Consumers are more health sensitive and more company sensitive than ever before, the are more willing to research and change their consumption patterns based on perceived and real issues with a product due to the risks it carries. These risks include the risk to one’s health and image. This of course raises how consumer view a corporation’s front end and product. So how would an informed consumer view and rate a corporation like PepsiCo ?
When evaluating a companies sustainability and health claims one has to look at their record of innovating on and improving the product. In PepsiCo’s case take the examples of their drive to improve the nutrition of the and reduce the salt content of their chips lines.
So it seems like PepsiCo is putting in the work. But how do you get that information across to a concerned consumer?
How do you prevent messages like these becoming top of mind?
The simplest way is via the website, but for a large and lucrative company like PepsiCo they may want to consider a more active strategy like McDonalds Our Food, Your Questions campaign.
This was an extremely successful campaign as it moved from a 4P strategy to a 4C’s of sustainability marketing strategy as it moved from a push to a pull in via 24/7 conversational engagement that was both persuasive and transparent. In many ways it served as a model for what successful consumer engagement looks like in the 21st century.
As a marketer, part of our job is to clearly communicate the value proposition of the service or product. Part of that is crafting messages that address the needs and resonate with the values of the target audience, but more important is getting in the right place to get that message to the top of mind.
This is a very good intake on the shifts of tactics and business methods overall! the importance and sensibility of information regarding a products supply chain becomes more and more significant for stakeholders. Slowly, businesses are learning the best way to expose their information and (hopefully honest) efforts to improve their operations to make them more sustainable. The importance lies on how to get this information to the public. It is great to see massive corporations like Pepsi expose their working and state their availability to answer questions that for some, are very urgent. I am really interested now in knowing if the have any type of third party acknowledgement for their efforts.
Independently, they have developed a campaign to expose themselves and make people part of the business plan. I really enjoy seeing improvements on the exposure and honesty of businesses. It is important not only regarding society but also environment. Specially for big companies with global presence. Hopefully, more campaigns like this will be developed among big corporations and our way of thinking could be shifted towards new more sustainable and community-focused frontiers to cross.
It’s really interesting that you brought up the suggestion that PepsiCo should initiate a marketing campaign similar to McDonald’s. I think CPG companies in general provide a lot of value to consumers, but definitely raises questions around their sustainability efforts. I was reading PepsiCo’s sustainability report and they do a lot of initiatives around the production side, like water wastage management and delivering proper safety standards so their workers are protected. Do you think PepsiCo is ready for its consumers to’grill’ them with these questions? PepsiCo is a massive corporation with food AND beverage components, it could be hard to streamline the questions and answer them separately. They also have “Good for You”, “Better for You” and “Fun for You” portfolios with “Better for You” being the healthier alternative. (Products include Stacy’s and Naked Juice) With McDonalds being only one brand, it seems easier to create a cohesive campaign around their brand, whereas it would be difficult to encapsulate the sustainability aspects of ALL of PepsiCo’s brands.