Integrated Communications and Measures Plan for PepsiCo

 

 

Push and Pull Strategies

In the midst of high competition from other global beverage companies, PepsiCo needs to employ push and pull strategies in marketing the brand products. The push strategy involves pushing the brand in front of the audience, mainly using paid advertisements or promotions. While the pull strategy is aimed at naturally drawing or attracting customers' interests into the brand or products, mainly using interesting and relevant content (Zhang, et al., 2018). We are told that PepsiCo is one of the world’s leading beverage companies, serving over one hundred and sixty countries. To achieve this title there are some of the strategies that the company has deployed. These include the marketing mix strategies such as the 4ps strategy and accessed various distributional channels to attain the success we see today. However, more importantly, the firm has incorporated a push and pull strategy that has fostered the movement of goods from the producers to consumers.

At PepsiCo, the push strategy is a promotional strategy that uses the company’s sales force and trade promotion activities. The latter actions are aimed at creating customer demand for the company’s products. In this strategy the producers carry out promotions to the wholesalers, then the wholesalers to retailers, and then retailers to the final consumers. The Pepsi Company thus sells its products in bulk to wholesalers giving those discounts, so that they engage in the advertisement of the products making it familiar to the customers. At times it distributes free samples to both the wholesalers and consumers. On the other hand, the pull strategy entails high spending on advertisements and customer promotion. This strategy focuses on creating demand for customers for the product. The success of this process is detected if the customers ask their retailers about the product, then the retailers ask the wholesalers, and then finally the wholesalers to the producers. Then PepsiCo responds by giving bulks with discounts and giving them the product of low quality. However, the failure of this method attracts the pull approach.

Messaging

Pepsi Company can attribute its success and even the future sustainability to message strategy. This is the nature of the information that is presented in the advertisement, which needs to be a clever statement or slogan. The latter slogan should be a coherent message that effectively reaches the target audience and persuade them to decide to purchase the products. The message should be creative enough, carefully planned, and executed. The execution entails the visual aspects used in passing the message to the target audience, which should also be done in the right media, unique to that organization and more importantly satisfying the marketing communication needs.

PepsiCo has thrived even in hard economic times due to its marketing strategies (Camilleri, 2018). Based on the message strategy has done a profound investment in the right channels. The firm relies on traditional advertisements, where it has even increased the advertisement budgets to over 12 percent. However, with the advancement in technology the firm has greatly shifted to digital marketing and advertisement with short videos, infographics, mobile apps, and other forms of information that are well structure to campaign on the brands' products. Its message is clear and brief, for instance, the brand launches new brand series of videos focusing on the drink’s bubbles, greatness in the taste, and refreshment. The current slogan “That’s What I Like” attracts the attention of many customers persuading them that it provides the best.

Communication Channels

After the creation of an effective marketing message, the message needs to be disseminated to the target audience. To achieve the transmission various media have been used by Pepsi to pass information globally. This is basically, referred to as a communication mix done via various channels to reach the target audience. PepsiCo uses print media and media advertisements as part of the traditional channels to transmit the marketing message to the target customer segment. In the latter print and media adverts, in most cases, contains comparative campaigns, whose focus is to damage the brand image of the competitor (Finne & Grönroos, 2017). For instance, the direct competitor for Pepsi is the Coca-Cola Company, in a scenario where an ad displays an individual happily taking a Pepsi drink mocking the coca-cola company, calling the brand “Christmas polar bear.”

Additionally, the company effectively integrates social media in the advertisements. These media have gained millions of followers, who are potential consumers of the brands' products. Also, the company invests in advertisements, where the capital has been used in launching series of viral marketing campaigns, rebranding their image. This also goes hand in hand with promotions on sales, to boost their revenue volumes on a short-term basis. Recently, the firm has launched a social vending system, which taps into social media and wireless interconnectivity, which are purposely used in making sales (Valos et al., 2017). Further, the availability of the internet which has been aided by the advancement in technology creates an interactive approach, which has been harnessed by Pepsi to make their products more known. The latter technology also promotes direct marketing criteria where one-on-one marketing has been made possible via the media. The company has also achieved communication through content marketing through online blogs, premium content, and video marketing and through email marketing strategies to reach its customers. In determining a PepsiCo communication plan, the organization considers the audience or customers it intends to serve, the effectiveness of the content, and the various ways customers are used to receiving information (cadence).

Costs

PepsiCo has put considerations in marketing and communication costs and this has helped to reduce unnecessary losses resulting from the business. Costs are usually incurred in production, transportation, marketing, and sales. The company has employed the key performance indicators that help in reducing costs.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) To Assess Success

            The major components of integrated marketing communications are important in achieving brand awareness, encouraging repeat purchases, and generating more sales. To evaluate the success of the business, it is necessary to employ the use of key performance indicators that will help in managing and tracking the progress of the plan. PepsiCo has employed KPI to accomplish its objectives (Chitty et al., 2017). This has been successful as the company ensures that the KPI has a measure, a target, source of data, and a frequent report periodically at least to keep track. For us to get a better understanding of the significance of KPI in measuring business success, we had to develop PepsiCo KPIs, which included the following;

• Total Sales revenue -  can be calculated by subtracting total revenue coming in (customers) from the total annual sales. This will help the company determine how marketing has influenced the brand.
• The cost per lead (CPL) - enables the company to estimate the costs of reaching the customers. KPI helps to identify the exact amount of money the organization is spending in efforts to get new customers.
• The number of customers retained – in this scenario the indicators help in identifying and keeping track of the number of customers who often use the products. This will help in determining whether the product has quality in terms of the number of retained customers.
• Social Media research – KPI comes in to analyze and assess the number of likes and shares the PepsiCo product and content is acquiring on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. It helps that company get a clear impression of its popularity on social media platforms.

The above key performance indicators can be used by PepsiCo to evaluate its success and hence efforts made in marketing campaigns and strategies (Ibatova,  Kuzmenko, & Klychova, 2018). Through the consultation of key performance indicators, the management of the company is always on track.

Projected Revenue and Rationale for the Projection

            The project rationale is implemented in the company to avoid potential miscommunications, which are costly and might arise later. Projected revenue entails estimating or predicting the amount of money the company will generate at a specified period, and this may be quarterly, monthly, or annually. KPIs play an important role in determining the projected revenue of the business. After establishing a projected revenue, there is a need for PepsiCo to rationale the revenue projections. This tells the company the total sales you plan to sell, and how much you predict the sales will grow over time. This enables the company to establish methods through which it can generate sales, enhancing communication strategies, and creating customer awareness. For instance, PepsiCo projects revenue of $500,000 in sales for products sold at $200 each. To achieve its target, it will have to look for ways to produce 2,500 units of products and methods of selling and marketing the product.

 

 

References

Camilleri, M. A. (2018). Integrated marketing communications. In Travel marketing, tourism economics and the airline product (pp. 85-103). Springer, Cham.

Chitty, B., Chitty, W., Luck, E., Barker, N., Sassenberg, A. M., Shimp, T. A., & Andrews, J. C. (2017). Integrated Marketing Communications with Online Study Tools 12 Months. Cengage AU.

Finne, Å., & Grönroos, C. (2017). Communication-in-use: customer-integrated marketing communication. European Journal of Marketing.

Ibatova, A., Kuzmenko, V., & Klychova, G. (2018). Key performance indicators of management consulting. Management Science Letters, 8(5), 475-482.

Valos, M. J., Maplestone, V. L., Polonsky, M. J., & Ewing, M. (2017). Integrating social media within an integrated marketing communication decision-making framework. Journal of Marketing Management, 33(17-18), 1522-1558.

Zhang, C., Fang, D., Yang, X., & Zhang, X. (2018). Push and pull strategies by component suppliers when OEMs can produce the component in-house: The roles of branding in a supply chain. Industrial Marketing Management, 72, 99-111.