PepsiCo Overview

PepsiCo, Inc. is one to the top 100 most valuable global brands in the world according to Brandz. Pepsi Co has over 40 different products and brands on the market today.

PepsiCo, Inc. operates as a food and beverage company worldwide. Its Frito-Lay North America segment offers Lay’s potato chips, Doritos tortilla chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, Tostitos tortilla chips, branded dips, Ruffles potato chips, Fritos corn chips, and Santitas tortilla chips.

The company’s Quaker Foods North America segment provides Quaker oatmeal, grits, rice cakes, oat squares, and natural granola; and Aunt Jemima mixes and syrups, Quaker Chewy granola bars, Cap’n Crunch cereal, Life cereal, and Rice-A-Roni side dishes. Its Latin America Foods segment offers snack foods under the Doritos, Cheetos, Marias Gamesa, Ruffles, Emperador, Saladitas, Lay’s, Rosquinhas Mabel, Elma Chips, and Sabritas brands; and cereals and snacks under the Quaker brand.

The company”s PepsiCo Americas Beverages segment provides beverage concentrates, fountain syrups, and finished goods under the Pepsi, Gatorade, Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi, Aquafina, 7UP, Diet Mountain Dew, Tropicana Pure Premium, Sierra Mist, and Diet 7UP brands; and ready-to-drink tea and coffee, and juices.

PepsiCo Europe segment offers snack foods under the Lay’s, Walkers, Doritos, Cheetos, and Ruffles brands; cereals and snacks under the Quaker brand; beverage concentrates, fountain syrups, and finished goods under the Pepsi, Pepsi Max, 7UP, Diet Pepsi, and Tropicana brands; dairy products under the Domik v Derevne, Chudo, and Agusha brands; and ready-to-drink tea products.

PepsiCo Asia, Middle East and Africa segment provides snack foods under the Lay’s, Kurkure, Chipsy, Doritos, Cheetos, and Crunchy brands; cereals and snacks under the Quaker brand; beverage concentrates, fountain syrups, and finished goods under the Pepsi, Mirinda, 7UP, Mountain Dew, Aquafina, and Tropicana brands; and ready-to-drink tea products. The company sells its products to authorized bottlers, independent distributors, and retailers. PepsiCo, Inc. was founded in 1898 and is headquartered in Purchase, New York. (Yahoo, 2015)

Pepsi & Social Media

Pepsi has over twenty different drinks they created to target particular audiences. Pepsi created their Facebook page to find a way to stand out from the other soft drinks noise without creating marketing boredom. Their Facebook page seeks to target 18-35-year-olds to establish brand effectively by utilizing five critical aspects of social media marketing:

• Consumer engagement- Pepsi engage online community, with a song selection and encores for a Pepsi concert series featuring major artists to be chosen in part by tweets from the live audience and people watching online.

“Pepsi is learning that if you want to remain relevant with this new type of consumer, you have to be where they are, you have to talk their language,” and you have to connect with them in a way that “keeps them feeling like they want to be part of your brand,” says Brian Solis, a principal analyst at the Altimeter Group. Connected consumers, he adds, are “getting groomed and conditioned to expect the world to come to them.”

• User-generated content– Pepsi knows Millennials are king of the future and they interact with social media more so than any other generations. That said, social media marketing is becoming increasingly dependent on user-generated content, meaning reviews, comment, or any other input from customers. Pepsi has created a new digital dashboard on their Pepsi.com place page to support the Live For Now campaign, highlighted by user-generated messages from Facebook and Twitter that include the #LiveForNow hashtag
• Data aggregation- consumer data helps Pepsi refine its consumer engagement model, the effect of which is to attract new fans, and thus more data.
• Geo-local- Pepsi is hopping on the newest trend in social: SoLoMo, or Social, Local, Mobile. Thanks to the massive consumer adaptation of smart phones, Pepsi can integrate social media with location-based mobile marketing. This kind of micro-targeting allows brands to hunt consumers with a high-precision rifle instead of a shotgun.
• Inbound marketing– Inbound marketing companies combine three core lead generation techniques into one integrated suite of services: content creation, search engine optimization (SEO) and social media. Independently they are all essential aspects of today’s marketing mix. Taken together, they provide an efficient means of affordable lead generation.

(Horton, 2012), (Horton, 5 Ways Pepsi’s Use of Social Media is Right On, 2012)

Social Media Support

Pepsi has created multiple microsites to serve as interactive feature to draw in visitors.

DesignOurPepsiCan.com

thisisthebeginning.com

pepsifreeride.com

pepsigallery.com

To help with the small microsite Pepsi utilize Twitter and Pinterest to help push marketing tactics. Pepsi used Twitter to help with PepsiCo, Pepsi Max, Pepsi Max Crew, PepsiCo Deals, PepsiCo Jobs, Pepsi Next, as well as feeds for many of the countries in which the drink is sold. The idea is to promote Pepsi as an exciting, youthful brand that people associate with having a good time, so its feed is littered with hashtags such as #LiveForNow, #IconicSummer, #PoolParty and #duh.

Looking at the comparison chart below you can see basic stats between Coca-Cola and Pepsi. The charts primarily display Coke is about emotions and touching people/ making the world a better place where is Pepsi may be considered trendy because it caters to the average Millennial.

(Ratcliff, 2014)

Pepsi Pinterest account ran a competition for users to create a board named ‘Unbelievable Pepsi Next Party’ and pin a branded Pepsi image as well as at least two images depicting their ultimate super bowl party. This project attracted several hundred entries, which isn’t that bad for this kind of competition. Finally, there is an account that supports PepsiCo. (Moth, 2013)

Pepsi utilizing social media to build live interaction for consumers has been an excellent resource for Pepsi. Looking at Pepsi Pulse website and all of their social media account, Pepsi has created a robust social media and a social corporate site that flows well with their marketing and communication to their consumers. Based on Pepsi social media marketing and communications efforts, they understand and implement Social Media Best Practices better than your average company.

Pepsi seems to be perfect in the social media initiatives and tactics. Due to previous marketing failures, Pepsi listed to their critics and implement the change need to be successful. However, there are some things Pepsi can improve upon patient advocates. Planning patient outreach and engagement, think about using Pepsi’s new patronage approach. It just might help you bring products to market faster than the traditional approach. (Wetzel, 2013)
References

Horton, C. (2012, May 17). 5 Ways Pepsi’s Use of Social Media is Right On. Retrieved from http://www.socialmediatoday.com: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/5-ways-pepsis-use-social-media-right

Horton, C. (2012, 1 20). Inbound Marketing Part II: Evolutionary Lead Generation Techniques. Retrieved from http://engage.synecoretech.com: http://engage.synecoretech.com/marketing-technology-for-growth/bid/118295/Inbound-Marketing-Part-II-Evolutionary-Lead-Generation-Techniques

Moth, D. (2013, July 15). How Pepsi uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+. Retrieved from https://econsultancy.com: https://econsultancy.com/blog/63062-how-pepsi-uses-facebook-twitter-pinterest-and-google

Ratcliff, C. (2014, 8 14). Fight Club! Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi social media special. Retrieved from econsultancy.com: https://econsultancy.com/blog/65325-fight-club-coca-cola-vs-pepsi-social-media-special

Wetzel, D. (2013, January 24). How Pepsi’s New Arts Patronage Model Can Improve Patient Engagement. Retrieved from http://www.business2community.com: http://www.business2community.com/consumer-marketing/how-pepsis-new-arts-patronage-model-can-improve-patient-engagement-0387669

Yahoo. (2015, 5 4). finance.yahoofinance. Retrieved from Yahoo Business Summar: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=PEP+Profile

Dominos Business Overview

Domino’s Pizza, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a pizza delivery company in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Domestic Stores, Supply Chain, and International Franchise. As of February 24, 2015, the company operated approximately 11,600 stores in approximately 75 international markets. Domino’s Pizza, Inc. was founded in 1960 and is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Domino’s delivered over 400 million pizzas last year. That’s almost one pizza per person in the US. Their driver’s drive more that 10 million miles every week. Domino’s operate over 9,000 pizza places in more than 60 countries dedicated to providing great tasting pizza for carryout or delivered to your door. (Finance, 2015)

Dominos Emerging Media

Dominos have pulled out all the stops to change the consumer’s pizza experience. Over the last ten year, Dominos have addressed the following concerns:

-Product revitalization
-Listen to their customers whether it is good or bad
-Implemented Social Media tactics
-Designed and launched Advergames

• “Complete the Flavour”- The leading pizza delivery giant Domino’s Pizza requested an application to promote its online ordering service that built on an existing loyal crowd. So they designed a pizza slice tradingThe name of the game “Complete The Flavour” exploited the viral possibilities of Facebook to reward users’ based on hunger for gameplay, acknowledged achievement, and pizza with excitement, “shared” Facebook status and discounted orders during the campaign period. https://vimeo.com/37386030
• “Bol Malzemos Billards”- another Advergame built on the viral possibilities of Facebook. This game combinedthechallenge of billiards with theglamour of TV anchorwoman andsportscommentator Burcu Esmersoy to showcase Domino’s new 12 topping “Bol Malzemos” pizza. This help with Facebook fan-base andpromote online ordering. Over 53,000 registeredplayers over a 3-month campaignperiodensuredtremendoussuccess. https://vimeo.com/37383088
• Built an E-commercesite- Ordering pizza on Domino’s website is verysimple, butunderneathlays a complexsystem that is integratedwiththecompany’s callcenterandinternalorderingsystemsused in over 300 restaurants.The e-commerce system not onlyincludesadvancedfeatures like dynamicpromotioncreation, but the ability to createinstantoffersand a loyaltyprogram. Alsoenablesthemanagement of allmobileapplications from a centralized platform. (emerging-advertising-media, n.d.), (Young, 2009), (Kahn, 2014) (Anna-Louise Jackson, 2011)

Built Pizza Mobile Commerce apps for smartphones

To extend the success of online the ordering experience, Domino’s created an app for mobile users. Building a base mobile platform compatible with smartphones provide users the same advantages of easy & smart online ordering at Domino’s. (emerging-advertising-media, n.d.), (Young, 2009), (Kahn, 2014) (Anna-Louise Jackson, 2011)

The Domino’s mobile ordering application is an iPhone optimized web app, which means there’s no need to install it. By visiting Dominos.com on the Safari browser, users are served an ordering system designed specifically for iPhones or an iPod Touch. In addition, they can then create an order by tapping “Express Ordering” or “Create Your Own Pizza.” Other notable features of this web app include its pizza tracker. (emerging-advertising-media, n.d.), (Young, 2009), (Kahn, 2014) (Anna-Louise Jackson, 2011)

In addition, Domino’s is launching a new voice ordering feature in its iPhone and Android apps that is powered by Nuance’s Nina Mobile Voice speech recognition. This is a speech synthesis and natural language understanding technology. The company says the feature will provide “a human-like, conversational customer service experience that allows users to speak and order, and quickly add items to their cart. (emerging-advertising-media, n.d.), (Young, 2009), (Kahn, 2014) (Anna-Louise Jackson, 2011)

Domino’s and Blippar have created a mobile ordering app in Britain for hungry (and desperate) people with smartphones. The app interacts with billboards advertising the pizza chain’s 555 deal promotion. Consumers will scan the outdoor Domino’s ad/ posters or billboards and the app creates an augmented reality experience. This experience allow consumers to order a pizza, visit Dominos Facebook page and more. (emerging-advertising-media, n.d.), (Young, 2009), (Kahn, 2014) (Anna-Louise Jackson, 2011), (Kiefaber, 2012)

What were the effort and its impact?

Domino’s effort impact was to raise awareness and increase brand equity. That said, they interacted with 20K FB followers, they shared 67K slices, and they issued 150 discount coupons.

What needs were addressed by the campaign?

o Create groundswell for new products

o Increase sales

o Increase social interaction

o Build brand awareness

https://vimeo.com/23380918

How was the selected medium more or less effective in addressing these needs than traditional approaches?

Advergames and tailored mobile marketing apps presents an effective viral branding opportunity for Dominos to distribute exponentially branded content across a range of audiences. Through word of mouth, offline marketing and online gaming channels, consumers experience the brand in a new way. Advergames are quickly becoming a natural catalyst for generating viral advertising opportunities. The success of an Advergames is easily measured. Because prospect data and contact information are gained from game registration, brands can easily track who is visiting the site, the total accumulated hours of gameplay, and the number of times a game was referred or e-mailed to a friend all valuable information to marketers.

Advergames are typically posted to a special area of an organization’s Web site, and are distributed to consumers through e-mail or accessed from popular online gaming portals.

How did the marketer address permission concerns? Was this even an issue?

There were no permission concerns, because Dominos format allow users to opt in or out of this game.

What do you think the overall consumer experience was in using this approach?

The overall consumer experience using this approach was fun and exciting for n the consumer. This process allows the consumer to have fun with products they love without having to receive phone calls or unwanted emails.

References

Anna-Louise Jackson, A. F. (2011, 10 17). Domino’s ‘Brutally Honest’ Ads Offset Slow Consumer Spending. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-10-17/domino-s-brutally-honest-ads-offset-slowing-consumer-spending

emerging-advertising-media. (n.d.). emerging-advertising-media. Retrieved from http://emerging-advertising-media.wikispaces.com/Advergaming

Finance, Y. (2015, 4 19). Domino’s Pizza, Inc. Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=DPZ+Profile

Kahn, J. (2014, 5 16). Domino’s Pizza launches voice ordering in mobile apps powered by Nuance. Retrieved from http://9to5mac.com: http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/16/dominos-pizza-launches-voice-ordering-in-mobile-apps-powered-by-nuance/

Kiefaber, D. (2012, 1 5). Domino’s Mobile App Lets You Order Right Off a Billboard App uses augmented reality. Retrieved from http://www.adweek.com: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/dominos-mobile-app-lets-you-order-right-billboard-137335

Young, A. (2009, 9 16). Pizza Hut vs. Domino’s: Who Delivered the Best Media Strategy? Retrieved from http://adage.com: http://adage.com/article/media/pizza-hut-domino-s-media-strategy/139027/

Ford Tweet, Tweet

Ford is one of the first companies to embrace Twitter. Ford has also been quick to ensure its profile and header images are correctly optimized to the new format. Much like Facebook, Ford uses Twitter as an engagement channel. It’s a sterling effort and one that many companies could learn from. Thanks to the new layout, consumers can click between Ford’s tweets only and Ford’s tweets and replies. It’s under the latter tab that you can see the vast amount of conversation that Ford engages with.

Ford also asks followers’ permission to use their images that they’ve tweeted about the brand to further promotion of other channels. Ford understands the value of its customers and making them brand ambassadors through the retweeting of their images only fosters a deeper sense of loyalty. Building a brand nowadays requires instant customer feedback. Because of social media, Ford can create brand ambassadors, reach connectors and build groundswell that in turn causes repetition that increases consumers to buy. (Ratcliff, 2014)

Too much Twitter

Sometimes too much social can backfire. The biggest challenges for Ford is trying to become more involved in social networking. Ford can become too focused on being social and miss the creative and innovation side when designing their automobiles. Listing too much to the social world some companies tend to miss the true meaning of the conversation. That can be a game changer in any case.

Seven Solutions

There may be some social challenges; however, Ford presented their customers and/or employees with options to interact with each other. Ford is the first auto company that have been able to manage their social because they built their social media program for the ground floor. Their social foundations are built on the following principals:

• People trust corporations less so with the rise of social media you need to allow other people through word of mouth create trust for you through Social Media (it amplifies your message)
• Reached out to those who are listening and let them do the talking for you and to connect with people like themselves
• Let them know that you are real people just like them and are passionate about what they do and the Ford Brand
• Run a competition involving Social Media eg.. To be selected to drive a Ford Fiesta for six months – select 100 of those who are “socially vibrant” such as Michelle McCormack.
• Aggregated the content on Fords Fiesta movement website (crowd sourcing content) without editing it!
• Implemented multiple Social Media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to create digital buzz
• “Get On Board” the executive team and the board of directors

(Bullas, The 7 Secrets to Ford’s Social Media Marketing Success, n.d.)

Twitter Benefits

Since the implementation of the Twitter, Ford has found a new way of doing customer service. Twitter customer service account helps customers out who may be having challenges, or who may be just bought a car or other deals. “Ford Service” is there interacting with people every day as well. And then we have other Twitter accounts that are nameplate specific: “Ford Mustang,” “Ford Trucks,”, etc. And then similarly all around the world. When you go to Facebook, we have about 80 different pages all around the world. (Edwards, 2012)

Ford vs GM on Twitter.

Currently, Ford is winning the social media sprint between GMC. Ford connects with all levels of social media. Ford find that effective crowdsourced content is that is free and much more efficient and powerful than anything a company can achieve through telling and selling. The trick is motivating others to tell your story, and that is where the true power of social media marketing lies. They find that there is a lot more content created by the fans of Ford (crowd sourced content) than GM’s strategy of controlled content from the GM beauracracy. GM on the other hand, their approach has been very controlled and blog-centric with a presence on the social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. You will notice that except for comments the content is all created by GM, with no almost no user generated content, so in essence General Motors approach is very much one of control and reacting rather than being proactive and positive. Analyzing the two, you will find the following:

1. Proactive (Ford) vs Reactive  (General Motors)
2. Positive (Ford) vs Negative (General Motors)
3. Open (Ford) vs Controlled (General Motors)

(Bullas, n.d.), (Bullas, The 7 Secrets to Ford’s Social Media Marketing Success, n.d.)

Maximize Presence on Twitter

Since Ford is leading the auto social trend, to maximize their presences, they may want to show live video of cars being made, packaged and shipped around the world.

Read the Content

Getting people to read blogs/ content should simple. But for others it is hard to do. I may require hours to come up with content, but the real push is to find the right content and words to help create a good read. Once that’s done, use the following easy design techniques to make your content much more reader-friendly. It takes just a few minutes to turn a post from an overwhelming mass of gray text to something that engages the reader and pulls them in.

1. Embrace the line break- There are few easier ways to make your content more readable. Even complex content can be made much more reader-friendly with the simple introduction of lots of white space.
2. Break up your content with compelling subheads- One technique taught here at Copy blogger is to write your headline and subheads first. A strong headline (and therefore a strong premise) is vital to getting readers to come check you out in the first place.
3. Use bulleted lists

They create fascinations your readers can’t resist

They’re an easily-scannable way to present multiple points

They look different from the rest of your text, so they provide a visual break for your reader

4. Use deep captions.- Studies have shown that image captions are consistently some of the most-read copy on a page. Try pairing a strong image with a “deep caption.”
5. Add highly relevant links- Internal links back to your own cornerstone content will keep people on your site and reading your best material.
6. Use strategic formatting- Add emphasis to your web copy by bolding important concepts. You reader will be able to scan through and pick out the most important information at a glance.
7. Harness the power of numbers- Think those numbered list posts are tired? Think again. Numbers are an incredibly effective way to both capture attention and to keep the reader oriented.
8. Check your dual readership path- Once you’ve used subheads, numbers, bulleted lists and other formatting to highlight the key elements of your post, read through it again — looking only at the text you’ve called special attention to. (Wilson, n.d.)

References

Bullas, J. (n.d.). The 7 Secrets to Ford’s Social Media Marketing Success. Retrieved from http://www.jeffbullas.com: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/02/18/the-7-secrets-to-fords-social-media-marketing-success/

Bullas, J. (n.d.). Who Is Winning At Social Media Marketing: Ford or General Motors ? Retrieved from http://www.jeffbullas.com: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/03/07/who-is-winning-at-social-media-marketing-ford-or-general-motors/#oVW94YiFozI6KmZz.99

Edwards, J. (2012, 10 15). Ford Social Media Chief Scott Monty Tells Us Whether Advertising On Facebook Actually Works. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com: http://www.businessinsider.com/qa-fords-scott-monty-on-social-media-2012-10#ixzz3Ww1W7a5L

Ratcliff, C. (2014, 4 15). Why is Ford’s social media strategy so good? Retrieved from econsultancy.com: https://econsultancy.com/blog/64701-why-is-ford-s-social-media-strategy-so-good/

Wilson, P. (n.d.). 8 Incredibly Simple Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content. Retrieved from http://www.copyblogger.com: http://www.copyblogger.com/scannable-content/