Pepsi and "Performance with Purpose"

As part of its "Performance with Purpose" strategy, PepsiCo has three types of product portfolios. One is "fun for you" foods and beverages like Mountain Dew. The second is "better for you" products like Baked Doritos. And the third is "good for you" products like Naked Juice.

 Just a few days ago, it acquired Bare Snacks Inc., which markets Carrot Chips, Apple Chips, and other crunchy snacks made from fruits and veggies. This acquisition expands the pantry of "good for you" products.

http://www.nutritiongreenhouse.com/

In the beginning, Bare Snacks produced apple chips and other products from its own organic apples. The company recently said that no matter who acquired it, Bare Snacks would stay true to its strategy of producing fruit and veggie snacks that taste good, as well as being healthy.

PepsiCo is also using a "brand incubator" to encourage small businesses to pursue "good for you" food and beverage innovation. In addition to money, the entrepreneurial brands enrolled in the Nutrition Greenhouse incubator receive mentoring to grow their businesses.

Super Bowl Advertising Preview for 2017

National advertisers are already releasing their Super Bowl ads for 2017, hoping for viral sharing that will boost the brands and, with luck, encourage buying too.

• Like funny ads? Watch Melissa McCarthy in her Kia ad, teaser already up on YouTube and elsewhere.
• Like the Patriots? Tom Brady stars in an Intel ad (the ad was up even before Brady knew for sure he was back in the Super Bowl).
• Like music? Pepsi sponsors the halftime show, and its ad featuring Lady Gaga is, well, musical. 
• Like quirky feel-good ads? Skittles has one for you this year.
• Like something new? Mars (which is behind the Skittles ad) will shoot a Snickers commercial live, during the Super Bowl, which has (surprisingly) never been done. Well, it's a bit risky, maybe that's why this is a first. To attract attention, Mars will do a 36-hour livestream branded entertainment show (view at Snickerslive.com) leading up to the game. 

And Yellow Tail wine has stitched together a series of coast-to-coast local ad buys to showcase its Australian wines. Locked out of national because of category-specific Anheuser-Busch InBev's exclusive Super Bowl commitment with Fox, which is televising the big game, Yellow Tail went the local route and will be seen during the game, just like any other big advertiser (except aired locally). The reach and the exposure, just not the "official" advertiser.

Sweetening Up the Cola Wars

Coca-Cola's recipe in Mexico isn't the same as its US recipe. Fans of MexiCoke like the cane sugar taste, rather than the corn syrup-sweetened U.S. version. They also like the handy retro green glass bottle, a reminder of the days when soda pop cost a nickel.

Coke has been importing MexiCoke to selected U.S. regions for the past 10 years. This is the first time I've seen it in supermarkets in small New England towns, complete with Spanish signage (see photo).

For cost reasons, Coca-Cola considered replacing some of the sugar in MexiCoke with corn syrup--but fans objected and the cult product wasn't changed.

MexiCoke is often priced higher than regular Coca-Cola but as this display shows, promotions bring the price down and encourage trial.

MexiCoke's cult popularity hasn't escaped the notice of rival Pepsi, which is launching its own cane sugar-sweetened cola with a hint of lime, known as Pepsi Limon. Although Pepsi has tried lime-flavored colas in the past, those formulas featured artificial flavors. This time, the special ingredient is real lime juice and, of course, real sugar. Really. 

Where Cobranding Is on the Menu

If you've been to a casual-dining restaurant recently, you've probably seen cobranding on the menu. For example, Doritos Locos Taco is an exclusive Doritos-branded offering at Taco Bell and Strawberry Pop-Tart Ice Cream Sandwich is a dessert available only at Carl's Jr. (see photo).

Ad Age has a brief list of other cobranding deals that include a well-known grocery brand with a well-known casual-dining brand. 

And now, Pepsi has a deal with Buffalo Wild Wings to supply its soft drinks (in place of Coke-branded beverages) and talk about cobranded menu items featuring Frito-Lay snacks.

Cobranding isn't new, but it's being used creatively in the restaurant industry to sharpen the differentiation between competing chains. Cobranding often attracts a lot of media attention, which in turn means curious customers flock in for a taste. Plus, loyal brand fans of the grocery brand may become loyal fans of the new menu item.

Thanks to cobranding, the Doritos Locos Taco became a $1 billion menu item in less than two years, by far the most successful new product launch in Taco Bell's history. 

What new cobranded menu items will we see in 2014?

Marketing Highlights of the Previous Cicada Boom

Time has a two-page spread about this year's cicada appearance, including a brief look back at what happened in 1996, the last time the 17-year cicadas were above ground.

Following up, I want to present a few marketing highlights of the year 1996 with updates from the latest news.

• Yahoo! went public in 1996 . . . and just this year, before the cicadas emerged, Yahoo acquired Tumblr. 
• Amazon.com was first established as a corporation in 1996 . . . and today, the pioneering e-commerce company rings up $64 billion in annual sales.
• McDonald's opened the first branded restaurant inside an Olympic Village, in 1996 in Atlanta . . . and for 2013, the fast-food giant became the official NFL restaurant sponsor of the Pro Bowl.
• Pepsi, taking advantage of what was cutting-edge communications tech in 1996, launched a "Beeper Network" for Mountain Dew . . . and earlier this year, USA Today's Admeter said that Pepsi's "Coke Driver Busted" TV commercial from 1996 was one of the top three Super Bowl ads of all time.

What will the marketing headlines be in 2030, the next time this cicada brood emerges?

Will New Pepsi Bottle Boost Sales?

New Pepsi bottle - with distinctive easy-grip shape

Pepsi is introducing a redesigned bottle (at right) for the first time in nearly 17 years. The label is smaller, allowing more soda to be viewed. And the lower half of the bottle has a swirl shape for easy gripping.

Bottles are critical branding cues for soft drink brands, especially in single-serve purchasing situations (such as consumers searching for a drink in the chiller case of a convenience or drug store).
"We started with single serve, because it is the package you're seen drinking and holding," states a Pepsi VP-marketing.

Coca-Cola's hourglass bottle

Archrival Coca-Cola has built entire campaigns around its trademark hourglass Coke bottle (modern version is at left).

Now Pepsi wants its bottle to be instantly recognizable and have a functional benefit, as well as playing a role in supporting brand image. The new bottle is "not uniform, it's a little asymmetrical, there's a little edginess and playfulness, which is consistent with Pepsi's equities and youthful spirit," the Pepsi VP explains in an Ad Age article.

The logo won't change, but it may take other shapes and sizes for resonance with specific advertising campaigns. Watch for more tweaks as Pepsi implements its "Live for Now" theme through all elements of the marketing mix.

Pepsi vs Coke: Vending Machine Matchup

The decades-old rivalry between Pepsi and Coke extends to their vending machine technologies. In the past, the biggest difference was the look of the machines and the assortment of available soft drinks.

These days, the machines themselves incorporate technology that differentiates the drinks and allows some brand personality to shine through.

Pepsi has introduced a mobile gifting option that allows one user to "gift" another with a free Pepsi by paying for the drink at a networked Pepsi vending machine (at left) and entering the recipient's cell phone number for a text announcing the gift. The recipient then enters the gift code in any other Pepsi networked machine, and the gift will be dispensed. Users can even bestow a gift at random. 

Coca-Cola has its Freestyle vending machine (below), dispensing Coke your favorite way (106 choices in all). The Freestyle, launched in 2009, relies on RFID technology to track flavors and signal for replenishment.

Coke also offers a Freestyle game as an app. Another twist is Coke's Friendship Machine, which requires cooperation in order to get a soft drink dispensed.

Watch for more technological enhancements as Coke and Pepsi take their rivalry to the next level of distribution.

Super Bowl Marketing, Social Media Style

Although the Super Bowl won't start until February 6, marketing efforts by advertisers are already kicking off. It's a risk to start this early, because marketing activities might get drowned out by the year-end holiday messages blaring from all media.

However, by getting the ball rolling in social media, marketers want to build the word of mouth to a crescendo that reaches its apex on Super Bowl Sunday.

For example, Audi and Mercedes-Benz are both launching contests in which the goal is to help the car companies spread the word by tweeting, etc.

Not everyone thinks that putting social media at the heart of Super Bowl marketing is a great idea. Jeremiah Owyang complained that Pepsi missed an opportunity when it bypassed the 2010 Super Bowl ad business in favor of social media to trumpet its innovative social responsibility program.

In fact, Pepsi has decided to buy 2011 Super Bowl ad time for its Max soft drink and Doritos snacks. Not that Pepsi is a slouch when it comes to social media: Its Twitter account has 50,000 followers. Its Facebook page has nearly 3 million "likes." That's a lot of word of mouth!

Pepsi Battles False Rumors

clipped from www.pepsi.com FALSE RUMOR ALERT: PATRIOTIC CANS You've received an erroneous email about a "patriotic can" that Pepsi allegedly produced with an edited version of America's Pledge of Allegiance. The truth is, Pepsi never produced such a can. In fact, this is a hoax that has been circulating on the Internet for more than six years. A patriotic package used in 2001 by Dr Pepper (which is not a part of PepsiCo) was inappropriately linked to Pepsi. Thanks for giving us the chance to clarify the situation and please feel free to share this message with anyone else who may have received the erroneous email. Details of the hoax can be found at http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/undergod.asp.

Pepsi's home page has a link (bottom left) to a "False Rumor Alert" correction, shown here. The rumor has been floating around the Web for years, yet it's a big enough deal for Pepsi to battle with e-mails and a home-page link to debunking info at Snopes.

Ignoring false rumors doesn't work. Companies have to jump in with corrections and lather, rinse, repeat as necessary.