Sustainable Marketing

Every organisation today is looking at ways to use their resources effectively so that it does not result in wastage, eventually causing harm to the environment. Marketing has always been so much about consumption that somewhere the basic elements about preservation of the environment seems to be going amiss. This is where sustainable marketing steps in a balance between not only churning profits for the company or brand but also look at innovate ways of production.

PepsiCo has been a doer when it comes to practicing the sustainable way of production as well as performance. They moved into this practice at the start of 2000 to ensure that they deliver a valuable and sustainable system which looks at constantly improving their waste reduction and conservation of water & energy. According to PepsiCo’s 2013 Sustainability report, the organisation has kept an objective to see optimum use of water especially in water drained areas. Better packaging to not harm the environment is also an aspect they repetitively work on.

Sustainability in the human factor is also an aspect PepsiCo practices where they look at expanding their product range which are healthy, this assures higher stakeholder trust. They wish to achieve this by mitigating usage of added sugar or saturated fats. In order to do this, they have a Research & development segment in place to ensure innovation, performance and balance.

Sales Management

The objective of any product based organization is maximizing sales by achieving targets. Pepsi with its growth in sales wishes to maintain maximum market share in the soft drink industry. 

Pepsi has a network of distributors and dealers who the sales professional has to interact on a day to day basis to achieve the assigned targets. Handling this network is also one of the many objectives of sales. 

According to the sales funnel, awareness is an aspect one concentrates on to reach people who are not aware of the product and cannot be reached personally. Communication strategies helps here. When the funnel starts narrowing , there are people who drop away or are enticed by competitor products. These can be reasons why the sales of a company may not be always similar even if the communication of the product is effective. Managing promotion campaigns is one of the other goals that Sales Management has.

Since Pepsi is not a serviced based product, therefore there may not be many customer complaints that the company receives. They could definitely get suggestions from loyal customers for a new product. Complaints could come from a distributor if the stock delivered is not on time.

Pepsi holds a substantial market share in the industry and is a strong player as compared to Coca-Cola, who has been its consistent competitor in the category.

Analyzing Business Markets

Pepsi is a part of the soft drink industry, which, according to EuroMonitor International,  continues to witness growth in the year 2014. The launch of a plethora of flavours is one of the reasons to the growth.

Pepsi caters to both the business as well as consumer market.

Business to Business (B2B)
Hoteliers and fast food chains such as McDonalds & Dominoes, large scale event organizers (IPL), functions such as invoices, tracking, telephone, fax, bottles as well as chemicals for producing the drink.

Business to consumer (B2C)
Wholesalers and retailers fall actually under B2B2C as they have a primary business transaction with Pepsi to get the stock.

B2B leg is highly rationally oriented when compared to B2C which is more of an emotional driven decision making process as it basically targets the wants and needs of the customer. Business with the consumer is also driven by the choices in the various categories the consumer has.

A very interesting move in the world of B2B is the use of social media. More and more buyers by the hour are using this tool to search for vendors there. Though it may not create the same kind of connect for their B2B products,  it is still on the up rise and is being well accepted in the segment.

Analyzing Consumer Markets - Consumer Behavior

To understand consumer behavior, the first step is the stimulus response model. These in turn lead to a consumer's decision process. 

Marketing Stimuli

• Product - Pepsi
• Price - Rs. 8 (inclusive of all taxes, 200ml), Rs. 25 (600ml)
• Distribution - wholesalers, retailers, groceries
• Communications - Advertising targeting the youth

Other Stimuli

• Economic - affordable, low cost soft drink

Consumer Psychology

• Motivation - Pepsi is consumed to quench thirst (physiological needs)
• Perception - The brand perception is created by the awareness that is built by the communication strategies, the brand is perceived as a youth brand.
• Memory - Pepsi as a brand has been built over decades. An advertisement of the past which drew a lot of appeal could be a factor that gravitates one towards the brand.

Consumer Characteristics

• Cultural - We want to have a drink while we eat, a drink which is sweet and has a fizz satiates the spice in food, also cheesy products make you more thirsty
• Social - Youth
• Personal - Refreshing, sweet

 Buying Decision Process. which is the next step in the stimulus response model is explained in the earlier posts. 

To summarize, the finale purchase decision depends on the choice of the product as well as the brand which plays a role in making the decision, this is backed by the price and the time taken to purchase the product.

Branding

Pepsi as a brand has a huge value as well as a market share. A brand and a product are not the same . Pepsi is not only picked in a grocery shop, or had with a meal in a restaurant because it has a good taste. That highlights only one aspect of Pepsi as the drink. Whereas there are certain intangible benefits that the drink has such as the values of the company, the loyalty that one has towards their most liked brand, which cannot be measured. This is how Pepsi gets differentiated from other cola drinks. This differences only come about through the product characteristics. From 1960s, as seen in the picture above, the logo of Pepsi has been tweaked but the loyalty continues to remain the same. This speaks about the brand recognition factor of Pepsi, which has culminated over the years.

Brands today wish to encapsulate the customer through heartfelt experiences. This creates a competitive edge but here the understanding of non-product related characteristics is taken into account. They understand consumers better and depict that in imagery, an area where Pepsi has triumphed time and again. From an organization's point of view, in order to ensure longevity of the brand, the product line is innovated repetitively, an aspect which PepsiCo pioneers. Such a change is usually seen in the maturity phase of a product/ organization.

Brand recall for Pepsi is a reminder advertising consisting of the various advertisement campaigns, IPL Sponshorship, brand ambassadors such as Ranbir Kapoor who have been associated with the brand. All these strategies are done over the course of time so that a brand is remembered time and again by the consumer. 

A brand equity is not built over night but over a long term period of time. Pepsi's logo is world wide recognized because that is how long it has existed in this category. Their timely changing communication strategies, as well as the change in signage or logo, with the same appeal is a form of reminder advertising so as to keep the consumer aware of the existence of the brand.

According to Interbrand, Pepsi was one of the Best Global brands 2013. 

Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning

There is a need to target the consumers more intricately. An interpretation of the consumer behavior is what determines how the various market segments are made. Market segments are basically the segregation of customers according to aligned needs or wants.

The segmenting takes place according to parameters such as demographics, geographic, psychographic and behavioral. From a marketer's point of view, the lifestyle of your consumer is what needs to be taken into account. The demographic variable comes into picture after the  and behavioral aspects are clearly demarcated. Here, behavioral means the buying behavior of the customer.

In case of Pepsi, the segmenting could be as follows :

Behavioral 

Occasions - Dinners, Parties, Family functions

Benefits - Taste, Refreshing

Psychographic

Social class - Upper, Lower middle(the smallest bottle is for Rs. 10), Middle

Lifestyle - Enthusiastic, Go-getters, ambitious

 Demographic 

Age - All age groups drink Pepsi, but 14 - 35 should be a range they look at

Geographic
Pepsi reach is very refined because of their distribution system. Hence, it moves beyond the urban contours

For targeting, we see that most of Pepsi's advertisements are primarily targeted to the youth. Since the product gives a refreshing feeling on a hot summer afternoon, a cold drink is what appeals to the most. Hence, the youth or the age group specified may not be the only ones who consume the drink.

Sizes of the bottle also determine the buying behavior that satisfy a particular requirement. For example, the 2L bottle will be bought by somebody who is probably arranging a weekend get together at home.

The brand Pepsi has always been very enthusiastic in its appeal as it is a refreshing drink. Hence its association with the youth is always been there. We see that in promotional strategies, events, advertisements etc. Also their taglines, the recent one being 'Oh Yes Abhi' and 'Live For Now' resonates the same message. So the way they position themselves comes from value the product provides to its target group.