The Pepsi Ultimate Taste Challenge 2012: Social Enough Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

The Pepsi Ultimate Taste Challenge 2012: Social Enough

The Pepsi Ultimate Taste Challenge 2012: Social Enough

Problem/Issue Statement

Wether the director marketing should approve the social media strategy drafted by the BBDO (An Advertising Agency) or to recommend the necessary changes. The director marketing had a detailed look at the social media strategy and analyzed it carefully. Now he had to decide about either to approve the plan or to ask BBDO to make necessary changes.

Situational Analysis

Internal Analysis

  • Strengths

v  Established global brand image

v  Diversified range of products

v  Strong financial position

v  Market leader in Canada

Pepsi has a well-established brand image across the globe. Its presence in over 190 countries makes it a global brand as it has maintained quality standards from the beginning.Its diversified of range products makes everyone its brand loyal and can select the desired product form different categories. Since its has a very well established brand namethat results in a impressive sales across the globe ;therefore, Pepsi has a strong financial position all over the world including Canada. Pepsi enjoys a market share of 45.3 % in country like Canada where the soft drink market is highly competitive.  It’s reputation in Canada is quiet good and the company is using it’s strengths in an optimistic manner.

  • Weaknesses

v  Lack of promotional offers

v  Low consumers knowledge

v  Other products of Pepsi suffers sometimes

It has been noticed that Pepsi came across with limited promotional offers. It is mentioned in the case that its competitor, Coca Cola has sponsored the London summer’s Olympics and UEFA champions league, which might give a great boom to Coca Cola’s promotion strategy; whereas Pepsi didn’t play a massive role in such high profile events.  Some health issues have been highlighted by researchers regarding the usage of soft or carbonated drink that their excess consumption may be harmful for health. Pepsi is lacking in this regard because they are still not creating awareness to overcome this issue. Moreover, somtimes due to extra focus on Pepsi, the other brand of the company suffers. They spent more on Pepsi and spent comparatively less on their other products.

Internal Analysis

  • Opportunities

v  Broadening of Product Base

v  International Expansion

v  Food industry growing across the globe and in Canada as well.

v  Rising revenues allows spending more.

v  Social Media Promotion

Since Pepsi has a very well-established brand name so they can easily use the opportunity of coming up with new range of products. People trust Pepsi that will surely help them to launch the products in a confident manner and to gain the advantage of already their established brand name. International expansion opportunities are also available for Pepsi to further expand their business in the remaining countries of the world.  Moreover, in Canada they must also go for the domestic expansion because they already hold the biggest market share of 45.3% in Canada which will surely help them in domestic expansion.Food industry across the globe and in Canada is flourishing at a rapid pace, so it is a major opportunity for Pepsi to have strategic alliances with different food chains; which will increase the brand recall for Pepsi as well. Rising revenues allow Pepsi to spend more and more on branding options that is definitely an excellent sign for any company, specifically in a country like Canada where the beverage market is extremely competitive. The channel of social media can be very useful. The reason is quiet simple because it has a great reach across the globe and the target segment for Pepsi; which is between 16-25 years of age uses the social network as a majority. Social media’s cost is very less as compared to other promotion options and has a great audience reach. So this social media promotion strategy can play a vital role in form of ultimate taste challenge.

  • Ø  Threats

v  Heavy campaign by competitors

v  Gigantic competitor (Coca Cola)

v  Health Awareness

Coca Cola is the only biggest threat for Pepsi because they are present all over the world and enjoys a big share than Pepsi across the globe. Moreover, the awareness regarding the carbonated drinks can be a big threat to Pepsi because researchers ask people to avoid carbonated drinks.

Porter’s five forces for analyzing overall situation

Porter Five Forces Model

Porter Five Forces Model distinguishes and inspects five competitive forces that shape out the likely pros and cons .................................

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In April 2012, director of marketing for Pepsi Beverages Canada assessed plans to launch versions of year that is traditionally called Call Pepsi. Now called the taste Pepsi Ultimate Challenge, campaign objectives were very aggressive, and of course, Coke vs. Pepsi battle has always been difficult. Novelty of the summer of 2012 was the emphasis on social media, and interaction between social media and the Ultimate Challenge taste. In addition, the marketing director was oriented Millenials in the segment of the target market. These customers have been extremely difficult for the group to market to. Marketing Director, praised the proposal he had received and had to decide whether to approve it or the changes were necessary to achieve their goals share. "Hide
and June Cotte, Jawwad Khurshid, Jill Campbell, Paul Strachan, Zoe Baldwin Source: Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation 6 pages. Publication Date: June 18, 2012. Prod. #: W12437-PDF-ENG

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