Pepsi and Social Media

The Pepsi Company has been very successful and forward-looking in its use of social media in recent years. PepsiCo has used social media in two different campaigns which helped them to demonstrate how powerful the involvement of consumers is. Pepsi feels that utilizing different forms of social media is a fundamental part of effective marketing. Involving consumers in the innovation of Pepsi’s products and brands will encourage word-of-mouth communications about the modernization or changes. These types of consumer communications about the Pepsi brand will influence revenue and profit of the company.

The two campaigns during which Pepsi used this social media philosophy were Mountain Dew DEWmocracy and the Pepsi Refresh Project. The DEWmocracy campaign was based off of the question “What if we gave the power to our consumers to lead product innovation”? This campaign allowed customers to use an interactive video game to develop new MountainDew products, which resulted in the creations of MountainDew Voltage.

The second campaign through which Pepsi used social media was the Pepsi Refresh Project. This campaign didn’t focus on products, yet instead deal with adding value to the community. Consumers would offer and promote ideas which could move the world forward. PepsiCo designated $20 million to fund different ideas which had been created by ordinary customers. This interactive social media campaign has generated over three million visitors and 16 million votes on the project’s website. The generosity in this project has helped people to see the company as not only fun but also socially responsible. By creating these campaigns instead of using traditional advertising, Pepsi is showing the impact it can have on consumers through social media and empowering the customer.

Introduction

My name is Nicole Paschal and I am a senior at Quinnipiac University. This blog will be used as part of my Corporate Public Relations class. In this blog I will be commenting on PepsiCo,which is #50 on the list of the Fortune 500 companies.

PepsiCo is the 2nd largest food and beverage company in the world. It includes 19 different product lines which each generally over $1 billion dolars in annual sales. The company's headquaters is located in Purchase, NY and the business employees a total of 285,000 people worldwide. Different product lines owned by Pepsi include Frito-Lay, Quaker, Pepsi-Cola, Tropicana and Gatorade. There are more than 200 counties which sell these Pepsi brands in addition to the hundreds of others popular foods and drinks. 61% of sales are in the United States and Canada with 39% of their revenue coming from international. Pepsi's commitment to sustainable growth, known as Performance with Purpose, has helped the company to obtain revenues of nearly $60 billion each year. This company bases itself on having healthy, convient and nourshing products, reducing environmental impacting and providing a positive workplace atmosphere. (www.pepsi.com)