PepsiCo Inc. is planning on giving out over 10 million cans of Sierra Mist Natural in Wal-Mart stores this weekend. They plan on doing this to reintroduce their Sierra Mist product, which was received negatively.
Sierra Mist is now made with sugar instead of high fructose corn-syrup. PepsiCo also added the word “natural” in order to promote the fact that it now contains no artificial ingredients. They also launched a marketing campaign “spending what it normally spends in a year to market the brand in the last quarter” The Associated Press said.
The reason for this shift of high fructose corn-syrup to sugar is because the public believes it causes obesity (unproven). This caused a slump in soft drink sales and producers are asking if they can refer “to the sweetener as “corn sugar” to change perceptions”.
PepsiCo was wise to revamp its image (especially because it owns its bottlers) because Sierra Mist is a multi billion dollar brand name and they can now grab an unoccupied position in a major segment (“natural” pop). As well, these new tactics of changing the image of Sierra Mist will help PepsiCo in its long term strategy of targeting those who don’t drink pop.