Most Recent Pepsi Co example essay topic

Why Crystal Pepsi and Others Failed We live in a day and age where marketing and advertising is stronger then ever. It is essentially in our face every where we turn, from the clothes we wear to the music we listen to and even the device we use to listen to our music. Marketing and advertising touches our lives everyday without our really ever even noticing it. Marketing professionals have a difficult challenge before them in figuring out a way to create a public interest, and a want for their products if they are to become adopted. Various marketing communications tools provide the means to which they will best reach the public.

In the early 1990's marketing professionals for Pepsi Co choose to heavily promote and advertise a new variation of their popular original Pepsi formula creating one of the largest craze's for a soda variation in the last two decades. April 13th 1992, Pepsi Co introduced an exciting change to its popular Pepsi product in the test cities of Providence, Denver, and Dallas and called it Crystal Pepsi. This is believed by many to have been one of the best ideas that Pepsi Co had ever came out with, as they simply removed any and all coloring from Pepsi, creating a healthier and visually stimulating product. During the 1980's, Madison Avenue advertisers created one of our society's most aberrant spectacles yet, the pinnacle of decades of pop culture and advertising prowess, The Cola Wars. In our technological, media-driven, consumer-happy, and product-driven culture, selling and consuming soda has certainly become one of our biggest American pastimes. Coca-Cola and Pepsi Co squared off for decades in various advertising coups trying to sell more soda to the already overly indulgent American public.

A seemingly easy goal, but these companies have tried everything from using pop-stars, bold and daring challenges and most recently the chance to win a billion dollars on national television just for drinking their products. Throughout the 1990's, this trend continued. Among many new advertising campaigns, many soda companies tried introducing flashy new products that would catch as much media attention as possible. Crystal Pepsi sailed through the approval process. Focus groups loved the stuff, and test marketing was excellent. Crystal Pepsi went national in 1993 with a full scale media campaign featuring Van Halen's 'Right Now.

' In the ad blitz that followed, sales were impressive... and then it flopped. Perhaps the American culture wasn't too easily fooled when it came to taking a familiar product and putting a new spin on it. Maybe the flavor difference was just too distracting. However the massive ad campaign was impressive. The soda's splash on the market was highlighted by being the focus of a Saturday Night Live parody for 'Crystal Gravy' featuring Kevin Neal on & Julia Sweeney dipping turkey drumsticks into a clear, gel-like replacement for everyday gravy (Captain Mike).

The last phase of Crystal Pepsi's life was when it was re-solicited to the masses as a citrus flavor drink. It was quickly drowned in a sea of other flavored, non-cola beverages. Today, a web search for the term 'Crystal Pepsi' turns up over 160,000 web sites usually discussing in passing as in 'It will fail quicker than Crystal Pepsi' or 'Remember Crystal Pepsi? Me neither. ' It is a true urban legend among the last wave of Generation X-errs and the subsequent children of the 1980's.

According to an article published by CNN Money, "Pepsi Blue was one of more than 100 concepts Pepsi tested. Two-thirds of teen-a gers the company asked said they would buy it regularly, the company said. 'Pepsi Blue has the potential to reinvigorate the cola category,' said Gary Rockin, CEO of Pepsi Co North America. Though Coke has been No. 1 in soft drinks for decades, analysts have pointed to Pepsi's strong growth in recent years that has helped it gain ground on its larger rival. Dave Berwick, Pepsi's senior marketing vice president, had said in a statement that the company had been considering a 'cola fusion' for months, and that the majority of teenagers polled said they would like to see a berry-flavored cola with a blue color. Since it is aimed at a youth market, Pepsi planed to sample the cola at teen-oriented places and advertise it on the Internet and through outdoor postings" (CNN Money).

While Pepsi Blue showed early promise just like Crystal Pepsi, once again time come to see Pepsi Blue pulled off of shelves and Pepsi Co add another failed variation to its history books. Where would Pepsi be if they didn't join the care craze of the new-millennium? After all how could they resist trying to grab a piece of the niche where sales grew a healthy 42% to $478.3 million for the current 13-week period ended June 12, 2004" (Wilke)? Americans know they are getting fatter and seem that they will try anything and everything possible to try and shed a few pounds with out having to give up there taste buds appetite. Taken from an article published on Forbes. com, "Except for the fact that Pepsi Co has triumphed by taking it out of the hides of Americans -- or, more accurately, by adding a great deal more to those hides. There is no denying that as a nation we are tipping, if not actually breaking, the scales.

Today, according to the Centers for Disease Control, 61% of all U.S. adults are considered either overweight or obese; the rate for kids aged 6-19 is 15%" (Wells). It would be insane to not go after a piece of this market which is actually showing a little promise of not becoming just another fad. Pepsi has done so by releasing its own care conscious variation of its original formula and thusly named it "Pepsi Edge" and even brought in people from NBC's "The Apprentice" to design its bottle. The most recent Pepsi Co release is "Holiday Spice", a limited time only cinnamon and ginger spiced version of its famous cola. So far from bulletins posted on various websites, testimonials, and word in the classrooms, the verdict is unanimous, it is tastes horrible. It comes as no real surprise that yet another variation to the Pepsi formula would fail so rapidly.

All of this begs to ask the questions, if so many of these variations fail and leave people with a bitter taste, then why do these major soda company's continue to spend millions developing, bottling and advertising variations of their already well liked and popular formula? The answer is actually very simple, if you stop re-positioning your product, trying new things, sparking public interest and excitement, then eventually people will get bored with your product and try someone else's new creation. In this writer's opinion "Crystal Pepsi", "Pepsi Blue" and many of the others various creations of Pepsi Co did not fail, they just fazed out and had to morph into something else that would keep the public interested. It would not be all that surprising to see Crystal Pepsi come back for a short while just so Pepsi Co could watch the public reaction and practically let the variation sell itself just from all the hype. Americans are influential, cogent beings that seem to love hype and drama more than most cultures. There will always be someone out there who will fight to no end to say a product stunk and failed miserably and there will always be the other guy who will defend the product, even 11 plus years after it was pulled off the shelves.

The secret to marketing is to never stop changing, go after your target and create a want the public didn't even know about. One the more popular reasons for why these variations seem to fail is the most obvious, taste. If the majority of consumers agree that the new variation tastes bad, then they will not try it again and be sure to tell all there friends and family how bad it tastes. The tools of influence have a huge role in determining whether a product will have any success in the now and the long run.

Although Crystal Pepsi was written off as a huge failure, with millions spent in advertising, its legend lives on for many hard core Pepsi lovers.