Keeping consumers central to making business decisions

[00:01] Nataly Kelly: I'm Natalie Kelly, and today I'm joined by Nico Larouina, general manager of Nestle's food business unit, a leader who's built businesses across Europe and who believes the traditional shopper funnel is essentially dead. Today we'll explore what it actually means to keep the consumer at the center of decisions when commercial pressures push back, why curiosity has become the most underrated leadership skill in marketing, and what happens to brands that confuse speed with understanding. Nico, welcome to Inside Insights.

[01:30] Nico Laruina: Thank you very much, Nathalie, for the invitation. I'm looking forward to talking to you.

[01:35] Nataly Kelly: Likewise, I'm so happy to have you here. We have so much in common, so much to talk about, so I want to go ahead and dive right in. Seemingly every organization says that they are consumer centric, but at the same time, real leadership begins when consumer needs, retailer demands, commercial targets, and operational realities don't all point in the same direction. When those priorities collide, how do you keep the consumer's voice at the center of the decision?

[02:06] Nico Laruina: Well, it is very, it's very easy to answer. At the end of the day, if the product we propose is not what the consumer, the final consumer, needs, they will not be purchased. Or they might be purchased once — because you invest and you make your advertisement and then they will purchase once — but then they will not repurchase. At the end of the day, you need something that is sustainable. You need a product that satisfies a need, something that the shoppers really need and that can be repurchased more. So, all the time. Therefore, if you — and you're right — lots of companies say that the shopper is at the center of everything, but at the end, there are so many KPIs that sometimes you might neglect the shopper. But I can tell you that I've been lucky enough that in the context where I've been working, the shopper is the center of everything. All the decisions are taken starting from the shopper, because the insight is something that starts from a shopper need, and then all decisions are taken along the way when it comes to all the different parts of the product development, including, for example, the pricing. It's all taken into account what the shopper needs and what the shopper is also ready to pay for that product. Therefore, if the shopper would not be at the center of everything we do, I think that we would have not — now talking about Nestle — we would have not been there for 140-plus years. So I do think that it is very important that we keep the shoppers at the center of everything we do.

[03:48] Nataly Kelly: Yeah, and because the consumer's changing all the time, right? If they don't remain at the center, then we lose sight of how their needs are changing, what the trends are.

[04:00] Nico Laruina: Exactly. For example, in food, I can tell you that there was a time when maybe the shopper needed just taste, or needed convenience, or needed just price. Now they want everything. They want everything because they know they can have everything. So as a company, we need to make sure that we deliver something that satisfies everything — that is nutritious, that is healthy, but sometimes also tasty — and that the price is the right one. So convenience also plays a role. And you're right, what might have satisfied a shopper need a few years ago is not the same as what you need now in order to satisfy them. And then it's not just about this — it's also about having in mind, and that's why it's so important also to do studies all the time, and also observing. Observation is key, because the trends are also changing. For example, we have a brand like Maggi, which — you know, because you lived in South America — you know how relevant it is there. But a few years ago Maggi was about bouillon, was about soups. But now Maggi is much more. Maggi's about these Asian trends, these Asian noodles, that now we are also expanding into other territories like Korean, and then, in a few months, also into other Asian cuisines. But then also, for example, air fryers — this gadget now, in Austria specifically, we are assuming like 30% penetration, but in countries like the UK we're talking already above 50% penetration. And people have the gadget, but sometimes don't know how to use it properly. So they cook it, but then the meat is too dry, and we have come up also with solutions for that. So you need to be always careful of what the shopper needs, but then also the trends that are there, and how you help the shopper navigate these trends and help them satisfy this emerging need that sometimes they don't even know they have. It's also important to be at the forefront of innovation.

[06:21] Nataly Kelly: Well, it's interesting — we're talking about food products and we're talking about home life, and I thought that was really interesting when we met before. You shared something about living with local families every time you moved to a new country — whether it was Spain, whether it was the United Kingdom, France, China, or Germany — all the really cool places you've lived, and not living with fellow students or expats. And I was wondering how that has shaped the way that you think about consumers in business, in your job, and the cultures that they live in.

[06:54] Nico Laruina: Yeah, it's a very good question. The decisions I took were always made on purpose. For me, living in those countries was, of course, because I wanted to learn the language as quickly as possible. And therefore I thought, okay, I'm going to live with a local family, because usually they also had children. And the easiest way to learn a language is by spending time with children, because they also speak at your — at the same speed you speak.

[07:27] Nataly Kelly: And the language