Mintel Group Ltd.

So we'd go there, talk to our customers about, "Okay, what do you like about our existing product? What do you not like? If you had a magic wand, what would you like to do over here? What are your customers asking you for?" So interviewing customers, understanding their needs is one way to gather the feedback.

We also used to have consolidated research reports from companies like Nielsen and Mintel, which had data on grocery store consumption.

So from there, you can find out, okay, what are the types of products and tastes that are growing in the grocery segment? And you can also segment it by, you know, suburbs, cities and ethnicities.

So, like, what kind of flavors are emerging? What types of foods are pr- people liking? So when I was working at Kraft, it was also COVID period, and there was a big protein boom.

I'm sure we're going to talk about exactly that.

He is the principal strategist for retail at the research insights company Mintel, where he spends his time helping the UK's biggest retailers understand what's coming next.

Nick Carroll, welcome to Doe.

Thank you very much, Greg.

Welcome to Mintel's Little Conversation, real conversations with actionable insights into what consumers want and why.

I'm your host, Andrew Davidson, based in New York.

Market intelligence is moving from quarterly to real time, from broad coverage to deep expertise, and from data to insight you can act on immediately.

This episode is about that shift.

It's also a bittersweet one for me.

This is my last as host of Mintel's Little Conversation.

CompareMedia, Mintel's competitive marketing intelligence business that I've been proud to be part of for many years, has been acquired by Open Brand, a change that reflects exactly the kind of evolution we'll be discussing.

In part one, I'm joined by Pete Haag, chairman of Mintel, who's watched this industry evolve to talk about where market intelligence is heading.

...

I've been ingrained in marketing methodology my entire 11 years at Coca-Cola." So I mean, uh, the first thing you would do at Coke is start with the consumer data, right? Like, what's really interesting, first of all, Mintel, a few others that I can't think of right now, they all put out podcasts that cover, like, consumer data, and they talk about consumer trends.

And all of this stuff, I think, is like you have to think about, like, what-- And Sustainable Brands does this, too.

They put out this great data about, like, what is sort of motivating the consumer these days.

I did a little bit of background research just on the macro level.

And Mintel is a market research firm.

I pulled up a chart that basically said, you know, American consumer confidence in the economy is at its lowest point in three years.

And the graph, it is definitely low, like May 2026 compared to January 2023, pretty decent size drop.

If you are relying on category growth for growth, you are probably not doing the best by your brand or by your business.

In about 2014, we read a report that Mintel had written that said Guinness simply no longer is cool, and it was usually drunk by a very singular audience as well, usually a middle-aged guy.

That certainly wasn't driving any growth for the brand.

Are you feeling that, that you are giving hope to other brands?

We were very established.

We were very confined within that occasion, within that motivation, and within that consumer base as well.

So, um, it sort of culminated in about 2014 when we read a report that Mintel had written that said Guinness simply no longer is cool.

And, you know, obviously we had been looking at the brand and looking at the strategy, and obviously looking at the broader context in alcohol as well, 'cause as you point out, not every area of alcohol is growing, um, strongly.

So much reading.

We are talking about deep structural data from the National Restaurant Association, Mintel, Hotel Dive, Food Dive, and, uh, a few very specialized compliance white papers.

Right, which are always a joy to get through.

Ugh, thrilling.

We are seeing the hyper-modern colliding with the deeply ancient.

Give me an example of that.

A perfect example is highlighted in Mintel's 2026 Global Food and Drink Predictions.

They noted that food scientists recently used artificial intelligence to analyze historical texts and chemical residue to reconstruct the exact recipe for garum.