When asked by presenter Stephen J. Dubner whether this meant there would be male and female versions of Doritos, Nooyi said not exactly.
“It’s not a male and female as much as (asking) are there snacks for women that can be designed and packaged differently and yes, we are looking at it and we are getting ready to launch a bunch of them soon.” Nooyi did not specify whether these would be brand-new ranges or different versions of PepsiCo’s existing snack lines.
“For women, you know, low crunch, the full taste profile, not have so much of the flavor stick on the fingers, and how can you put it in your purse, because women love to carry a snack in their purse.”
Nooyi, who was speaking as part of a profile in Freakonomics’ “The Secret Life of CEOs” series, went on to explain that the company had looked at how its design and innovation teams worked together. Teams sometimes went on home visits to see how PepsiCo products were stored in pantries and fridges, she added.
“The whole design capability we built in PepsiCo was to allow design to work with innovation, not just on packaging colors but to go through the entire cycle and say all the way to the product in the pantry or how it’s being carried around, or how they eat it in the car or drink it in the car, what should be the design of the product, the package, the experience, so that we can influence the entire chain.”
The snack brands are part of PepsiCo’s $14 billion Frito-Lay North America business unit.
PepsiCo was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
