Suzanne Allers built her career bridging two worlds most people never connect: P&G beauty product development and the fast-moving, low-margin world of food innovation. As a partner at Untapped Innovation Consulting, she's spent over 20 years helping brands translate consumer insight into product and product back into story.
In this episode, Suzanne breaks down why food consumers don't think in "problems" the way skincare consumers do, and what that means for how you research and design a product. She digs into why R&D teams are often the best-positioned people in a company to write a brand's core story (and why marketing still has a critical role to play after that). The conversation also covers the GLP-1 effect rippling through food and beauty, the "premiumization" of ingredients like fiber and protein, and how to tell a real cultural shift apart from a fad before you bet your roadmap on it.
Suzanne also shares a first look at her upcoming book, Untapping Innovation, a practical playbook of the tools and frameworks her firm has used across categories from personal care to PepsiCo.
What we cover:
Going from theoretical chemistry and a P&G internship to co-founding Untapped Innovation
Why food and beauty consumers need to be researched differently
Using storytelling frameworks in R&D, and why the consumer (not the product) is the hero
How GLP-1 medications are reshaping cravings, spend, and product strategy in food
Premiumization trends in fiber and protein ingredients
Telling fads from trends, using the plant-based meat boom and bust as a case study
A preview of her new book, Untapping Innovation
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
