The Pepsi Refresh Project

The Pepsi Refresh Project: A Case Study

Strategic Issues and Problems

The Pepsi Refresh Project case study focuses on challenges faced by the marketing team for PepsiCo in December of 2010. Ana Maria Irazabal, Senior Marketing Director and the leader of the company’s Social Good Program, The Pepsi Refresh Project, was tasked with finding the appropriate marketing strategy to move PepsiCo forward in 2011. In 2009, faced with declining sales and a loss of market share, along with a six-year period of decline in consumption of cola beverages among all brands, Pepsi created a new marketing platform. The goal was to increase brand awareness and attract Millenials (consumers aged 17-27), while trying to keep Baby Boomers from exiting the soft drink market. This would hopefully be achieved by highlighting the connection between the shared values and attitudes of both demographics. In 2009, Pepsi launched their new campaign called “Refresh”, with the tagline “Every generation refreshes the world”. The strategy behind the Refresh Project was to revamp Pepsi’s image to be more in-sync with the concerns of consumers in relation to a company’s social impact. The project was a major success in 2010, but Pepsi was still lacking the surge in sales they had hoped to achieve with the new initiative. Even with a huge increase in customer interaction via social media and a new approach to reaching customers through traditional media outlets, Pepsi still saw a 4.8% decrease in the volume of Pepsi, and a 5.2% decrease in the volume of Diet Pepsi.

Gearing up for 2011, two major questions had to be answered by the marketing team. First, Irazabal wanted to know if Pepsi should continue funding the Refresh Project using funds originally earmarked for conventional advertising, or if they should scrap the project and divert the funds to new initiatives. Second, if they were to continue the project, how should they tweak the marketing strategy and execution to use the...