In a recession, or an imminent one at that, no brand is safe and certainly no agency is safe. This has been proved by Pepsi dropping BBDO after 48 years together.
Pepsi is currently under going a brand overhaul and logo update, but is it the best time for the cola brand to be pulling out all the stops?
A recent report from Mintel said that consumers, despite tightening their belts, were still buying the favourite brands as they looked for brands they could trust and rely on during tougher times.
We are not stopping buying, but instead changing our buying behaviour. We are paying for little luxuries in the supermarket because we’re not going out anymore, said the report.
TBWA\Chiat\Day will now serve as lead communications agency for the Pepsi in the US aiming to refresh Pepsi’s communications across multiple consumer touch points and to reinvigorate Pepsi’s legacy of leading-edge advertising, according to its CMO Dave Burwick.
So what makes Pepsi think it can steal away some of Coca-Cola’s share by releasing a new log and turning its strategy around? Is the brand simply too old to start a fresh?
It seems like the brand is going through an image crisis. Over the past few months it has extended marketing hand to try and capture the allusive younger market by launching a music initiative on MySpace to help users find new music, with the help of famous curators.
The Pepsi-branded page on MySpace is targeted at 20-30-year-olds and aims to act as an editor of choice and help people navigate through the vast amounts of music.
The page features an exclusive all access area video profiles of the curators (Sam Sparro, Jodie Harsh, The Loose Cannons, Tinchy Stryder and Peyton), music players delivering their new music recommendations and a ‘this week’ section for gossip and news from the artists.
The cola brand also launched on-pack and on-shelf mobile QR codes in a bid to increase consumer interaction with the brand.
Pepsi can no longer remain on the sidelines watching joys and sorrows of the new positioning Coca-Cola after the launch of Coca Zero and its successful tie-up with the latest James Bond, Quantum of Solace.
The re-branding Pepsi was partly true to tradition, but also breaks the same rules of the birth of a brand.
Pepsi changes it’s logo approximately ever decade, but has each change in logo actually resulted in some kind of benefit for the Pepsi Cola company?
Pepsi revenues topped $39bn in 2007 with a market share of 31.2%, compared to Coke’s 43.1%.
Coca-Cola is the worlds most valuable brand, recognised by some 92% of the world’s population. How can Pepsi ever compete?
The brand is planning to invest $1 billion in China over the next four years, one of its fastest-growing and more important markets, as the company pushes to keep Coca-Cola from overtaking it in soda market share.
The plan entails expanding manufacturing capacity and local research-and-development facilities as well as building a sales force and spending on marketing efforts.
China is a key beachhead for Pepsi, which last year held a narrow market-share lead over Coke in the country’s carbonated-beverage segment. Globally, Coke has more than double Pepsi’s market share, so forestalling the company in the world’s most-populous country is important to Pepsi. But will a brand refresh and investment in other markets ensure brand success?
December 2, 2008 at 5:10 pm |
[...] years on, Pepsico headquarters New York announces to the media community that it’s dropping BBDO in favour of more boutique agencies (mainly [...]