{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Cultural Fluency Makers: Unlocking Business Growth Through Cultural Intelligence","title":"From Dollar General to Dill Pickle: How PepsiCo’s Ciara Dilley Reads Consumer Culture","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2374,"description":"After years of algorithms and individual screens, Ciara Dilley sees a shift coming, back to real people, in real rooms, together. On this week’s episode of Cultural Fluency Makers, David Wellisch sits down with Ciara Dilley, Senior Vice President of Growth Portfolio at PepsiCo, for a masterclass in turning cultural intelligence into measurable brand growth. Ciara has spent her career across Diageo, Kellogg, Campbell Soup, and now PepsiCo, and she brings a rare cross-cultural lens shaped by her own path from Ireland to Germany to Texas. In this conversation, she breaks down what cultural relevance actually means (hint: it's deep and penetrating consumer understanding, not surface-level data points), tells the story of how a \"little kid on the block\" snacking portfolio found massive growth in an unexpected place, and gets candid about where AI, synthetic audiences, and human empathy fit together in modern marketing. She also opens up about risk-taking, mentorship, and why she believes the world is moving from individuals in virtual spaces back to communities in real life. Takeaways:Cultural relevance requires three things: a deep and penetrating understanding of consumer needs, applying that understanding to what your brand specifically stands for, and using it to drive real business growth.Ciara's biggest lesson in humility came from Dollar General becoming her fastest-growing customer. The data pointed to lower-income and rural consumers making small, affordable health tradeoffs, an insight that reshaped Ciara and her team’s entire approach to permissible snacking.To tell a passing food fad from a lasting cultural shift, ask three questions: is it solving a real consumer need or tension, can it travel across multiple markets and consumer groups, and is it just a spike or does it have staying power (her dill pickle and protein trend examples bring this to life).AI and data can accelerate understanding, but they are only as good as the human empathy and consumer...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/QXMudFCebunX6dq83QTA-bvmGrd7VcFAvfplegGs0lQ/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yZWY3/NzU1Njc3NmRmMGUz/NGQ0ZDZmNzdlZjQ4/NDBkOC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}