Executive SummaryWith the point of building brand mindfulness, in this way thus making a long-haul association with its purchasers, Pepsi propelled a social reason “The Pepsi Refresh Project”, with point of offering back to the people. The battle included buyers from everywhere throughout the nation applying for stipends in return for thoughts that would encourage the world and improve it a place.Utilizing the brand dollar for the improvement of the public in general, the undertaking was a win-win situation for both organization, customer and the other people. With the goals of the battle to bring issues to light and enthusiasm for Pepsi as the reasonable stage for thought creation with constant arrangement of program target messages over all media channels.
With the intended interest group of millennial age, Pepsi would have liked to make progress of making a socially capable brand through the battle’s perplexing vital arranging. The methodologies included situating Pepsi as a trustworthy inspiration through making scholarly capital around “where thoughts originate from” and throwing a national spotlight by signing contracts with the NFL, the MLB, the U.S. Men’s National Team, and NASCAR, on the usage of thoughts for invigorating change by reporting the preoccupation of assets to execute the Project to drive mindfulness and increment cooperation at grassroot level by empowering on the web commitment with the shoppers through the Project comprehension and taking in the needs of its clients.Although, the task got immense gratefulness through support, the brand perceivability and brand picture enhanced fundamentally, it made issues for the brand of relying upon the battle totally to showcase, utilizing dollars reserved for the brand promoting. Once more, the continuation of the crusade compromised the picture the persevering brand picture of the organization of capacity to delight and engage its buyers consistently.Identify the various communications used in this case.
Ans: Communication mix used by Pepsi Ltd are as follows: Advertising Sales PromotionPublic Relations and Publicity 1. Advertising: Pepsi Food Ltd used advertising to maintain their brand loyalty.Tools used in advertising:• Posters• Banners• Strikers• Glowing Banners• Painting Wall of visible places2.
Sales promotion:• Discounts• Scratch Cards• Premium Gifts• Special Event Market3. Public Relations and Publicity:Organizing eventsMusic and Dance programsCelebrity associationsShould the Pepsi brand team continue to fund Pepsi refresh project in 2011? Why and why not?Ans: The Pepsi refresh project generated very positive results for the company which were:It was declared as one of the top 5 Best Social Media Campaigns of All Time by Forbes. It was one of the most innovative marketing campaigns at that time. 6.5 million unique users registered on www.RefreshEverything.com and the total number of votes passed 87 million. 23million dollars was directed by Pepsi to fund 760 innovative ideas.
In 2011 Pepsi should continue the refresh project due to its strengths which are: 1. High awareness and engagement from the public.2. Strong marketing resources 3. Internet presence of Pepsi drastically increased. 4. Being the first company to do such a campaign, it has the first mover advantage against its competitors.
There are a few tweaks that are required to be made in the project in order to make the project bigger and better with a wide market reach as well. If the Pepsi continues to fund Pepsi Refresh in 2011, what changes would you make to the programme to better achieve the brand objective?Ans: The following point are some of the leads through which Pepsi could achieve its objectives in a better way.Pepsi missed some opportunities like they could have used Super Bowl for advertising their ‘Refresh Project’.They should try to connect their product with the Refresh Project so that people/consumers can relate the project and Pepsi’s product.Unique points should be given to the Pepsi Users for their ideasThey should focus try to on a specific cause as it was difficult to decide which cause to vote for.
They should utilize every mean of advertising like blogs, social media, etc this will create a deeper connection between the brand and the consumersKeeping a separate budget for the project and the sales activities.Do you agree with Pepsi’s decision to not advertise during the Super Bowl 2010? Why? What did they gain and what did they sacrifice by moving marketing dollars from traditional marketing?Ans: Yes, we agree that Peps should not have advertised during the Super Bowl 2010.Pepsi diverted all its funds from the Super Bowl towards its new project: Pepsi refresh; because this was a platform for change- powering people and their ideas, encouraging communities.
Pepsi planned to give away $20 million as grant money for funding projects in field of health, arts, culture, food and shelter.Gains through Refresh project:Pepsi generated huge awareness, as around 182931 ideas emerged from all 50 states.Rise in the number of followers :3 million on Facebook and 53000 on Twitter’Best social media campaign’, recognised by ForbesWon the titanium award at Cannes lions international advertising festival.Huge impact on customer (roughly 102,000 people directly and indirectly)Sacrifices:Coca-cola added 390,000 followers on Facebook’s page., took advantage of the ‘impressions generated by social media’.
Struggled to gain customers, Coca-cola became the winner of customer mind after Super bowl and this reflected adversely on the market.Pepsi’s volume decreased by 4.8% and diet Pepsi fell by 5.2% while Coca-cola gained 0.1% from Pepsi’s lost market share.Average time spent on the Refresh website was very low as the content wasn’t customer engaging leading to lower customer responsiveness.
Not able to attract the right customer through Refresh project, something Super Bowl excelled inIs Pepsi the right brand for a cause marketing program like the “Pepsi Refresh Project”? Why or why not?Ans: Although the “Pepsi Refreshing Project” had created a huge buzz- It earned media impression worth 3.24 billion; In terms of social media management, there was an increase in the Facebook followers by 3 million Facebook and Twitter by 53,000; and Forbes had named the program “the best social media campaign”. However, the main aim of the camping was to elevate the brand Pepsi. As given in the case the Pepsi sales had declined. The project was not meeting the desired objective.
Rise in the awareness with no increase in the sales shows clearly that the target audience did not relate to the brand as “capable of bringing a change with a cause”. They associated with the product as ‘sugary’ and to be consumed for leisure and fun occasions. On the other hand, as mentioned in the case, Pepsi’s volume fell by 4.8% and diet Pepsi fell 5.
2%, coca cola gained 0.1 percent from Pepsi’s lost market share. Therefore, the brand should have come up with some other strategy resonating with the brand’s core values or should have made some alterations to the current project so launched in order to increase the salesThese results might be because of loss of connection between the marketing campaign and its products. As Pepsi is claimed as unhealthy beverage, owing to its high sugar content, such a company doing good to community campaign will give a false perception to the consumers about covering its product problems.
