IMI

MM-2
CASE ANALYSIS PEPSI ULTIMATE TASTE CHALLENGE

Submitted By: ANKIT KAUSHIK-13PGDM009 ANKIT SEHGAL-13PGDM010 CHITVAN OZA-13PGDM017 DIVYA JAIN-13PGDM021 ETIKA PUNJ-13PGDM023 HEMAJYOTHI VALLURU-13PGDM025 SHIKHAR MEHROTRA-13PGDM052

Issues:
1. Pepsi is launching an aggressive promotional campaign in which it intends to leverage the social media to target the millennials the turnout of which he expects will come out around 1.5 million. This is a customer engaging campaign. The problem is that Pepsi is relying completely on the social media only for its campaign on a large scale and the success of which cannot be assessed as Pepsi has not done any research on the number of people who are using face book in Canada. The power of social media for such campaigns has been untested and untried before. 2. The project campaign entails a very high budget, the failure of the campaign can kill the brand image to a very large extend and it will take a long time to restore the brand image. A high risk is involved in carrying out the campaign through viral media. Also a person is needed to monitor the campaign. 3. Pepsi Director is not sure of whether such a social campaign will appeal to the youth of the country or not as such kind of activity has not been implemented in any of its earlier campaigns and even that of the competitors. Moreover there is restriction imposed on who all can post on the social media platform, thus the full potential of social media is not used. The prize redemption process is also a bit lengthy and asks users to visit web sites and scan the QR codes to redeem their prize. 4. Pepsi is facing stiff competition from coca cola which is also going aggressive with its promotion strategies, as sponsors for London Olympics and UEFA champions league. Thus there is an increasing threat to the Pepsis market share.

Alternatives:
1. Launch UTC after studying the channel of social media a. Before launching the campaign Pepsi should use social media to collect demographic information using tools like surveys, contest entry etc. Once the information is gathered it will help Pepsi in assessing how many people are using this online social medium and they can customize the advertizing of the campaign to focus on the target audience. If the results are as per the project expectations Pepsi should go ahead with the online launch of UTC and make it viral by supplementing it with advertisements that present the content on the face book page. This will help it in reaching larger audiences (1.5 million millenials ) and the high cost incurred in promotion can later be recovered through increased sales presuming that by putting the effort the launch would be a success. b. The company should also remove the restrictions imposed on the customer to post and tweet. As of now only the street team has the privilege to post the content, by allowing the users to share their live feed of the experience it will reach even a larger audience as the feed will be notified in the entire contact list of the user. Some gifts or rewards can be given to the customer whose experience would be liked my maximum number of

people. The price redemption process should also be kept on the face book created rather than asking user to visit separate web page. c. A team can be appointed to keep a monitor on the content posted and any malicious content posted should be removed instantaneously.

2. Launch UTC with online media on a small scale a. As such an online campaign has not been tried and tested before the company and since a huge investment is involved the risk is also high. To mitigate the risk company should launch it on a small scale where it expects the user to be high on digital technology usage. b. The response from the launch can be used to anticipate the worth from the launch on a large scale. c. If the results are positive the company can expand in the larger cities and make it viral by leveraging the full potential of the social media and customize the advertisements for specific areas. d. Along with the above provisions for posting live updates should also be there to enhance the customer engagement. e. Since initially the campaign would be launched on small scale, the companys image will not be impacted much has the campaign failed, on the other hand it will help in building the good relationship with BBDO agency. 3. Launch the UTC without social media 1. Pepsi to go ahead and launch the campaign with traditional media. 2. The earlier campaigns had been a success and desired results were reached. The medium is tried and tested before, risk factor is low. 3. Invest heavily in advertisement and promotion, use multiple modes (TV, radio, bill boards etc) and customize the ads according to the local areas to achieve the goal of covering 1.5 million youngsters. 4. Offer rewards to the users by giving them discount coupons and free gifts to the consumer who visit and bring more people with them. 5. The issue can be that with increase in technology more people are online now and Pepsi may miss out on leveraging the online space to reach even larger audience for the campaign.

Recommendation
We recommend that Pepsi should go with alternative 1 and launch the campaign with social media after a study has been conducted on the usage of the online space by the target users. The company should also leverage mobile platforms along with social networking sites to target the millenials. Before launching the campaign the Pepsi needs to have a strong technological support, Pepsi should tie up with technology partner Microsoft which will develop a touch screen pad which will allow multiple users to share their experiences in real time. Pepsi can also launch a blog which will allow users to share their experience of UTC and assure a gift to person whose experience benefit the most to promoting UTC. Advertisements to continue to raise awareness but they should be called off the air once the turnout is increasing. Freedom to people to post live feed from the location of the challenge.

UNDERTAKING

This is to acknowledge the fact that all the work for Case: Pepsi was carried out by all members of the group with due diligence and responsibility. The members of the group ensured that each one of us contributed towards achieving the objectives of the group.

Members- Group III:

RL.NO. 13PGDM021 13PGDM023 13PGDM025 13PGDM09 13PGDM010 13PGDM052 13PGDM017

Name DIVYA JAIN ETIKA PUNJ HEMAJYOTHI VALLURU ANKIT KAUSHIK ANKIT SEHGAL SHIKHAR MEHROTRA CHITVAN OZA

Signature

Place: New Delhi Date: 08/12/2013