Pepsi Case Study

The Pepsi Ultimate Taste Challenge 2012: Social Enough?

Pepsi was created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham in New Bern, North Carolina. It was originally called Brad’s Drink, but in 1898 the drink’s name was changed to Pepsi-Cola. Ultimately, in 1961 it was called Pepsi. Bradham wanted to create a fountain drink that would help with digestion as well as provide an energy boost. During the Great Depression was when the fountain drink became increasingly popular. PepsiCo Inc., founded by Donald Kendall and Herman Lay, is the corporation where Pepsi is produced. It was first introduced in the Canadian market in 1934 and is currently the market leader due to its strong legacy in the community. PepsiCo’s main competitors are Coca Cola. The competition for soft drinks in Canada is very strong; PepsiCo and Coca Cola share most of the market. Most of Pepsi’s consumers are loyal and maintain their consumption of the fountain drink.

PepsiCo’s produces most of the popular drink names: Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Tropicana, Gatorade, 7up, Mountain Dew, Lipton Brisk, Aquafina, Amp, SoBe, and Starbucks bottled beverages. But in the 2012 the main focus for PepsiCo was to draw more attention to their products Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Pepsi Max. Through the marketing campaign they have designed ways where the consumers can win prizes through interacting with PepsiCo’s social media components and promotion. Also, the Ultimate Taste Challenge is where PepsiCo sends out street teams to attract the consumers to attend; this is another promotional strategy. Actual cost was not a focus for PepsiCo in 2012; their main goal was to reach more of their market and increasing their sales. The only “price” mentioned in the case is the time the buyer wi...

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...to direct people towards Facebook where most of the campaigning will take place. Facebook will provide people with any news, new videos and pictures, prizes, and coupons, along with many other aspects. BBDO developed a campaign strategy that achieves targeting the segmented group PepsiCo choose. This campaign will also lure others to Facebook and/or Twitter because BBDO realized there needed to be another campaign that involved outside promotions to attract people to Facebook and/or Twitter. Hadley should proceed with this proposal since it includes everything he wanted in a social campaign. Marketing for a product will not always reach all of you potential consumers, but if a campaign has the ability to attracts most then it should be implemented. BBDO’s proposal will indeed reach most of the targeted segmented group, which is why Hadley should apply this proposal.