really think much of it. But if I saw my favorite influencer on Instagram or TikTok say the same exact thing, like, oh yeah, this cereal has 50% less sugar and 10 more grams of protein, I think it's a buy. I would definitely go to my mom and ask her to get that next time she goes to the grocery store.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Listen and learn moment again for marketers, right? Like the importance of influencers. And we're going to get to that later in this conversation. You know, Peter and I think we're legends in our own minds and we're influencers in the CPG industry. Someday we'll ask your dad if he agrees offline. But in our conversation down in Florida, you mentioned GLP1 Friendly Foods do you see this in your generation as a big trend? Are you guys discussing it during just social interaction and conversations? And do you think this will become a big trend for Gen Z consumers who are not using those medications if it's GLP1 friendly?

[Sean]

Yeah. Like you mentioned, I don't see my generation taking these GLP1 friendly drugs anytime soon. But what I think is that the whole protein angle really could work. And I see it all the time on social media that the food trends are all about high protein, low calorie, or how to indulge from a healthier standpoint.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

That. That said, that said, I'm also curious to learn, in your generation, you guys even talk about GLP1. Is it a word or is it just something that just taking place on Marketplace y'all could care less about?

[Sean]

Well, the exact terminology isn't really used among me and my generation. Like, we don't go up to each other and be like, hey, yo, is that snack GLP1 friendly? But we're definitely like, how many grams of protein does that protein bar have? Or like, hey, how many calories does that bag of chips have? So it's definitely a conversation, just not with the exact.

[Peter V. S Bond]

It's a health and most about.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Hold on, Peter, about 14 and a half minutes into this conversation, you said protein. I've counted six times. How important is protein in your diet?

[Sean]

Super important. Now that my age is or generation, we're in high school, moving on to college or even in our early stages of adulthood. We definitely love keeping our health and fitness in check. Right. So what I've been doing is I love playing soccer in my free time, but I've also been going to the gym a lot recently because I know it's gonna be more of a sustainable fitness plan in the future. And I've definitely been increasing the amount of protein and trying to decrease the amount of fats or calories in my diet just because I know protein is key to building muscle.

[Peter V. S Bond]

All right, so Sean, my advice to you. When you head off to college, make sure you bring a big box of Tupperware. When you go to the buffet, you're going to stock up on protein friendly products and put them in your backpack and bring them back to your room. That's how you're going to survive for four years. All right, so you saw roughly 30 manufacturers get up on stage, some interesting presentations. Which manufacturer or brand do you think really best understood Gen Z in terms of digital first marketing in particular? And what really stood out about how they use digital to really build brand equity and amplify their message, right?

[Sean]

Yeah. So the company that really stood out to me was Hershey, and they really stood out to me because of their partnerships with celebrities and how they leverage social media. Now, for example, I have three of them. The first one that they used that really resonated with me was their Angel Reese collaboration with their Reese's. Now, Angel Reese is a very, very popular WNBA player at the moment, and anything associated with her is going to get views. Second is the Kelsey Brothers with their various brands on their podcast. They're both recent super bowl winners, so people love to see their face wherever they can. And the last one, probably my favorite, was the Jennifer Aniston commercial that they did with Skinny Pop. I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with that one, but the person that was checking the concierge lady that was checking her into the hotel was just like, oh, my God, I'm a huge fan. Exactly. And then Jennifer Aniston obviously was just like, oh, yeah, me. And she's like, no, the Skinny Pop. Who are you? And that just really resonated with me. So they really understood what would get our attention and what would.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So I would say, as Gen Xers, I'll speak for sri. I think we're painfully aware of who Jennifer Aniston is. We'll leave it at that. You know exactly who she is, Sree. All right.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

But before we go on to the next one, Sean, I just want to follow up. So you mentioned the Kelsey brothers you mentioned. You didn't mention one that I was looking out for, which is General Mills put out a limited edition serial with the Kelsey Brothers. Did it not catch Gen Z's eyes?

[Sean]

To my understanding, not really. It's more. With the Kelsey Brothers. It's more of just their personalities because they're both.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Oh, totally get that. But it was a. You know, I've been. I've left General Mills about a year ago at this point. It was a big deal, big launch, and that you haven't seen. It feels like the reach and the targeting of the audience.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Did it address any of the health issues, like protein? If it didn't, then maybe that could explain why it didn't resonate. Right. Sree.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Fair enough. I got to. I got to do my homework on that one.

[Peter V. S Bond]

But the one I brought up is. I love that you mentioned Hershey. I also thought the one that was very. Two other brands that were very influenced her forward were Liquid Death, which I got to give incredible props to for them being able to Build a brand around the most commoditized products in the world. And also elf. I thought ELF did a pretty good job of leveraging celebrities and influencers to amplify their brand. But I agree with you. Hershey did a great job. Sri.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Peter, let's roll on to the next one, which is that very topic, which is how important is authenticity and influencer marketing to you and your peers? What makes something feel kind of forced versus having that sense of. I genuinely believe in this.

[Sean]

Yeah. So to my generation, authenticity is a huge, huge factor. And for us, like the way a product is portrayed online or even on TV really has to match the quality of the product in real life. For example, whenever I see food advertisements online and the product, like they make the product seem too perfect, like in a pizza commercial, like the one foot cheese pull or like a fluffy pancake with syrup running down the side and butter not melting. But if it really doesn't match that expectation, it'll really just turn us off in the end. And in terms of influencer marketing, we have a really good gut feeling when. And we can tell when something's forced versus genuine because when it forced. When it's forced, it just seems too perfect and polished. But when it's genuine, it seems messy and funny. And this is probably why podcasts are really key to genuine marketing, because they're honest, messy and funny conversations.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Peter, are we genuine?

[Peter V. S Bond]

Peter, I just want to know. I want to know why we're not TikTok stars yet. Sree, what are we doing wrong?

[Shree Rajagopalan]

We got to figure it out, man. We got to scratch our heads. But wait, there's another message I took away in what you just said. You kind of highlighted to images on brand products, right? You gave the example of the melting butter. Etc, that's what you still see. Frozen food, ready to cook food. I mean, it's, it's delicious, it's tempting, it's salivating. And you mentioned in your generation that is not the big aha moment. And you all actually look at that with disdain. Is that accurate?

[Sean]

100%.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Yeah, it's a problem, Peter.

[Peter V. S Bond]

It is. So I want to get back to these TikTok trends. You had mentioned how a lot of companies seem to be missing this. I can probably think of at least half the people that were up on stage that focus their attention on big widescreen linear television ads rather than how they create viral content that goes on the most important social media platform for Gen Z. But why do you think brands are just so slow to adapt? Why do they. What like in that every time someone threw up what was clearly meant to be a linear television commercial, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't portrait, it was landscape and it was clear like, like what? Why are they just missing the boat here? Sean?

[Sean]

Yeah, well I'm just going to use an analogy real quick and my brother's actually going to be pretty happy about this, but. So he's a up and coming DJ and he does these mashups on TikTok all the time and a couple months ago when Squid Game season three, it was highly anticipated when that was released, he did a little mashup with a song that he listens to all the time and the one of the theme songs in the show and he released it like it's just a matter of days after it really lost its trend. And like it barely, it got maybe 200 views and a couple likes and his friends were just making fun of him for it. But a couple weeks ago, I'm pretty sure we've all heard of the Minecraft movie and the theater destruction that it's bringing. But while it was hot, this was actually last week he released a mashup of one of the songs that was in the Minecraft movie with the song he listens to all the time in the shower. And I can't get enough of that song by the way. But he released that and within 24 hours, overnight he got half a million views and 100,000 likes on that one mashup because he released it within that timeframe. Now one thing I don't think these companies understand is that they think that they need time, but that is not a luxury they have anymore as stuff gets around so quick and dies even quicker on social media. So my personal take is that they don't need to make new products because that obviously takes time. What I think they need to do is they just need to advertise and leverage their existing products on the trending usage occasions. Just like I used the General Mills ice cream topper, their cereal ice cream toppers. I use that earlier as an example. I'm just going to use it again. Like they don't need to innovate or develop a new product. They have it right there. All they need to do is on TikTok, repost a couple of videos or even create like a DIY ice cream sundae while putting their own cereal.

[Peter V. S Bond]

It's like we said to Coca Cola a couple weeks ago, sri, you don't need to invent the combination of core power with Coca Cola. You just need to merchandise them next to each other in the store and inspire people like Sean to do something that they're already inclined to do and just make it easier for them. But what I also heard SRI is we need to get Sean's brother to do a matchup between a Cat's Eye song and a Ria Ra song featuring the CPG guys doing something like Bob in our heads. I think that that could be our, that could be our key to success. Sree touch, touch, touch.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

So I'm going to stretch that question a little bit, Sean, for you, which is if you were to, you know, we mentioned serial multiple times in this category in this conversation. So if you were to advise a serial company on a single product innovation to better appeal to Gen Z, I have a guess what that could be. But I want to hear it from you. What do you, what would it be in your mind?

[Sean]

Yeah, so I've been using General Mills as the example, so I'll just use them again. Look, I really don't think that these companies need to innovate new products because they have the potential to be better off if they just do a better job expanding the purpose for their existing products. Now take a General Mills for example. I know that they own Haagen Dazs as part of their portfolio. And let's just take Cinnamon Toast Crunch for example. What if they were able to take Cinnamon Toast Crunch and make a cereal covered ice cream bar? I think that would be genius because it's one of my favorite cereals. And who doesn't love ice cream, right? And then another thing I know that they do is they make those cereal snack bars. And I as a kid used to indulge in those maybe three times a day. I'm not going to tell my mom I said that. But, but what if they were able to make cereal protein bars? I think that would be genius. That fits the better for you health trends, but it's also a delicious snack. So you're getting both. The best of both worlds.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

I don't know about you, Peter, but I'm like salivating right now. I gotta hit that snack closet after this conversation.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Yeah, you're gonna, you gotta go hit, hit up all the good stuff and.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

It'S gonna be sugar and wheat flour. I don't know about the protein, man.

[Peter V. S Bond]

All right, so let's talk about personalization because we live in a digital age where increasingly you expect the message that's coming to us to be highly relevant to us, not just the same message that Everybody else gets. So how important is personalization in food products for your generation? Like, if you had the opportunity to order a custom snack pot, Like, I hate going to club stores and buying the variety packs because there's always one of the three flavors that I don't like. I'm like, I'm not going to buy a fricking case of that and a quarter to a third of it, I'm just not going to consume. So how much, how much do you expect to be able to customize what you're buying from from brands and retailers?

[Sean]

I mean, look, that would be awesome if I could have a custom snack box for different occasions. That would be amazing. Like, for example, like after soccer games, I usually end up bringing five bags of different snacks and different kinds of food with me just to, you know, make cheer me up, even if we lose 7, 0. But I mean, post soccer match, if I could have something like heavy to fill me up, something sweet as a treat, and something salty to stop the cramps, like, that would be awesome. And I do understand that that's probably very hard for companies to execute this manually. Manually. But with the growth and development of AI and autom, the sky's truly the limit.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

What I hear repeatedly from Sean is crowdsourcing innovation. That's how their generation thinks of it. That is the anti. In a strange way, brands do crowdsource innovation, but it all starts in a lab and it comes through consumer insights and research and it's done through AB testing. And that's why it takes two years to get an innovation out. What he's talking about is now.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Well, I look about now and I look at crowdsourcing. I'll give you a good example where I actually see a company doing a good job of that. What's the newest, what's the newest flavor of Coca Cola that you see them marketing in, in retail stores on end caps? It's. It's orange cream soda. Coca Cola. How did they get that? I know exactly how they got it. They basically looked at the trends of people using the Coca Cola freestyle machines to see the combinations that were being created. And then they followed that up with some attitudinal research in addition to obviously the behavioral, what they're choosing. And they came up with a very smart product extension. They didn't have to innovate much. They just took what they were already doing, mixed the right things together and put it out there.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

So I want to go back to that element of trendy and viral. We've obviously talked about it's important. I've repeatedly said in the industry you gotta, you gotta be on top of TikTok trends. But for these large, oversized, very large market cap brands, are there any risks in trying to being too trendy or viral? Is there a balance?

[Sean]

Right, so this was 100%. Like I would have given you a complete different answer six, seven months ago, something like that. But recently this occurred to me that with my generation, to a certain extent, no publicity is bad publicity. Now I'm going to take an example from TikTok that actually happened within this past month. There is this fitness and life coach influencer, his name is Ashton hall and he makes these TikTok videos on just his morning routine and they just look absolutely insane. Like waking up at 3:50 in the morning dumping your face in a bottle of Saratoga water with squeeze of lemon and salt, doing push ups, journaling like everything before people even wake up for their jobs or for school. And people were making a lot of fun of those videos just because some of the things in there didn't seem realistic. And like we spoke earlier, like it seemed forced, it didn't seem genuine. But what ended up happening is because people were making so much fun of it, they started buying Saratoga water as a joke. And I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this, but at a certain point it was sold out on Amazon. Like there's no way on Amazon to buy Saratoga water. And although people were buying it as a joke and making meme videos out of it, in the end that really just boosted the company's revenue and publicity. So like I said, to a certain.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Extent, I was going to say exactly the same thing. I think that's absolutely fascinating. Are there any viral trends right now that you think you know that have the most untapped brand potential? Like what do you see out there that's happening? You're like, brands, you better get your.

[E]

Butt in gear and go follow that.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Trend because it can be big, right?

[Sean]

Yeah, no, there's definitely a super popular one that it's actually reached. Not just me, but even my mom knows about it, my cousins know about it, friends know about it, everyone's really tapping into it. But it's the Dubai chocolate trend. And pretty much what it is is it's you melt chocolate and then you make a filling with a traditional Middle Eastern pastry thread and you mix it with pistachio cream and then what you do is you melt the chocolate, layer it and then you put the pistachio cream and the pastry threads on top of it. And then you put more chocolate on top and you create like a filled chocolate bar. And what I really think that some brands could do is Hershey and even Mondelez, they could do one of three things. One, they could try to release their own take on it and actually develop the product and sell it. Two, they can create DIY kits. So what they can do is they can have their brands and their chocolate and then they can have what they can make as a mixture of this pastry threads with pistachio cream. Or third, like what we brought up earlier is that they can merchandise it together. So in that section with the Hershey or Mondelez chocolate, you can have the pastry threads because those are pretty hard to find. You have to get them from Middle Eastern grocery stores, Amazon, like you can't just find that in your shop, right? Or stop and shop. So they can merchandise it together with the chocolate, the pastry thread and even.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

That trend I was acutely aware of because my older daughter Ria bought it home first and then my younger daughter also, once she tasted it. And we've made it about 10 times at home. And I, I'm 100% sure I saw a post on while scrolling TikTok today that said limited edition available at Aldi stores. Now, I'm not sure how accurate that is. Some viral TikToker put it out that they picked it up from Aldi. When I Google Aldi stores to buy chocolate, I don't find find anything. But that is one heck of a trend. And all goes back to a store in Dubai that made the chocolate exactly as you described with pistachios. It is delectable and can give some of the greatest candy bars that exist in the marketplace a run for the money. Now, the interesting thing is it's premium pricing and yet it can give give a run against everyday mainstream chocolates. So let's talk about AI and data driven personalization. Right? You and I had quite a nice conversation about the role of AI today and I know you research that pretty hard. How comfortable are you with a brand using via AI impersonation, your specific data, Sean's specific data, your friend's specific data to customize food and marketing and to.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Add to that, what's going to make it? Yeah, like what, what is it going. What is it you need from those brands for. For you to be able to say, I'm okay giving you that data, but here's what I need from you.

[Sean]

Right. Yeah. So I'm going to speak for myself, but I honestly do think that this could be the same thing for my generation as a whole is that we are much more comfortable than generations have been in the past with giving away our data as long as we're able to get something out of it. Now, with them having our data, I really think that they can personalize the marketing and the experience, which makes us feel more special, unique, and attended to. So, for example, if I were to give Mondelez my information and they were to send me a box of three different chocolates that they believe that I would have the most satisfaction from eating, if they sent that to my home and I came back from school one day, opened the front door and saw that outside, that would make me feel pretty awesome. And I probably be more inclined to go buy more Mondelez product wech on.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Unlike the many CMOs and VPs and SVP's of marketing. I talk to who tell me they don't have a TikTok account because they fear privacy. And we're very comfortable getting that data off consumers to actually create innovation and actually run their business. You're telling me, at least for you, you're comfortable as long as there's a thrill, surprise, excitement and delight factor thrown in the mix. Is that how to interpret what you said?

[Sean]

Yeah, 100%. And I just want to add on to that, like when I'm talking about giving away my data like I am 100%. Okay. Giving away like my chocolate preference or my food preference, like there's a certain extent to where I would go with being comfortable giving away my data for benefit. But in the case of food, chocolate, drink and personalization, I really don't see a problem with.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Interesting. So, Sean, if you end up going back to Cagney after you graduate from college, you know, five years out from now, and, and you, and you're seeing these presentations, what changes or marketing evolutions would you hope to see in how brands are engaging with your generation and frankly, the generation that follows? You would love to know what you would hope some of the people you saw on stage would kind of change their game to be a little bit more directional in terms of getting your attention.

[Sean]

Right. One main thing that I would love to see is more co creation and partnerships, um, but not just with popular celebrities, with trending creators on these apps like TikTok and Instagram. And like I said before, things rise and die quick. Trends, creators, everything. But I truly believe that if companies were able to market behind trends, they could keep it alive longer. And now, although this is very hard manually, I truly think with the rise and development of AI they could really use it to help track viral trends or even give brands better information and data on what keeps.

[Peter V. S Bond]

And let me add to that. So let's say a brand did. They were able to capitalize on a trend. They were able to understand how Sean buys products, what he likes, and they were able to highly customize something that was on trend and relevant to you. Are you willing to pay a premium price for that?

[Sean]

It honestly just really depends on what the product is. And like you said, they're going to tailor to my, to my wants and my needs. But if it's really unique and special and I think that I'm going to get the most satisfaction out of that product, 100%, I'd be willing to pay that.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

So we talked quite a bit about the Dubai Chocolate. Are there any? Maybe you pick and choose your one other cultural or social movement you feel CPG brands are completely missing out on when it comes to your generation.

[Sean]

Right. And they're these brands, they can't nail everything. And I think they are missing quite a few things. But if I really had to narrow it down to one, it isn't really about our culture or the trends. It's about the product efficacy and quality. Now, like I said before, it's a huge turnoff for my generation if we are to see something on an advertisement, expect that same satisfaction out of a product and not get it right. So the only way that these products and brands are going to gain popularity and traction with our generation is if we like the product and if the product lives up to our expectations. But then we are the ones that have to share it with others. Because I truly believe that your social network, if you're able to express your opinion about a product, it'll blow up. And these companies.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Interesting. So Sean, you said that you've been going to Cagney since you were six years old. I think we know that's because one of your parents is in the industry and follows this along. So I happen to know that he helped you think about preparing it for this conference different than ever in the past. He came, you went to the pool, you played some golf, you did whatever you rated the Mondelez table this year. You came with a little bit of purpose driven approach. What, what did you want? What were you, what did you do to think about preparing to use this as a learning lab and as something that you could write about? Because I read your LinkedIn article, I thought that was great too. I'd really just hear what was your mindset going into this conference? To get the most out of it as actually someone who's interested in being a practitioner.

[Sean]

Right. And so the way I'm going to describe it is kind of because I just got done with the college application process, I want to kind of, yeah, I'm going to try to relate it to that. So the way colleges pick kids out, like if everyone has a 4.0 GPA, 1600 SAT score, like valedictorian, class president, like, it's the same thing, right? They're reading hundreds of thousand applications of the same person. But that one person who has that thing on their application, like, let's just say I'm like, went to Brazil and helped turtles. Right. That's a differentiating factor from all the other applications they're reading. And that's how I kind of went into academy now. Yes, I did listen to the presentations and kind of take the same approach. Approach as all the other analysts were because I do still need to learn a lot about the industry. But I, as the youngest person attending those presentations, I just had to be myself. And, you know, because these other generations and these analysts don't think the way about some of these products that my generation does because they aren't on social media as much as I am. So that's kind of the mindset I went into it with. I was just like, okay, yeah, I want to learn, but how do I differentiate myself and how do I come with a different approach?

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Yeah. One important thing, Peter and what he just said is if the industry is going to course correct, a lot of these things we've discussed today, I don't even want to say course correct, but like embrace and leverage a lot of what we discussed today. Analysts need to be asking these questions as well. Right. Viral trends, how do you take advantage? Can you take advantage of it immediately? What's next from a trend perspective? You're jumping on what are you doing with AI personalization? And Sean, right up top correctly indicated the conference is built around eps. And that's what people will talk if that's what you ask them, and I think it does. The conversation does need to evolve, to dig in a whole lot much more deeper. So let me fast forward now and say we got a couple more questions left for you here. The one I have for you is, were there any moments during the conference that shifted your opinion about any one given brand, a given product? You open this conversation talking about frozen, frozen food. Was there anything else that stood out to you where you're like, oh, wow, change your heart?

[Sean]

Yeah, 100% so it was actually in the Kraft Heinz presentation. So we all associate Heinz with their yellow mustard or their ketchup. But one thing that I've seen go viral on TikTok Instagram is creating your own dipping sauces. Now people are trying to recreate the Dave's Hot chicken or one that's really going viral is the Raising Cane's. It's like a up and coming fast food chicken joint. And their sauce is really, really delicious. And one thing that really caught my eye during that presentation was how they were taking an international perspective and making international dipping sauces. For example, they have a sweet chili Thai Heinz dipping sauce or they have a Mexican street corn Heinz dipping sauce. And honestly, like, that is awesome. Like, if I can eat my French fries with a sweet chili Thai sauce instead of ketchup for the 100 millionth time, like, that'd be awesome. But one thing that I do think that they're missing out on, and I'm seeing this on TikTok, is the dips trend. Now, I'm not sure how familiar you guys are with the buffalo chicken dip. That's one of my personal favorites. My best friend's mom makes an amazing buffalo chicken dip and I'm asking them every week just to have her make a batch for me only and have it drop it off my house. But I really think that they're able, if Heinz is able to dip their feet in the dips category, like, and they can partner with different brands or they can use their own. Like people are using Philadelphia cream cheese in a lot of these recipes. I really feel like if they're able to leverage that and dip their feet into that trend and category, it'll be huge for them.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Hey, Sean, in wrapping up over here, I have a simple question for you. Right. First of all, what an awesome conversation. Wasn't expecting this depth of talking about trends and social media and influencers and data and AI. Absolutely fabulous. These are all hot topic conversations Peter and I are having all the time with brands. But it was very refreshing to get it from the perspective of, you know, not your standard brand marketer or CCO or somebody heading sales or an agency. So let's close it out. If there was a one last message you wanted to kind of give out to the brand world out there or retailers for that matter, as a Gen Z wearing the Gen Z hat, what would that be?

[Sean]

Yeah, one thing I really haven't had the opportunity to touch up on is engagement with our generation and users on social media. Like, it would be awesome. And it would make us feel special and unique. If on, let's just say like a Hershey Instagram story or on a TikTok they had like a poll and that's they said like what should our next flavor be? And there were a couple of options and if we got to vote and they released that, like that would be awesome and people would look forward to that. Like if they did that every month or every like every other month, like that would be awesome. It would have us going back and staying engaged with what's going on with those companies.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Very well said, Sean. I know why they don't do that because it has to do with the P and L. And sourcing input sometimes can actually be dangerous. Once the latest trends are revealed, brands have to act and large market cap brands again don't have the ability to do it quickly as we've said multiple times. But wow. Let me remind the audience you can find all of our content simply going to a web Browser and typing cpguys.com as the URL. If you think you're your company has some thought leadership to contribute to our community discussion, drop us an [e-mail] easy again [e-mail] and maybe you can join us on the podcast like Sean did today. Don't forget to drop us a [e-mail] either up top on the navigation bar on our website or on the app podcast. That reading means so much to us because it tells us how we're doing. Review will tell us are we having the right quality conversations to our followers on LinkedIn. I cannot say thank you enough times. Thank you for the clicks, likes, direct messages, meeting us at conference, coming to our networking events, coming to our social dinners that we host all over the country and at trade shows, and most importantly, for your continuous engagement with the CPG guys. To our sponsors, I want to say a big thank you. You come to us all year long and at trade events. This show doesn't exist without you both. Thank you from the bottom of our heart. Sean. I know it's after school hours and I'm keeping you probably from closing out homework and doing other things as you prepare for graduation. Wait a minute. At this point you've already been accepted to Pace University. I'll take the homework coming back. This is the fun phase of life, isn't it? So make sure you do live life because once you do get to the grind of college, it is going to be a grind for four years. No matter who tells you that it's just going to be all fun and games, it's going to be studying, it's going to be homework, there's going to be coursework. But Peter and I are thankful that you gave us an art today on a that too, on a Thursday evening after school to record this. So sincerely, thank you for joining the CPG Guys. That's a wrap of this episode. Peter, as always enjoyed doing this with you. Thank you for joining me. That's a wrap and we will see you soon on another episode off the CPG Guys.

[E]

The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPG Guys LLC where the individual author, hosts or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPGuys LLC. The views expressed by guests are their own, and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. The views expressed by CPTGuys LLC do not represent the views of their employers or the entity they represent. CPT Guys LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we present in this podcast.