What will the potato chip of the future look and taste like? PepsiCo aims to find out. The food and beverage giant announced this week that it is opening a new long-term research laboratory next to the Yale campus in New Haven, Conn.
The facility will employ eight to 10 scientists with backgrounds ranging from sensory to biochemistry. Their goal: To create healthier foods and beverages.
The "Get Your Fruit On!" campaign, launching this month to tie in with National Fruit and Vegetable Month, looks to get the word out that 7 in 10 adults, as well as most children, are not consuming the USDA-recommended four fruit servings -- and that an eight-ounce glass of OJ delivers two of those servings. "Surprisingly, we've learned a majority of orange juice drinkers are unaware that 100% orange juice contributes to their daily fruit intake," commented Tropicana CMO Andy Horrow in the PepsiCo brand's announcement of the campaign.
Companies often perfect each stage of a rebranding plan before moving on to the next one. For example, the design agency typically settles on a logo before handing off to the people working on the package. To save time, d'Amore decided to adopt the so-called concurrent model: design the logos, create the packaging, shoot the TV commercials, and so forth simultaneously. He acknowledges that this is riskier but insists the enhanced speed and agility are worth it. "Aiming for perfection is the enemy of good progress," d'Amore says. And if getting the project done in time meant inserting himself in the creative process—highly unusual for a CEO—then so be it. After all, he had marketing experience.
One of the first Arnell-d'Amore productions was a TV spot for SoBe Lifewater, a beverage d'Amore wanted to reposition to take on Coca-Cola's (KO) vitaminwater. It was an early glimpse of d'Amore's management style. After giving the job to Arnell Group, he fired SoBe's existing ad agency, Bartle Bogle Hegarty. He and Arnell then cooked up the idea for the ad together—a sendup of Michael Jackson's Thriller video featuring lizards dancing with model Naomi Campbell. Later, d'Amore flew to Los Angeles to help edit the commercial.
The turnaround comes after three decades during which high-fructose corn syrup had been gaining on sugar in the American diet. Consumption of the two finally drew even in 2003, according to the Department of Agriculture. Recently, though, the trend has reversed. Per capita, American adults ate about 44 pounds of sugar in 2007, compared with about 40 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup.New York Times
“Sugar was the old devil, and high-fructose corn syrup is the new devil,” said Marcia Mogelonsky, a senior analyst at Mintel International, a market-research company.
With more than a dozen lines of products using its name, Quaker Oats Company--itself a division of PepsiCo--is uniting all of its products under one tagline, with an image of the iconic Quaker Man image to back it up.MediaPost
The lineup includes a premium all-natural cola, called Pepsi Natural, to be released this month in 10 select markets, along with limited-time throwback versions in April of Pepsi and Mountain Dew. All three products will be made with all-natural sugar, and aim to take customers in a different taste direction.BrandWeek
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