In this conversational interview, Matan Hazanov and Speaker A discuss how empathy and deep consumer insight drive successful brand strategy, especially when targeting young male audiences. They recount experiences with deodorant brands Speed Stick and Axe, highlighting how Axe disrupted the market by tapping into teenage boys' identity. The dialogue moves to sports sponsorship activations (NBA, NHL) where they designed a traveling basketball clinic, illustrating a clash over court color—Speaker A’s periwinkle proposal was rejected for not matching the target’s expectations. The conversation underscores the need to understand the consumer’s world (e.g., knowing a basketball court isn’t periwinkle) and to use methods like focus groups, day‑in‑the‑shoes exercises, and internal consumer‑insight programs at PepsiCo. Ultimately, the interview argues that empathy—not just data—guides decisions such as visual branding, activation design, and market positioning.
Chapters
Speed Stick. You know, a lot of the consumer there was like teenage guys, like it's young guys.
The absolute worst.
Well, I'll tell you, they need their Speed Stick. Speed Stick does a favor for the world.
And just walking bags of like testosterone and hormones.
Yes. And you have to have empathy for them. Right. And so I was a young mother.
I used to be one of them. You don't need to have empathy for them.
If you want to sell to them effectively.
Run around in the field and do like blow off the energy, they'll be fine.
So we had NBA, NHL sponsorships, and so we did a whole basketball clinic traveling. It was a really cool program. I remember designing the court. And I chose like periwinkle for the court and I showed it to my boss and I said, it's such a pretty color. He's like, no.
What's periwinkle?
It's like a light purpley bluish.
It's for a brand directed at kids.
Exactly. And he's like, no, not your consumer. We're not doing pretty. This is tough. And so I learned a lot. Also competitively, it was fascinating because Axe had entered the market when I was on Speed Stick and Axe has turned the market upside down.
That's interesting. I actually want to go into this thing about colors because you get into such a level of detail to understand what would make like move like a percentage of market share. Like, could you walk us through that? What color do you use instead of periwinkle to convince the market that this is the right brand for them? Like, how does that conversation even go? I can't even wrap my head around.
So, I mean, I'm a consumer-based marketer, right? You should really start with who are you talking to and what do you want them to do? And you should be doing some work on the insights of like speaking to them, focus groups. You wouldn't do focus groups on the color of the basketball court, but you should understand, try to live a day in their shoes, right? And there's really fun things that we actually do at PepsiCo to try to get deeper understanding the consumer. You also just need to understand things like basketball, like know that a court is never periwinkle and know what, you know, what generally should be. I learned a lot about basketball and hockey when I had those sponsorships. But yeah, it's a lot of— it is about empathy. It is about really trying to understand what they care about.
