Pepsi's new 'Better with Burgers' campaign caught my eye this week, with it's very simple yet effective artwork, finding the Pepsi logo in fast food retailers packaging.
While this is very clever, I feel it also highlights to the customer that none of these fast food retailers serve Pepsi, instead opting for the arguably more popular Coca Cola. It begs the question, is this campaign aimed at consumers, or at the retailers themselves?
I feel Pepsi are trying to reinforce their brand, as they have always been second to Coca Cola, whose inimitable logo is recognised worldwide. Coca Cola have reinforced their position annually with their Christmas adverts, leading to declarations that 'it's officially Christmas when you see the Coke advert!'. They play on the excitement and emotions associated with the holiday period to create the positive associations year after year, so much so that Coca Cola's Christmas adverts are pop culture classics.
The fact the 60% of consumers actually preferred Pepsi in a blind taste test just reiterates the power of strong branding and advertising. If they're managing to get the majority in a taste test for their product, something is slightly amiss with their brand and campaigns, which is keeping them off the top spot. Perhaps because as part of their campaign, they were reimbursing customers who posted a photo of them eating a burger and drinking Pepsi on National Hamburger Day... except the small print states that the depicted chains (plus several others) were excluded from this promotion. A tongue in cheek jab at them? Perhaps, but also misleading to consumers.
Will Pepsi ever become number one in the soft drinks game? This remains to be seen, but I don't feel this is the campaign that will make restaurant staff say "we only have Coca Cola, is that ok?".
