Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” satisfies. Marvel’s “Thunderbolts*” rebrand. Plus: loaded questions about surprising (and hilarious) brand refreshes for Mtn. Dew, PwC, and Panda Express. 

IN THIS EPISODE:

🫂Digital 'Halo' technology helps Michael B. Jordan play twins in “Sinners”
✱ Marvel gives “Thunderbolts*” a major rebrand in post-release campaign
💥 Can Marvel really pull off a movie like “Avengers: Secret Wars”?
🥤 Mountain Dew brand refresh goes wide with—tattoos?
📢 PwC upgrades its brand identity without spending $1 billion
🥡 Orange Chicken and a Song: Inside Panda Express’s “Pandaoke”

Approx. 22 min. Review privacy and cookie policies for SoundCloud, iTunes, Spotify and all other streaming services. Some audio and visual elements created using generative AI-based tools.

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Brand Refresh Insights: Mountain Dew, Marvel's Thunderbolts* & More

On this episode of That Makes Cents, we are speaking with Rob Pace, the founder and CEO of HundredX, on the future of customer loyalty and how brands can drive it and not just hope for it.

That Makes Cents: How Brands Can Drive Customer Loyalty

This discussion explores the paradox of being irreplaceable in the workplace, arguing that while initially appealing, it can ultimately hinder career advancement. It highlights the benefits of being essential, such as enhanced job security and increased influence, but then identifies the hidden costs, including burnout, career stagnation, and succession challenges. The article on which the discussion is based advocates for a "Goldilocks Zone" of strategic indispensability, where individuals offer unique value through vision and leadership while ensuring their day-to-day tasks are tactically replaceable. It offers six practical strategies for achieving this balance, emphasizing knowledge sharing, team development, and a shift from operational tasks to strategic direction. The discussion concludes by advising individuals to focus on building sustainable systems and developing others to foster long-term career growth and mobility.

The Hidden Danger of Being Your Company's MVP (And 6 Smart Ways to Avoid Being Irreplaceable at Work)

This Episode is Sponsored by: City National Bank

Several economic headwinds indicate the consumer is being financially stretched, but we all need to eat – so what are consumers actually buying at the grocery store? Nik Modi of RBC returns to The Food Institute Podcast to discuss channel differentiation, consumer product selection, and other macro trends.

More About Nik Modi:
Nik Modi is a Managing Director at RBC Capital Markets, where he has responsibility for coverage of Beverage, Household Personal Care, Packaged Food and Tobacco industries. The companies under Nik’s coverage total over $1 trillion in combined market value.

Nik has consistently been ranked as one of the top analysts across the consumer space by Institutional Investor’s All Star Analyst Survey. He has also been top rated across various analyst polls, including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Forbes.

More About City National Bank:
City National Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada since 2015. RBC’s Market Cap of $174 Billion is one of the Top 15 largest global banks with $1.1 Trillion in assets and Moody’s/S&P Ratings of Aa1/AA-. As a subsidiary of one of the largest and strongest financial institutions in the world, City National Bank offers a unique combination of highly personalized services with a full range of tailored financing solutions. CNB’s Food & Beverage Group is a national vertical that supports owners and c-suite executives and is a proud sponsor of the Food Institute. Learn more at http://cnb.com/foodandbeverage.

Grocery Grit: What’s in the Cart When Money’s Tight?

This week's blog post "How CPG Leaders Stay Ahead When Consumers Innovate Faster Than Brands" suggests that consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies urgently adapt to the accelerating pace of consumer-driven innovation, which often outstrips traditional brand development cycles. It highlights how platforms like TikTok foster viral trends and "dupe" culture, compelling brands to embrace, rather than merely analyse, these grassroots movements. The post presents case studies, such as e.l.f. Beauty and L’Oréal Pakistan, illustrating successful strategies where brands rapidly responded to consumer creativity. It concludes by outlining a playbook for CPG leaders focusing on spotting viral trends, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and visibly demonstrating the impact of swift responses to maintain market relevance and leadership in a fast-evolving landscape.

How CPG Leaders Stay Ahead When Consumers Innovate Faster Than Brands

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This podcast emphasizes that effective cross-functional collaboration is crucial for innovation in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) sector. It highlights a global innovation crisis, with a low percentage of genuinely new product launches, particularly in North America, while Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern companies are leading with entrepreneurial mindsets. The discussion suggests that traditional siloed approaches are failing, leading to significant financial waste and missed opportunities. Instead, successful CPG leaders are leveraging integrated teams to achieve higher revenue growth, increased efficiency, and more new product launches. It introduces the CATSIGHT™ process as a framework for developing actionable insights and transforming dysfunctional teams into innovation powerhouses, citing examples from companies like Unilever and Nestlé. It concludes by saying that mastering cross-functional innovation is no longer optional but a necessary competitive advantage for the coming decade, especially with the rise of automation and AI.

How Smart CPG Innovation Leaders Are Rewriting the Rules

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The discussion this week is on the latest blog post on C3Centricity "Unlocking CPG Growth: Conquering Process Paralysis with QC2™." 
It diagnoses a critical issue for mid-sized CPG brands: process paralysis, identifying it as an internal barrier to innovation and growth. 
It explains how this paralysis manifests through excessive approval steps and a disconnect from rapid consumer expectations, leading to missed opportunities. 
The experts then introduce the QC2™ framework (Quantum Customer Centricity) as a solution, highlighting its four orbits - Company, Consumer, Brand, and Process - to pinpoint and address inertia. 
It concludes by offering some simple, actionable steps for mid-level leaders to implement QC2™, providing a case study and concrete recommendations to foster agility and accelerate market responsiveness.



Process Paralysis in CPG

As the leading consumer products accelerator, SKU has helped launch and scale some of the most innovative brands in CPG. At the center of that mission is Michelle Breyer, SKU’s Chief Marketing Officer and a serial entrepreneur who knows what it takes to build lasting consumer brands.

In this episode, Michelle shares how SKU empowers founders to navigate early-stage challenges, the marketing strategies that separate breakout brands from the rest, and why mentorship remains the foundation of SKU’s success. She also offers a look ahead at the trends and categories poised to define the next decade of CPG innovation.

More about Michelle Bryer:
Michelle Breyer is a visionary entrepreneur who took a personal frustration over her curly hair and built it into NaturallyCurly — the largest social-media platform for hair. She was named one of the 50 Most Influential People in the Multicultural Market by Women's Wear Daily.

Since it was founded in 1998, NaturallyCurly company grew to include an ecommerce site, a consumer insights division and an experiential marketing company. The company has worked with numerous companies, including L’Oreal, Unilever, Walmart and Sephora to help them develop, launch, position and merchandise the products to this valuable consumer. The company developed the popular curl type system that now is the standard for the industry. NaturallyCurly was acquired in 2018 by Essence Ventures. Michelle is an advisor and mentor for several haircare brands.

Before launching NaturallyCurly, Michelle was a business reporter with daily newspapers in Texas and California, focusing on retail, real estate and consumer products. A year-long special project on the explosive growth of Whole Foods Markets won several state and national awards.

Michelle currently is the Chief Marketing Officer at SKU, the nation’s first CPG accelerator. She joined SKU as a mentor, working with emerging brands to help them scale.


More about SKU:
We educate and equip market-validated consumer product companies for growth into world class brands. Learn more at: https://sku.is/

Food for Thought Leadership: How SKU Is Shaping the Next Generation of CPG Brands

In this episode of Food for Thought Leadership, Food Institute vice president of content and client relationships Chris Campbell sits down with Barry Thomas, senior thought leader at Kantar, to unpack the rapid rise of agentic AI — a new class of AI systems that don’t just generate information, but take action on behalf of the user. Thomas explains why agentic AI represents a foundational shift in how consumers discover, evaluate, and shop for products. He explores how AI-powered shopping apps, answer-engines, and agentic browsers are reshaping the digital journey, and why businesses should prepare now for changes that will accelerate through 2026.

The conversation also dives into how this technology impacts retailers, CPG manufacturers, and foodservice operators — from the rise of metadata marketing and AI-optimized product visibility to the growing influence of user-generated content in agentic shopping environments. Thomas outlines the challenges ahead: data governance, shifting retail media dynamics, consumer trust, and the delicate balance between authenticity and automation. With younger demographics adopting AI at record speed, the companies that invest in upskilling and AI-readiness today stand to gain the strongest competitive advantage tomorrow.

More About Barry Thomas:
Barry is one of Kantar’s foremost global commerce experts with a distinguished history of serving customers, partners, and people throughout his more than 30 years in the retail, food service, and FMCG industries. His 25-year career with The Coca-Company featured landmark achievements in the areas of customer leadership, customer marketing, ecommerce, innovation, consumer insights, category management, and future strategies. Before joining the Coca-Cola system, Barry worked for Pfizer (formerly Wyeth-Ayerst) for seven years in commercial, customer, marketing, and insights roles. Barry earned a bachelor's degree in business from the University of North Florida and an MBA from Mercer University. He is currently on the advisory boards of the Digital Marketing Institute, George Washington University Digital Marketing Program, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

More About Kantar:
Kantar is a data and evidence-based agency providing insights and actionable recommendations to clients, worldwide. We combine the most meaningful attitudinal and behavioral data with deep expertise and technology platforms to track how people think and act.

To learn more, visit https://retailiq.kantar.com/.

Food for Thought Leadership: AI Agents Are on the Rise in the Food Industry and Here's Why

MARKETING DEEP DIVES by DENYSE is a Podcast for CPG Executives wanting to attract, delight and retain more consumers.
In each episode Denyse shares her tips, tools and ideas gathered from her more than 30 years experience working in over 125 countries around the globe.
Denyse is: 📈 Advisor to Fortune 100-Inc 5000 | 🚀 Strategist for mid-sized CPGs | 👨‍💼👩‍💼Leadership Coach | 🎤 Keynote Speaker | 📚 #1 Best-Selling Author | 🌍 Former Global Head of Consumer Excellence at Nestlé

Digital marketing insights from Rick Mathieson (author of Branding Unbound and The On-Demand Brand) and Rick Wootten (Silicon Valley CMO) as they share their unique brand of news and views on the trends impacting the intersection of marketing, media, tech, and pop culture. All delivered with an extra-large serving of fun. 

From B2C to B2B. CPG to SaaS. Digital to direct. Email to experiential. Social to search. Content to commerce. Generative to agentic AI. Viral video to virtual & augmented reality. POS to podcasts. Full funnel to WTF. This is the podcast for every marketer who’s out to rule the world. https://www.linkedin.com/company/rick-rick-rule-the-world

The Food Institute Podcast leverages the Food Institute's 90-plus-year history to provide actionable information and insight to food industry professionals.

New tracks tagged #CPG