We looked briefly at the current upheaval in the Snacks Space earlier this week. Now, it appears this summer will see an all-out promo war between eternal rivals Coke and Pepsi…
It all started when Pepsi lost it’s traditional second spot in the international soda rankings to usual third-place runner Dr. Pepper last year. Since then, industry observers have been trying to figure out what happened. And keeping a close eye on what Pepsi will do next to try to win back market share.
Pepsi flailing
Then, earlier this year, Pepsi slid even further down the ladder, pushed back into 4th place overall by Coke-family brand Sprite. Which is a traditional head-to-head challenger to Pepsi’s Iconic 7-UP brand lemon-lime soda. And that development left Pepsi flailing in panic.
Since then, the glare of Pepsi’s embarrassment has been unbearable for the beleaguered brand. And some pretty big countermeasures have been set in motion.
Jumping the cue
First, a few weeks ago, Pepsi announced it had bought upstart functional beverage brand Poppi. That aggressive new player in the soda sector had everything Pepsi wanted in a new look and feel to ap-peal to the fast-expanding ‘health and wellness’ recreational bevs market.
Pepsi had been trying to develop its own brand aimed at that blossoming market space, but had lit-tle success. So it decided to just buy into the ‘new way forward’ by acquiring an established player.
But the main target of Pepsi’s comeback effort remains arch-rival Coke.
What’s happening now?
In the past, Pepsi has traditionally followed along, responding to Coke’s market-leading, innovative promotional moves. Rather than taking charge and leading the way with its own creative triumphs. Observers said the situation would ever be thus, unless Pepsi got more aggressive, more needy. And it appears that time has come.
Newstalgia is key
The current, overwhelming, ‘newstalgia’ trend in the marketing of virtually all consumer products – but particularly foods – has caught products such as snacks and recreational beverages in a particularly sticky competitive web. All brands including the leaders are suffering sales and revenue declines, as consumers see the last tatters of their disposable income being sucked up by more and more-costly necessities.
Pepsi strikes back
With King Coke at the most vulnerable place it’s been in years, the brand leader is resurrecting and updating its award-winning Share A Coke campaign from years gone by highly-successful ploy replaced the name ‘Coke’ in the coke ,logo on cans and bottles with people-names. The idea was to pick up a Coke for yourself, plus one bearing the name of a friend to give the amigo a personalized gift.And it blew the lid of the marketplace – for a while…
The Coke ‘Share’ campaign is back, updated with a limited-time program by which you can order customized bottles and cans with ANY name you want. A classic newstalgia move.
But Pepsi is proving the power-player, upstaging the Coke reprise with its own campaign, suggesting Coke’s approach is lame. Coke’s ads are saying, “Share a Coke with…’Dave’, ‘Sarah’ and ‘Riley’.” But Pepsi’s are copying Coke’s graphics designs, insisting that ‘Food deserves Pepsi’,Ans subboug out the people names on it’s own logo with food names such as ‘Wings’, ‘Burgers’ and ‘Pizza’.
Brutal!
But that’s not all…
Pepsi is also taking a companion tack: employing the ancient and venerable – but potentially backfiring – ‘make fun of yourself’ gimmic.
According to a recent story on FoodDrive.com, “The ‘Share a Coke’ parody arrives just a month after Pepsi launched ads that show its team of hapless Crashers — operatives who go undercover to convince people to switch to Pepsi — storming barbecues to swap out Cokes for Pepsi. Previous stunts using the candid-camera style of filming saw the Crashers conduct similar operations when chasing down delivery drivers and barging into restaurants where only Coca-Cola products are served.”
Everybody loves a celebrity or product that can ‘have a laugh on itself’. It shows the brand has the confidence that you’ll laugh with with them, not at them. Pepsi is banking on the fact that everybody knows it’s desperate to regain market share. And that the self-satire won’t be lost on the audience.
My take
Call it newstalgia with a DOUBLE twist. Brilliant! And I predict Pepsi will reap benefits with it through the coming summer – if it can keep up the comic pace it has set for itself!
~ Maggie J.