We researched 34 of the top restaurant chains to see if they offered Coke or Pepsi.
Coke comes out the undisputed winner, with big contracts with McDonald's, Subway, and Burger King.
Pepsi still has some notable brands, like Taco Bell, KFC, and Hooters.
Check it out:
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Pepsi-owner PepsiCo is spending a huge amount of its budget on the Super Bowl this year.
It has a raft of ads and marketing activity planned for the big game across its portfolio of brands. Not least: Pepsi sponsoring the huge half-time show, which will feature Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz. (We’ve listed everything we know so far about PepsiCo’s Super Bowl plans at the end of this article.)
Many other brands have started teasing their ad campaigns over the past few weeks as excitement builds toward kick-off on February 1. But PepsiCo says its Super Bowl campaign is the culmination of a season’s worth of activity.
We spoke over the phone with the chief marketing officer of Frito-Lay Ram Krishnan (which is promoting Doritos during the game) and Pepsi’s chief marketing officer for North American beverages Simon Lowden (who is also responsible for the Mountain Dew ads running ahead of the game) about why brands that just dip in and out of the Super Bowl or buy ads as a one-off are missing the real attraction of the big game.
PepsiCo is three years into a 10-year deal with the NFL (but its relationship stretches back 31 years) and this year will mark the fourth time Pepsi has sponsored the half time show (you might remember Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers from last year’s game.) Many of its brands are now intertwined with the NFL: Gatorade has been the official sports drink of the league since 1983 and Doritos has been running its “Crash the Super Bowl” since 2006.
Krishnan told us: “If you spend $3.5 million or $4.5 million on a Super Bowl spot, if you don’t have consumer engagement throughout the whole season, I’m not sure that pays off. The Super Bowl is the big day, but [for us] it’s the culmination of a whole year of effort.”
Lowden added: “There are 185 million domestic fans for football. The great thing about the NFL is that every game is like the FA Cup Final. Every game matters.”
So for PepsiCo brands, Super Bowl activity really starts way back in September. That’s when Doritos relaunched its long-running “Crash the Super Bowl” competition in which it asks consumers to send in their entries for their videos to be made into the brand’s big game ad, for example. The competition received about 4,900 entries, and the finalists’ videos — which can be viewed on a dedicated website — have racked up more than 3.2 billion impressions.
Here's one of the entrants bidding for a Super Bowl ad slot (and a $1 million prize):
Meanwhile, Pepsi’s Super Bowl-related activity has achieved 1 billion impressions since the end of November, Lowden says, although that has been helped by some TV teasers.
But even with the season-long rhetoric in mind, PepsiCo has still forked out a considerable amount on the game itself: The half time show doesn’t come cheap, it has purchased several of those coveted $4.5 million 30-second slots, and that’s not to mention the second-screen paid activity it has planned with Facebook and Twitter. Clearly there’s something about the Super Bowl itself that PepsiCo thinks will pay off?
Lowden tells us: “What we know is we have a 70% year on year increase in better in-store programs with [retailers]. Snacks and beverages together. These are on-shelf displays that we would not get without the NFL program. That’s part of how we measure success.”
Basically, on and around the big game, PepsiCo’s massive marketing program drives traffic into stores. Retailers love this and offer up more shelf space and coveted end-of-aisle slots. PepsiCo sells more products. It’s a perfect circle. But it’s something that can only come out of its brand’s already-strong associations with the NFL — something many brand advertisers simply don’t and likely never will have so long as PepsiCo continues its relationship with the league.
Lowden adds: “The NFL would say their best partner, without a doubt, is PepsiCo. We are three years into a 10-year deal. With that comes enormous trust and planning: We started planning Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco a year ago. We plan together and become part of the brand team.”
With that comes access to shared data about what motivates people to watch games and buy related snacks and drinks. And that’s something that only comes with a relationship, not a one-off punt.
PepsiCo is prepping its “biggest activation ever” during the Super Bowl this year. Here’s what it has planned:
Pepsi
Sponsoring the half-time show starring Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz, plus a lead-in commercial.
Viewers can even "shop" the half time show, buying the items that appear on screen via platforms like Twitter thanks to a partnership with ShopTV.
Paid-for Twitter Amplify and Facebook activity to promote the second-screen experience throughout the show.
Outdoor advertising all over the Phoenix area, where the game is being played — including mysterious crop circles. Lowden told us Pepsi is playing on the theme of the desert and we should think "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
On January 18 the brand held a concert with a performance form Nico & Vinz as part of a “Hype Your Hometown” competition.
Doritos
Two “Crash the Super Bowl” ads.
Mountain Dew
11 ads during the Super Bowl pre-game show to showcase two new “KICKSTART” flavors.
Tostitos
The official chip and dip sponsor of the NFL is hosting a Super Bowl party experience from January 28 to February 1 in downtown Phoenix.
And that's not to mention all the in-store and on-pack activity across many more of PepsiCo's brands.
SEE ALSO: Watch All The 2015 Super Bowl Ads Here
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(Reuters) - PepsiCo Inc <PEP.N> reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by higher sales at its Frito-Lay snack business, and said it would buy back shares worth up to $12 billion by 2018.
Shares of the company, which has been under pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz, were up more than 3 percent in premarket trading on Wednesday.
Pepsi also hiked its annual dividend by 7.3 percent to $2.81 per share and said it expects to return about $8.5-$9 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks this year.
Peltz's Trian Fund Management has been pushing Pepsi for about two years to separate its flourishing snack division from its beverage business to make two leaner and more entrepreneurial companies.
Sales in Pepsi's North American snack business rose 3 percent. The business, which accounted for 21 percent of total sales in fiscal 2013, has been a bright spot for the company, helping its stock vastly outperform that of larger rival Coca-Cola Co <KO.N> in the past year.
"We have momentum," Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston told Reuters, noting the company's growth with retailers in the United States. "We are absolutely rolling right now."
Johnston, however, said macroeconomic conditions remained tough and that the stronger dollar was a challenge for everybody.
The dollar has surged about 20 percent against a basket of major currencies, making overseas sales denominated in other currencies less valuable in dollar terms.
Pepsi's net revenue for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 27 fell about 1 percent to $19.95 billion, hurt mainly by a stronger dollar.
Net income attributable to the company fell to $1.31 billion, or 87 cents per share, in the quarter, from $1.74 billion, or $1.12 per share.
Excluding items the company earned $1.12 per share.
Analysts on average expected profit of $1.08 per share on revenue of $19.66 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Shares of the Purchase-New York based company were trading at $100.01 before the bell. They closed at $97.99 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
(Editing by Maju Samuel and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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"Do activist investors target female CEOs?"
Dealbook columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin ruffled some feathers on Wall St. earlier this week when he posed that question for a piece.
If it's not obvious, the outrage comes from the implication that women might be seen as "softer targets," meaning that they are more likely to bend to the demands of the activist investor.
But for Wall Street’s masters of the universe, if their primary focus is to generate above-average returns, it may make sense to simply invest in an 'all-female CEO portfolio' and leave the managers alone to do their work.
The S&P 500 includes 23 women-led companies. On average over the last 12 months, the stocks of the 23 companies led by women have outpaced the Dow, the NYSE, and the S&P 500 with a mean share price gain of 19.79%.
Further, just three out of 23 woman-led companies on the S&P 500 posted share price losses over the last 12 months.
Bespoke Investment Group astutely pointed out the difference in performance between companies led by women compared to those run by men. And, activists may want to chart a new course based on it.
S&P 500 companies with female CEOs have outperformed S&P 500 companies with male CEOs over the last year (19.5% vs 14.9%).
— Bespoke (@bespokeinvest) February 11, 2015Activists are notoriously short-sighted as investors, and draw criticism for failing to focus on long-term viability of a company in lieu of a quick score and an exit.
But based on recent stock performance — which really is all that matters to many activists — targeting female CEOs isn’t just bad PR, it’s also an awful strategy.
Worse still, the men running hedge funds might be upset to learn a recently-published study says women are less likely to lose money than their male counterparts.
While no bankers and hedge fund managers are eager to discuss the topic on record, one female CEO on Wall St. was willing to address the issue.
“The number of top female CEOs being targeted by [activist] investors is highly suspicious,” the executive said to Business Insider. “There are some numbers that are highly disturbing.”
There is a chance the aberration of so many activists targeting so few female CEOs is impacted by the relative dearth of women running companies.
Women make up 4.6% of the CEOs of S&P 500 companies, but across the US, they only represent about 3.5% of CEOs.
According to a 2014 Credit Suisse report, that puts the US behind the global average of 3.9% of companies being led by women.
All of this seems to support a line oft-repeated by women of Wall St.: 'Lehman Brothers would still be alive today, if it had been Lehman Sisters.'
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Keurig Kold is coming, the company's executives told its audience at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference earlier today, and it aims to capitalize on a $50 billion market.
This is a huge opportunity for the company, which is famous for its hot coffee machines.
Both Keurig Green Mountain and Sodastream International have underperformed the market over the last 12 months — but Keurig could be poised to turn that around next, with plans to enter the cold beverage market.
Keurig has a partnership with Coca-Cola, which is meant to counter the Sodastream-Pepsi partnership that gave Sodastream's shares a short-term lift last year. Later this year, the company has plans to launch Keurig Kold, which will allow consumers to home-brew fresh Coke, but also make iced teas and sparkling water.
This chart shows it was only a matter of time, both for Keurig, and for soda companies, to partner up with machines that allow consumers to create fresh beverages at home.
The market for cold drinks is five times that of the hot coffee-and-tea market, meaning that Keurig has an enormous opportunity to expand its home brewing machines' value to the consumer, as well as for investors.
It also shows why Keurig, despite its partnership with other entities, like the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, is rolling out its in-house iced tea brand, called Tierney's. Big soda companies like PepsiCo (up nearly 29% over the last 12 months) and Coca-Cola (up more than 12%) have seen shares perform well in the face of more public health campaigns warning consumers from soda.
For 'Big Soda,' maintaining that trajectory could require further integrating themselves into consumers' daily lives. As consumers make the switch to home brewing more beverages, that could mean Keurig or Sodastream turn into attractive M&A targets.
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NEW YORK (AP) — The biggest obstacle for Coca-Cola and Pepsi these days isn't tied to taste tests, the declining popularity of sugary drinks or even their century-long rivalry. It's the surging U.S. dollar.
The two soda giants rely on overseas customers for roughly half of their revenue. When they turned in their quarterly results last week, both reported a drop in sales. The strong dollar made all the difference: strip it out and shrinking sales suddenly rise.
The dollar has been a source of constant complaint this earnings season. Global corporations from Avon Products to Yum Brands have said their quarterly results would have been much better if it hadn't been for the rising dollar. For some, the currency's strength has meant the difference between a profit and a loss.
"It has really hit earnings," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank.
Over the past year, the dollar has climbed 18 percent against major currencies. The surging dollar and plunging oil prices are the main reasons analysts keep cutting their forecasts for corporate profits even though economists expect the U.S. economy to pick up speed
Back in October, analysts estimated that companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index would post profit growth of 11 percent for the final three months of 2014. That forecast now looks overly optimistic. With only a handful of companies left to report, corporate profits are on track to rise more than 7 percent, according to S&P Capital IQ.
Forecasts for this year have taken a much bigger hit. In December, for example, analysts projected that profits would increase 9 percent in the first quarter. Today, they expect them to shrink more than 2 percent over that same period.
A strong U.S. dollar might seem like a badge of honor, a reflection of U.S. economic power in the global economy, but for much of Corporate America, it's bad for business. Almost half of all revenue for companies in the S&P 500 comes from outside the United States, mainly Europe and Asia. So when the dollar rises against the euro, it hurts in two ways: Prices of American-made goods become more expensive to customers in Europe, and goods that move off foreign shelves translate into fewer dollars, showing up as lower revenues and earnings on quarterly financial reports.
Take Avon Products, a company that depends on customers in Latin America for nearly half of its sales. Last week, the cosmetics company reported that its revenue fell 12 percent and adjusted earnings sank 41 percent. Erase the dollar's move against foreign currencies and the picture looks entirely different. Revenue would have climbed 5 percent, and adjusted earnings would have soared 29 percent.
At Procter & Gamble, revenue fell 4 percent in the quarter but would have increased 2 percent if the dollar had stayed put. And the maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers doesn't think the drag from the dollar is over yet. It estimates that the currency's rise will shave $1.4 billion from its profit over the course of the full year.
"This is the most significant fiscal year currency impact we have ever incurred," said P&G's chief financial officer, Jon Moeller, in a conference call discussing the latest results.
The list of companies complaining of currency swings includes nearly every major industry. Microsoft, Google and other tech giants have taken a hit along with Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer and other drugmakers. Even Apple, which turned in a record profit of $18 billion in its latest quarter, said the rising dollar cost the company $2 billion in sales. Electric-car maker Tesla, the hotel chain Hilton, and the navigation device maker Garmin have joined the ranks of the dollar debilitated. On Thursday, Wal-Mart slashed its sales forecast for the rest of the year in half, largely because of the dollar.
"A lot of the companies I follow have cut their earnings guidance for the year, and it was all a result of FX," said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Asset Management, using Wall Street's shorthand for currency moves — foreign exchange. "It wasn't their underlying business that was the problem. It was just FX."
Overseas sales used to provide a boost to U.S. companies. When the economy floundered during the Great Recession, firms expanded their businesses abroad, harnessing faster growth across Asia and South America.
What once looked like a prudent move, however, has come back to bite them. U.S. economic growth is outpacing Europe and Japan, and growth in China and other emerging giants has cooled off. The result: a rising U.S. currency and falling revenue for U.S companies.
Most analysts on Wall Street believe the dollar will continue gaining against the euro and Japanese yen. Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, said those expectations are based on the idea that Europe will continue to struggle. What if Europe's recent efforts to revive its economy work? Paulsen said it could knock the dollar down, easing the burden for big U.S. companies.
Last month, the European Central Bank launched a stimulus effort that sent the euro to record lows against major currencies. That might sound like a bad thing, but it could actually turn things around. The euro's drop means that European goods are cheaper for overseas buyers. That could give a boost to countries with big export industries, such as Germany and Italy, and help pull the region out of its long slump. If that happens, the euro should start recovering, sapping strength from the U.S. dollar.
"Everybody right now seems convinced that the dollar is going to stay strong," Paulsen said. "But I think that a weaker dollar is the story this year. That will be the real surprise."
This article was written by Matthew Craft from The Associated Press and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
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Pepsi-Cola has surpassed Diet Coke to become the No. 2 soda brand in the US behind Coca-Cola.
Diet Coke volume fell 6.6% in 2014, according to the trade publication Beverage Digest.
The drink now has a market share of 8.5%, slightly smaller than Pepsi's 8.8% share.
Coca-Cola remains a clear leader, with a 17.6% share of the market. But volumes increased only 0.1% in 2014.
Here's how the rankings shake out, according to Beverage Digest.
Diet Coke has been the second biggest brand by volume in the US since 2010, when it pushed Pepsi to the No. 3 spot.
Pepsi's shift back to the No. 2 spot is evidence of Americans' growing dislike for diet sodas, as shown in the chart below from a Morgan Stanley report last year.
Sales of low-calorie soft drinks in the US have dropped b nearly 20% over the past five years, according to Euromonitor data cited by the Washington Post.
Americans are drinking less soda overall, but diet drinks have been hit particularly hard because of a growing mistrust of artificial sweeteners.
"Consumer's attitudes towards sweeteners have really changed," said Howard Telford, an industry analyst with Euromonitor, told the Washington Post. "There's a very negative perception about artificial sweeteners. The industry is still trying to get its head around this."
For that reason, many soda companies have been experimenting with low-calorie drinks that use natural, non-sugar sweeteners, such as stevia.
PepsiCo's newly launched drink, Pepsi True, has a blend of sugar and stevia. Coke also recently launched a stevia-and-sugar carbonated beverage called Coke Life.
But many analysts are skeptical that Stevia-based drinks will succeed, due to the sweetener's bitter after-taste.
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NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do
Good morning. Here's everything you need to know in the world of advertising today.
1. Yahoo's recovery is so weak it is set to be overtaken by Twitter on digital display ad revenues in the US this year. That's according to a new forecast from eMarketer.
2. Amazon is considering making its biggest acquisition yet, but it could still fall apart. The company is reportedly looking at making a €2 billion bid for online retailer Net-a-Porter.
3. Pepsi has overtaken Diet Coke in US soda sales, according to Beverage Digest. The drink now has a market share of 8.5%, slightly smaller than Pepsi's 8.8% share.
4. Beats knew Miley Cyrus' twerk at the VMAs was going to happen two weeks before the award show even aired. Beats' contacts in the music industry helped it turn around a funny Cyrus-related ad in just a fortnight.
5. Adidas is making five drastic changes to win back customers. The company's five-year plan, which it revealed at an investor meeting on Thursday, includes a proposal to use robots to bring manufacturing back to Europe and to the US from Asia.
6. Here's another reason Google should be afraid of Facebook. Ads on YouTube are 6X cheaper than those on Facebook.
7. The new Facebook Messenger sounds like it's going to make online shopping so much easier. It helps keep your inbox clean, and makes it easy to store your receipts or ask questions.
8. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has made good on a threat to Indiana over its controversial "anti-gay" legislation. Benioff says Salesforce has canceled all programs that would involve its customers or employees needing to travel to Indiana.
9. Sir Martin Sorrell says print media may be more effective than most people in the ad industry think, The Times reported. The WPP boss said the shift to digital may have gone too far.
10. The UK has become the first market where digital will take more than 50% of media spend, according to eMarketer. The UK will retain its lead by this measure until 2018, when digital's portion of total ad spending in China will become the largest worldwide, the research agency says.
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Too many times in recent months, headline writers have had reason to write that "Coke is losing its fizz."
Pepsi-Cola surpassed Diet Coke to become the second-biggest soda brand in the US, Coca-Cola's biggest market, Beverage Digest reported last month. Diet Coke had been the second-biggest soda brand by volume in the US since 2010, but Pepsi's shift back to No.2 provided evidence of America's growing dislike for diet sodas — and that is at a time when Americans are drinking less soda overall than in the 1980s.
Before that report was published, Coca-Cola reported that net earnings attributable to shareholders plunged 55% in its fourth quarter to $770 million. Net operating revenue dropped 2% in the quarter to $10.9 billion (but global sales did increase slightly over the full year). North America, its biggest market, saw a modest sales rise for the first time in four quarters.
The long-term picture is worse. In 2014, global revenue was $46 billion, down 4% ($2 billion less) from 2012.
This downward trajectory isn't due to a sudden, major catalyst. As Beverage Digest's report explains (emphasis added): "Brand Coke's volume was up (0.1%), but just barely. However, the brand was up, after multiple years of decline. The last time brand Coke grew was 2000."
Globally, Coca-Cola has been missing its own 3% to 4% annual volume growth target for two years, as this chart — drawn from data compiled by The Wall Street Journal— indicates.
It's not just Coke experiencing this issue, the entire soda market in the US, picking out one region as an example, is in decline. The attention is on Coke because it is the leader of the sector. It may yet be decades before people start referring to Coke in the same way they do Kodak, and its terminal decline may not even happen at all. But if the company does not make a big strategic move soon, a massively mature market could be coming to an end.
Right now, Coke is on the way out. Not with a bang, but a long, slow whimper.
Coca-Cola's CEO Muhtar Kent said 2015 would be a "transition year," and that it would like time for the benefits of the $3 billion cost-cutting plan it announced in October to materialize "amidst an uncertain and volatile macroeconomic environment."
The "transition" Kent is looking for is already evident in some of its most recent actions: It has invited 10 agencies to pitch ideas for its next global marketing campaign. In Europe it has redesigned the packaging across all its different flavors to look the same, and it is dropping its marketing for individual brands like Diet Coke and Coke Zero. All marketing will instead be consolidated under the Coca-Cola brand in the region (you will still see other products from the portfolio in ads, but there will be no more individual ads like the famous "Diet Coke hunk" campaign.)
But as sales continue to fall from previous heights as consumers change their drinking habits, opting for healthier beverages (its portfolio of sugary drinks is another reason Coke often hits the headlines for negative reasons,) are the big marketing changes coming all too late, or can they really save the company from falling into a terminal decline?
No matter which stat you look at, Coke's value as a business appears to be eroding.
In recent years, Coca-Cola has been edged out of the top five in BrandZ's annual "top 100 most valuable brands" rankings by tech companies, and even McDonald's. Coca-Cola does fare better in Interbrand's annual rankings— coming third last year, behind Google (2) and Apple (1.)
But Coke is unlikely to dominate those lists again, according to Melbourne Business School associate professor of marketing, branding consultant, and Marketing Week columnist Mark Ritson.
He told Business Insider: "Coke will always be the leading brand of cola until the end of time. But the value of that cola category is set to plummet over the next 20 years. It's no good being a big fish in an ever smaller pond. The days of Coke being the world's biggest brand are over forever."
And that's down to nuanced drinking habits becoming more widespread, Ritson added: "Natural products, organic ingredients, incredibly fresh origin, local provenance — these were initially the watchwords of small groups of maven consumers, but this movement has become more and more pronounced in the developed world in recent years. And it will only get stronger in the years to come. The very success and former dominance of Coca-Cola during the 20th century blinded them to the very different market conditions that the 21st century ushered in and left them suddenly vulnerable to change."
Coke's move across Europe to advertise its entire range, rather than each brand separately, has some clear advantages: It eases confusion around its ever-increasing portfolio of brand extensions; it shifts focus away from its unhealthier products to low or no calorie variants; and it has the potential to cut costs.
Coca-Cola tells us that the move is not about cutting marketing investment (on the contrary, it plans to increase investment in the Coca-Cola trademark in Great Britain, for example), but there will no doubt be savings in areas where there are now crossovers.
We asked what would happen to the brand managers and marketing managers who worked on specific brands like Diet Coke or Coke Zero. A Coca-Cola spokeswoman told us that the company is going through a global reorganization that will affect 1,600 to 1,800 roles across corporate, Coca-Cola North America, and Coca-Cola International — but it's too soon to say how many roles will be impacted in Europe.
The move to the master brand approach could well be adopted in North America and other global markets too. The result of its recent ad agency pitch will likely see the end of the brand's six-year "Open Happiness" activity and a push into a new creative direction for the flagship red Coca-Cola brand.
In a statement the company said: "We have invited a selection of our key agencies from around the world to bring their best thinking to Coca-Cola in order to create the strongest work for our flagship brand. We are always pushing ourselves and our agencies to deliver world class creative with global appeal that engages and entertains our consumers and drives business growth. This process will help us harness thinking from some of the best agency minds from around the world to deliver the best possible work."
Elspeth Cheung, global BrandZ valuation director, told Business Insider that Coca-Cola's recent campaign to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its famous contoured bottle, setting up retro-themed pop-up shops in major cities, and a wider advertising push "starring" icons like Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe shows the power of the master brand still exists today.
Cheung said: "There are few other brands that could challenge Coke by matching this, and this is all due to the historical cultivation of the Coca-Cola master brand. If anything is going to revive the business, it will be this signature brand — which is the most recognized around the world."
However, Cheung adds: "I would advise the brand owner not to concentrate on the cost saving advantage that the use of master brand will bring about. BrandZ research shows that brands in categories such as beer and cars which have shifted the focus to the operational advantages of global economies of scale have caused their brands to become less unique and distinctive."
Coke also needs to look beyond advertising alone to usher in its turnaround.
Jamal Benmiloud, a former vice president of marketing at Monster Energy (and former UK head of marketing at Red Bull,) who is now the chief creative officer and founder of marketing agency EARN, thinks Coke has the power to change opinion not just by the way it communicates, but a different business approach.
"I think they have the opportunity to be true to their values and do more in terms of giving back. It may create a negative reaction, but so what, it's about doing the right thing. Coca-Cola should be the most entertaining, anticipated brand in the world, and they should also be loved in the same way someone like Princess Diana was loved by committing to causes and making the difference. They have the power to do amazing things on planet earth," Benmiloud said.
A great example of this is Coke's project in partnership with other charities to lend its vast distribution and logistics network to help deliver essential medicines to remote African villages. "You need to give to get love, and we need to see more giving of love," Benmiloud, who co-authored the recently published book "Brand Love: How To Build A Brand Worth Talking About," added, saying Coke has the ability to fund more such initiatives.
One of the things that has characterized Muhtar Kent's reign at the top of Coca-Cola is his long-term outlook for the company. In 2010 he outlined the company's "2020 Vision," built around six socio-economic trends that it hopes will help it double revenue by 2020. Other strategies are also given long-term completion dates, like its ambition to get 1 million people more physically active in Great Britain by 2020.
Benmiloud comments: "One thing about Coke that really impresses me is how long in the game they are, they really think long-term. They may be having a difficult time right now, but it has a plan for five, 15, 20 years on how to grow as a company ... I think Coke's at a certain point in its history and we'll see what it does in the next five years, and what it does to embrace people and its partners to get there."
Diversification will also be key if Coke is to adapt to ever-changing consumer consumption trends, and the company is already making in-roads in that area. Earlier this year it launched a premium milk called Fairlife in the US, for example, and last year Coca-Cola paid $2.15 billion for a 16.7% stake in Monster Energy to help expand its reach in the energy drinks market. And in 2013 Coke increased its stake in Innocent Drinks to almost 100% in a bid to grow its share of the European smoothie and juices market.
But Coke still has work to do, according to Ritson: "PepsiCo is in a much stronger position versus Coca-Cola because it derives less than half its global profits from soda beverages, compared to 75% of revenues at Coca-Cola. That screams out an obvious and urgent fix. Coca-Cola needs to maintain Coke sales as much as possible and manage the decline as well as they can while urgently looking to diversify and acquire new brands that are fit for the 21st century."
The Coke era as we know it is probably over. But a new, more diverse era for Coke is just beginning.
SEE ALSO: Britain is not at all sure it likes the new 'green' Coke flavor
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PepsiCo has won exclusive sponsorship rights for the National Basketball Association, ending Coca-Cola's 28-year run as the league's official sponsor.
Mountain Dew will be the leading soft drink in the partnership, which PepsiCo is expected to announce on Monday, the industry journal Beverage Digest reports.
Aquafina, Lipton Brisk, and some Frito-Lay snack products will also be featured in the campaign.
The new sponsorship means television viewers, like the 18 million who watched the Spurs clinch the title last year, will now be seeing Pepsi signage and products instead of Coca-Cola.
PepsiCo will also be given preferential treatment during commercials, and individual teams and athletes will be more likely to forge partnerships with PepsiCo as a result of the deal, according to Fortune.
The soda company already has a sizable sports sponsorship empire in the US.
PepsiCo has North American sponsorship rights with the NFL, the NHL, and MLB.
The terms of the NBA deal have not been disclosed, but Fortune reports "a source close to the deal said it was worth significantly more than the previous partnership with Coca-Cola in terms of the overall investment from PepsiCo."
In a statement, a Coca-Cola spokeswoman said the company remained a fan of the NBA's and would "continue to have a strong presence within basketball culture through our relationships with iconic players."
"We will also continue to be visible through ongoing relationships with individual teams and venues," she said.
This is the second recent win for PepsiCo over Coca-Cola. The company's namesake drink recently surpassed Diet Coke to become the No. 2 soft drink in the US, behind Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola has been struggling globally, missing its own annual volume growth target of 3% to 4% for the past two years, as shown by this chart drawn from data compiled by The Wall Street Journal.
Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent has said 2015 will be a "transition year" of massive cost cuts "amidst an uncertain and volatile macroeconomic environment."
The company unveiled a $3 billion cost-cutting plan in October that eliminated 2,000 jobs and eliminated executive perks, including limousine service, as well as a lavish Christmas party for Wall Street analysts.
SEE ALSO: Pepsi surpasses Diet Coke in huge soda shift
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PepsiCo said its quarterly revenue fell 3.2 percent, largely due to a strong dollar.
The company's net revenue fell to $12.22 billion in the first quarter ended March 21, from $12.62 billion a year earlier.
Net income attributable to PepsiCo was little changed at $1.22 billion but earnings per share rose to 81 cents from 79.
Shares of Pepsi were down 1% in pre-market trade on Thursday.
(Editing by Don Sebastian)
Diet Pepsi is removing aspartame from its recipe.
"The company will begin to replace aspartame with a blend of sucralose and acesulfame potassium in Diet Pepsi, Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi and Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi sold in the US in August,"reports Duane Stanford at Bloomberg.
Diet Pepsi's sales fell 5.2% last year.
The company hopes that getting rid of aspartame will boost sales. Americans are increasingly seeking out teas and energy drinks over soda.
Consumers have become increasingly wary of aspartame, an artificial, man-made sweetener that has been plagued by rumors that it causes cancer.
Aspartame is often sold under the brand names NutraSweet® and Equal®.
PepsiCo has introduced a beverage sweetened with natural sweetener Stevia called Pepsi True.
The company says the new product "will continue to provide consumers with the crisp, refreshing zero-calorie cola taste they expect from Pepsi."
Aspartame is generally known for having an artificial taste, while sucralose, which is widely known as Splenda, is supposed to taste more like real sugar.
Some fans of Diet Pepsi expressed panic that the recipe will change.
Guys, CNN is reporting that Diet Pepsi's formula will be changed and I can't accept this.
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 24, 2015Many in the industry expect that brands like Coke and Pepsi will continue moving away from traditional soda as Americans grow to prefer other beverages.
SEE ALSO: Coca-Cola's future isn't about soda anymore
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Every year, the research company Kantar Worldpanel launches its annual Brand Footprint study, revealing the most chosen and fastest growing consumer-packaged goods (CPG) brands in the world.
The study analyzes 11,000 brands in 35 countries and ranks them based on Consumer Reach Points, a metric based on how many households around the world are buying a brand and how often.
Kantar Worldpanel also provides data on the most bought brand in each of the countries it looks at. Some you may never have come across before.
Consumer Reach Points: 1.44 million.
Consumer Reach Points: 1.46 million.
Consumer Reach Points: 1.65 million.
The rivalry between cola giants Pepsi and Coke has long been fierce — and now Pepsi is cranking it up gear.
On Monday, Pepsi launched a new ad campaign, created by ad agency Motive, that takes direct aim at two of Coke's biggest recent marketing efforts, AdAge reports.
The spots introduce a new loyalty competition the brand is running this summer, which can see drinkers win tickets to concerts of their choice. A "Pepsi Pass" app on iOS and Android lets consumers earn points by scanning codes on Pepsi products, which gives them the chance to win prizes.
One of the "But Only With Pepsi" spots shows a man whooping at the news, telling his Coca-Cola guzzling friend: "You've still got the polar bear"— a reference to one of Coke's long-running brand mascots.
In another ad, a female Pepsi drinker consoles her Coke-drinking friend: "At least your name's on the bottle!"— a reference to the popular Share a Coke promotion.
"Do I look like a Larry to you?," her friend snaps back.
Linda Lagos, Pepsi brand marketing and digital director, says in a statement provided to AdAge: "We know that there are few things that grab our fans' attention as much as seeing our beloved blue and that red next to each other. It's done well for us in the past, and it's just something that we know works and that they love to see."
Business Insider has contacted Coca-Cola for comment, and we'll update this article once we hear back.
The last time Pepsi took such a direct potshot at Coke, AdAge points out, was in 2011, in an ad which saw Santa (another long-time Coke mascot) turning down a bottle of Coca-Cola at a bar in favor of a Pepsi.
Coke is the largest carbonated soft drink brand in the US with a 17.6% of the market, while Pepsi is number two, with an 8.8% share, according to Beverage Digest data for 2014.
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Millennials are steering away from soda, and PepsiCo is investing in healthier options to keep up with them.
PepsiCo recently announced a new line of carbonated craft beverages called "Stubborn Soda."
The sodas are set to hit "foodservice customers in select regions on fountain as early as this summer," the company said in a statement.
The line is made up of six natural flavors with no high-fructose corn syrup.
The flavors include black cherry with tarragon, root beer, lemon berry acai, agave vanilla cream, orange hibiscus, and pineapple cream.
The announcement of this line follows PepsiCo's launch of two other projects, a craft soda, Caleb's Kola, and a soda made with real sugar, Mountain Dew Dewshine.
Diet Pepsi is removing aspartame from its recipe after sales declined more than 5% last year.
The success of Stubborn Soda on fountain will most likely affect whether or not the drink is eventually sold in bottles or cans.
With sales of carbonated soft drinks declining, PepsiCo's creation of this Fair Trade Certified Cane Sugar soda is a sign of its desire to connect with healthier consumers.
"The total sales volume of carbonated soft drinks slid 0.9 percent from 2013 to 2014. Within that category, Coke posted a 1.1 percent drop in volume, and Pepsi saw a 1.4 percent decline," according to CNBC.
Many in the industry expect that brands like Coke and Pepsi will continue moving away from traditional soda as Americans grow to prefer other beverages.
This chart by IBISWorld shows declining soda consumption in the US.
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People across the US have been finding desperate messages pleading for help under the caps of their SoBe beverages, BuzzFeed News reports.
The message reads, "HELP ME TRAPPED IN SOBE FACTORY." Concerned customers have been posting images of the caps to SoBe's Facebook page.
But it turns out that there's no reason for concern. SoBe printed the messages on its caps, thinking the call for help would give customers "a little smile or pause for thought."
Umm, not to alert you or anything, but..... I think you have someone in your factory that needs help. LoL
Posted by Thadeous Bach on Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Is this for real?? I need to know?!
Posted by Robin Simkins on Monday, June 29, 2015
The beverage brand, which is owned by Pepsi, apologized for the messages in a statement posted to its Facebook page.
"We are planning on removing this cap slogan from our current rotation, however, it will take a while for existing stock to run through the market," the company said.
The New York Times later identified the man who wrote the letter. He told The Times that he was imprisoned in a labor camp where "inmates toiled seven days a week, their 15-hour days haunted by sadistic guards."
BuzzFeed also points out that there are cases of factory abuses in the US, as well.
Some employees in the manufacturing industry in the US work 12-hour days, seven days a week, according to the Trafficking Resource Center.
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(Reuters) - PepsiCo Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and sales and raised its full-year adjusted earnings forecast as higher prices helped drive revenue growth in its beverages business for just the second time in nearly four years.
The company's shares rose 3 percent to $98.49 in premarket trading on Thursday.
PepsiCo, like other soft drink makers, has been battling falling soda sales in the United States, with customers turning to healthier drinks that use more natural ingredients.
However, revenue from the company's Americas beverages business, its largest, rose 1 percent to $5.34 billion in the second quarter, as its strategy of raising prices to offset the impact of a strong dollar paid off.
Organic volume sales in the region also rose 1 percent, the company said.
The company said on Wednesday that it would report results for its North America beverages business separately from the third quarter instead of clubbing it with Latin America beverage sales.
Frito-Lay snacks sales in North America, PepsiCo's second-largest business, grew 2 percent to $3.45 billion in the second quarter. The business sells snacks such as Doritos tortilla chips and Cheetos.
The company raised its forecast for 2015 adjusted earnings per share growth to 8 percent on a constant currency basis, or about $5 per share, from 7 percent.
Net income attributable to PepsiCo rose marginally to $1.98 billion, or $1.33 per share, in the second quarter ended June 13, from $1.98 billion, or $1.29 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned $1.32 per share.
Net revenue fell 5.7 percent to $15.92 billion as a stronger dollar continued to weigh on overseas sales.
Analysts on an average had expected earnings of $1.24 per share and revenue of $15.80 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Up to Wednesday's close, the company's shares had risen 6.6 percent in the last 12 months.
(Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru, Editing by Simon Jennings)
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Diet Pepsi is removing aspartame from its recipe.
The new formula will hit stores on Monday, marking the first big change in 30 years, Bloomberg reports.
"The company will begin to replace aspartame with a blend of sucralose and acesulfame potassium in Diet Pepsi, Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi and Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi sold in the US in August," according to Bloomberg.
Diet Pepsi's sales fell 5.2% last year.
The company hopes that getting rid of aspartame will boost sales. Americans are increasingly seeking out teas and energy drinks over soda.
Consumers have become increasingly wary of aspartame, an artificial, man-made sweetener that has been plagued by rumors that it causes cancer.
Aspartame is often sold under the brand names NutraSweet® and Equal®.
PepsiCo has introduced a beverage sweetened with natural sweetener Stevia called Pepsi True.
The company says the new product "will continue to provide consumers with the crisp, refreshing zero-calorie cola taste they expect from Pepsi."
Aspartame is generally known for having an artificial taste, while sucralose, which is widely known as Splenda, is supposed to taste more like real sugar.
Some fans of Diet Pepsi have expressed panic that the recipe will change.
Guys, CNN is reporting that Diet Pepsi's formula will be changed and I can't accept this.
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 24, 2015Many in the industry expect that brands like Coke and Pepsi will continue moving away from traditional soda as Americans grow to prefer other beverages.
SEE ALSO: Coca-Cola's future isn't about soda anymore
Follow Us: On Facebook
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: We Recreated The Pepsi Challenge To See What People Really Like
A few years ago, investors were trying to get the board to force out PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, but, after years of flat stock prices, PepsiCo has recently beat expectations in both revenue and profit growth.
As the Harvard Business Review reports, Nooyi now "exudes confidence" and is focused on finding new ways to adapt her company's products to changing tastes.
Nooyi tells HBR that her daily inspiration to keep PepsiCo growing is rooted in a sense of the rebelliousness she developed as a child growing up in the socially conservative city of Madras (now Chennai), India. She explains:
In those days, there was a well-defined conservative stereotype, so everything I did was breaking the framework. I played in a rock band. I climbed trees. I did stuff that made my parents wonder, "What the hell is she doing?" But I also was a good student and a good daughter, so I never brought shame on the family. And I was lucky that the men in my family thought the women should have an equal shot at everything.
I'm still a bit of a rebel, always saying that we cannot sit still. Every morning you've got to wake up with a healthy fear that the world is changing, and a conviction that, to win, you have to change faster and be more agile than anyone else.
Nooyi says PepsiCo is moving faster than ever before, rapidly testing new products and investing in the ones that develop an audience. She says to get where she wants her company to go, "we'll have to be willing to tolerate more failure and shorter cycles of adaptation."
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