BY ANDREA OKOYE
Pepsi Cola is my best brand of drink when it comes to carbonated drinks.
Overtime, it has become the most youth–friendly brand all over the globe. PepsiCo’s region of origin is New Bern, North Carolina in the United States of America.
It is manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed about 130 years ago in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad’s Drink, PepsiCo was later renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, 125 years later. Fast forward to another 61 years, it was again renamed Pepsi in 1961. By the late 1920s, it had become a household name and remained the second most valuable carbonated drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola. The brand gained large followers by smartly using celebrity endorsements in the likes of Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and Beyoncé as its brand ambassadors. Actor Ranveer Singh was made its grand ambassador.
Interestingly, when it comes to some of its production analyses, alcohol content is about 0.0001 per cent.
Alcoholic level is as low as 10 mg and so it is in every litre of these drinks. Putting it in perspective, this is about 0.0001 per cent alcohol. The Pepsi soft drink has different names of brand drinks and Crystal Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Cola, Pepsi Fire, Pepsi Jazz Black Cherry & Vanilla., Pepsi Jazz, Strawberries & Cream Pepsi Lime, Pepsi Mango and Starry drink. Starry drink is Pepsi newest drink launched and unveiled in early 2023. This new development actually freshened up its beverage line-up with a new formulation for Pepsi zero sugar. STARRY is a lemon lime – flavoured soda that is produced to replace Sierra Mist.
There is unhealthy competition when it comes to two big brands like Pepsi and Coca cola. Often times, question like ‘if Pepsi is healthier than Coca cola’ is asked.
Obviously, the answer remains a big gigantic ‘No!’ No, because Coca-Cola and Pepsi are as healthy as each other. Coke and Pepsi contain an identical amount of sugar, caffeine, and calories. The main concern with sodas is the sugar content.
Again, Pepsi’s brand image is well-known for being contemporary and young. That’s why Pepsi continues to focus on employing ambassadors and celebrity endorsement to connect with the younger generation. It targets a wide range of consumers, including young adults, families, health-conscious individuals, and sports fans. No wonder it endorsed Messi and Christine Ronaldo, the best two football stars in the world. Mikel Obi, Nigerian former football midfielder and other Nigeria Sports stars have also won the brand’s ambassadorial crowns.
In the area of marketing, the company designs its marketing campaigns to appeal to different market segments, and it uses market segmentation to target particular consumer groups with customized marketing messages. As a brand, Pepsi has positioned itself as one that embodies young energy. Demographically, Iits target age group ranges from 15 to 45, male and female respectively. This can be seen throughout their marketing and advertising campaigns. As you can see, it has a long and exciting history of marketing tips. The brand has used a variety of marketing strategies over the years to build its presence and become a global brand. Most importantly, it has used the power of celebrity endorsements, innovative campaigns, and powerful advertising to reach its target audience. Yearly, it records over $7.12 billion sales from Nigeria and produces over 1 billion Pepsi carbonated drinks disbursed and distributed to several regions ranging from wholesaling and retailing.
Since Pepsi brand graced West Africa, Nigeria has been seen as one of the most dominating countries, selling and producing authorized Pepsi at a high rate improving the stock exchange and the economy. Nigeria being the giant of Africa, has given some of her afrobeat stars the opportunity to work with Pepsi as brand ambassadors. No wonder the enviable brand has gracefully endorsed top five (5) Nigerian musical Stars as brand ambassadors and a few disk jokers (DJs). Interestingly, they are well paid and cared for. For example, Davido.is paid $100M, Wizkid. $12.9 million, Tiwa Savage. $38.9k, Rema. $1.5k and Ayra Starr is paid $100k. This is why I said Pepsi is a youth–friendly brand.
It has also been one of the sponsors of the controversial Reality TV Show, Big Brother Naija, formerly known as Big Brother Nigeria It’s a Nigerian reality competition television series based on the Big Brother television franchise, in which young contestants live in an isolated house and compete for a large cash prize and other material prizes at the end of the show by avoiding being evicted .The carbonated drink brand has tremendously produced numerous brand influencers from this great TV reality show.
With inflation currently rising at 24 per cent and unemployment rate among youths at 54 per cent, this enviable international business has provided job to both skilled and unskilled Nigerians. In other words, it has helped salvage the situation of this unpleasant development that has compelled many youths to go into vices like cultism and armed robbery. Others have joined the ‘japa’ bandwagon in search of greener pastures abroad, leading to unending brain drain issues. The Pepsi brand has undoubtedly greatly empowered the youths in Nigeria and across the globe.
According to Indira, the former CEO of PepsiCo, she said and I quote ” Pepsi is a drink for the youth, Coca-Cola is for the old people.” What a competitive rivalry quote ! Anyways, the legacy of the impact Pepsi has brought to Nigeria will always be felt and celebrated for a long time. I sincerely wish that the youths will be ignited with the vision of its impact and own their talents. I hope the core values of service, sacrifice, and significance, which this great brand Pepsi will be boldly embodied, appreciated and be allowed to spur the youths as they become future serial entrepreneurs and journey through life pursuit, purpose and sell discovery of whom they are truly destined to be.
Thank you, Pepsi brand, for being a youth–friendly brand.
You always make my day after my busy days. It’s always love at first sip of chilled Pepsi cola.
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