Aaron Woody uses his food science degree to literally make people happy. He helps the Coca-Cola Company create new offerings based on consumer feedback and product testing.
Not many people can claim they’ve spent their entire career working at “The Happiness Factory,” but food science alumnus Aaron Woody (BS ’00, MS ’03) says he’s done just that.
An early 2000s ad campaign imaged a secret world inside every Coca-Cola vending machine called “The Happiness Factory,” where the magic happens.
As a director of technical consumer research at The Coca-Cola Company, with almost twenty years studying consumer behavior for the global beverage company, Woody says, “It’s an ongoing joke that this is the real happiness factory.”
The perks of working for the global company include frequent appearances by celebrities, musicians, and sports figures; free beverages; and a Christmas village transformation at the Atlanta headquarters during the season, but Woody says the real excitement lies with the neverending opportunity to innovate and ask new questions.
Consumer research is a critical first step in delivering happiness, so Woody’s work starts before the beverage comes to life. He says it is all about understanding what people want.
“There is no black and white way to understand consumer behavior, so we have a lot of freedom to find new ways to do just that,” Woody says.
Woody’s work currently supports the global hydration and sports drink category as well as Coca-Cola’s burgeoning ready-to-drink alcohol category. This category is where he is having the most fun. “It may have the most rules and regulations, but also the most room for innovation,” he says.
Inspiration comes from consumers themselves. Through social listening and other methods, Woody and his team look at what consumers are already drinking and help to create products that meet these needs. “Meeting the needs of our consumers means being able to adapt,” he says.
During the pandemic, Woody noticed consumer behaviors shift. As people spent more time at home and less time eating out and socializing with fancy mixed cocktails, Woody saw a change to home-cooked meals and ready-to-drink beverages. “Humans are creatures of habit, but they are adaptable and will build new habits.” A change that seems here to stay is the ready-to-drink alcohol market, he says.
Understanding consumer feedback includes product testing, something that Woody has been doing since his undergrad years. Working for the UT Sensory Lab, a research unit in the Department of Food Science, helped him build critical skills that set him up for success in his current position. The lab was still relatively new in the early 2000s and had already established relationships with companies to contract product testing using students for both labor and learning.
While Woody says his relatively straightforward trajectory from undergrad to a master’s degree and then directly to The Coca-Cola Company could seem boring, he wouldn’t change a thing. “Working for a global company has given me opportunities to help shape loved, well-known brands and enjoy memorable experiences all around the world,” he says. That’s happiness, for certain.
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