Pepsi Cola Pepsi Cola beverage business was founded at turn of the century by
Caleb Bradham a New Bern N.C druggist who formulated Pepsi Cola. Pepsi Cola
Company now produces and markets nearly 200 refreshment beverages to retail,
restaurants and food service customers in more then 190 countries and
territories around the world and generates revenue of over 18 billion dollars.
Although Pepsi holdings over the years have become diverse in such fields as the
snack industry and restaurants industry this portfolio will discuss its core
business and its highly successful business of beverages. The soft drink
industry customer base is probably the widest and deepest base in a world that
is flooded with some many categories. According to Beverage Digest the customer
base for soft drinks is a whopping 95% of regular users in the United States.
This represents a large field of potential customers for Pepsi Cola. Yet
although Pepsi could just use the majority fallacy to market there product,
Pepsi prefers to segment itself as the beverage choice of the “ New Generation”,
Generation Next, or just as the “Pepsi Generation”. These terms adopted in
Pepsi’s advertising campaigns are referring to the markets that marketers refer
to as Generation X. The Generation X consumer is profiled to be between the ages
of 18 to 29. They have high expectations in life and are very mobile and active.
They adopt a lifestyle of living for today and not worrying about long term
goals. Those Pepsi’s main emphasis on this segment they also have a focus on the
12 to 18 year old market. Pepsi believes if they can get this market to adopt
their product then they could establish a loyal customer for life. Pepsi Cola is
situated in an industry that is dominated by two competitors, Coca-Cola and of
course themselves. Although Pepsi and Coke basically go after all consumers who
purchase soft drink beverages Coca-Cola targets its products at the head of
household.
This is evident in many of the ad campaigns such as “Always Coca -
Cola” which refers to the traditional beverage heritige of its product. They
also reinforce this in the name “Coca-Cola Classic” which is inferring to the
older consumer. This name reflects an image of value, reliabilty, and old time
values. Pepsi Cola throughout its 100 years of existence has developed many
strengths. One of the strengths that has developed Pepsi into such a large
corporation is a strong franchise system. The strong franchise system was the
backbone of success along with a great entraupeur spirit. Pepsi’s franchise
system and distributors is credited for bring Pepsi from a 7,968 gallons of soda
sold in 1903 to nearly 5 billion gallons in the year of 1997. Pepsi also has the
luxury to spend 225 million dollars in advertising a year. This enormous ad
budget allows Pepsi to reinforce their products with reminder advertising and
promotions. This large budget also allows Pepsi to introduce new products and
very quickly make the consumer become aware of their new products. Pepsi also
has had the good fortune of making very wise investments. Some of the best
investments have been in their acquiring several large fast food restaurants.
They have also made wise investments in snack food companies like Frito Lay,
which at present time is the largest snack company in the world. Probably high
on the list of strengths is Pepsi’s beverage line up.
