A few days back, we made our first reference to a recent heating-up of the eternal cold war between the soda giants… Coke fired the first shot. Now Pepsi is firing back with a new, expanded beverage service regime…
Not to be outdone by arch competitor Coke, Pepsi has launched a new soda dispensing system and new tastes de-signed to broaden soda fans’ flavour horizons.
The Pepsi ‘House of Treats’ is described as, “a new ‘crafted beverages’ platform designed to deliver ‘experience-first’ drinks across key Away From Home channels this year,” the official news release trumpets. “Tapping into con-sumer demand for beverage custom-ization, flavour exploration and ‘treat-anomics’, the platform offers multisen-sorial beverages exclusively through select PepsiCo entertainment and hos-pitality partners.”
It sounds a lot like the approach unveil-ed by the Coca-Cola Co. less than a week ago. The Coke folks say their new Freestyle 2.0 dispens-ers are targeted to convenience stores, movie theatres, smaller venues where conventional fountain systems are not practical, and – they hope – Fast Food outlets.
A slightly different angle
But Pepsi is taking off on a slightly different tangent, focusing on its existing beverage line: “Pepsi ‘House of Treats’ is designed for effortless customization at scale, and built for rapid […] service and seamless integration into existing operations.”
“As a core pillar of PepsiCo’s Meaningful Food and Drink Experience strategy, it allows high-volume venues such as sports stadiums, restaurant chains and theatre networks to serve visually striking drinks without compromising taste or operational efficiency, while enhancing how fans engage with live entertainment, from sports to music, and reflecting a broader cultural shift toward experience-first consumption.”
New flavour options
The House of Treats regime will offer fans a selection of new flavour options. Judging solely by the promo photos supplied with the news release, the idea is to add them as ‘shots’ to Pepsi’s existing bever-ages, including their flagship cola, lemon-lime Sprite and Fanta fruit-flavoured selections. Maybe even Mountain Dew…
Part of a larger initiaive
Pepsi makes no secret that the House of Treats is just part of a much larger vision, designed to make Pepsi, “the Global Leader in Beverages and Convenient Foods.”
“”The role of beverages is evolving from functional refreshment into a much more experiential and culturally-relevant occasion,” Eugene Willemsen, CEO of International Beverages at PepsiCo said in a statement. “Consumers are increasingly seeking personalized, elevated experiences that feel memor-able and worth sharing. Pepsi ”House of Treats” is designed to meet that shift.”
My take
Pepsi has clearly bought itself a huge set of new shoes. Whether it can fill them is yet to be seen. It’s also elected to take a somewhat different approach to beverage customization from that which com-petitor Coke is adopting. We’ll also have to wait to see which soda giant made the right decision…
~ Maggie J.