Analyzing Pepsi Canada's Marketing Strategies: Decision Model Essay Case Study

This assignment implements the design of the decision model essay of case study analysis presented in Chapter 11 of the text. The student will analyze a case on the marketing strategies of Pepsi Canada, making and supporting a decision on the direction that the company should follow in going forward from its Pepsi Refresh Project.

• Analyze the Pepsi Canada case from the Business Case Analysis bundle, using the guidelines set out in Chapter 11 of the Ellet text.
• Write a decision essay (2000 words, double spaced, not including the title page or reference page) explaining and recommending where Pepsi should go with its marketing program. You may use the state-and-prove or the prove-and-state model for your essay, but you must state which model you have chosen and why you selected that model. Support your argument with at least three scholarly sources as well as other sources. Refer to either page 135 or 136 of the Ellet text, depending on your chosen model

To convince a reader that a conclusion about a case is valid, the writer must offer credible evidence linked directly to the conclusion. This fact helps explain the characteristics case-based essays have in common:

1. Answers two questions—What? Why?—and often a third—How?
2. Makes a position statement (What?)
3. Uses evidence to persuade the reader (Why?)
4. If needed, provides an action plan (How?)

2000 words – APA format – at least three scholarly references required with public access and other references– references from case also required and must include page number.

The Decision to Implement the Pepsi Refresh Project

Marketing strategies of an organization play a dominating role in determining the organization’s success in the international business market (Wei, Samiee & Lee, 2014). Building the most relevant market strategy for a particular company requires detailed study and research of the internal organizational stability of the company as well as the various theories and concepts that provide assistance in determining the best strategy that would be relevant with the corresponding context of the same.

Through this research we explore Pepsi’s decision to opt out of its Super Bowl advertisements to implement the Pepsi Refresh Project perspective (Carroll, 2016). Through the analysis of the data and information retrieved from the case, this research aims to identify the specific strategies taken up by the Company in order to fulfill its immediate as well as long-term objectives.

The Company’s decision to adopt a groundbreaking marketing strategy was focused more on the social and environmental factors that affect a business enterprise and its stakeholders. By critically analyzing the various impacts of Social Marketing Strategies on the Company’s performance, this study explores the various merits and demerits of the chosen decision (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). The research would also support the arguments with further recommendations for the Company, which would minimize the undesirable effects and prove to be beneficial for organizational competence.

The research would take up a prove-and-state model as the analysis of the Pepsi Refresh Project would identify, explore and explain how the decision affected the Company’s performance in achieving the expected goals (Stab & Gurevych, 2014). On the other hand, the research would also incorporate relevant loopholes in the decision-making process, with recommendations for other alternatives. Therefore, a prove-and-state model would suit best for this kind of research (Hoefer & Green Jr, 2016).

The Pepsi Canada Case Analysis

In order to conduct a detailed Business Case Analysis of the Pepsi Company’s strategic marketing projects, it is primarily important to have a detailed view regarding their organization’s structure, financial metrics, organizational flow and tactical advice management for independent decision-making, working independently in various parts of the world (Deniran, Neinteh-mel & Okpechi, 2014). In the business market of carbonated drinks, Pepsi Company is not only one of the largest driving market forces, but also one of the largest competing brands against Coca-Cola. Many of the Company’s marketing strategies are involved in emphasizing how it is more competent and attractive in the face of the stiff competition.

The Pepsi Company has been noted to have brought a major change in their marketing approach since 2008, amidst a global economic crisis, by directing their approach to a more consumer-oriented fashion—emphasizing on the youth’s demand to choose a Company with a personality. The Refresh Everything Project was entirely based on the expectations of the millennial, most of who identified staying positive and having an open attitude to accepting change as the most driving factors. Therefore, the Pepsi Refresh Project started with a few objectives, focusing on:

• Being an optimist channel in democratizing the process of changing powerful ideas into realities;
• To make optimum utilization of the major communication forces, like the media and the internet, to be more visible and accessible to the potential stakeholders;

The Pepsi Refresh Project was first brought to Canada in 2010, by changing and evolving from its previous project, called “Joy It Forward”. With a massive survey of thousands of Canadians, the Company identified the social perspective and expectations from a large-scale business enterprise and decided on their particular objectives focusing on empowering more Canadians, allowing grants to powerful ideas, and attracting more audience and allies to their new project.

Evaluation of the Impact of the Pepsi Refresh Project

Not only did Pepsi take up a new campaign, but it set the entire organization’s outlook with a particular approach that was essentially customer-oriented, flexible to adapt suitable with the dynamic time and environment, avoiding stagnation in ideas by allowing and empowering the flow of new ideas into the system and echoing a sense of positivity and optimism amongst declining socio-economical stability in contemporary times.

Evidently, with the decision to replace Super Bowl advertisements with the PRP campaign, the Pepsi Company in Canada adopts US Pepsi’s social marketing strategies and marks an important change in organizational history with the shift of focus into more social factors, actively taking up Corporate Social Responsibilities and making a brand statement in the international business scenario (Thomson & Mark, 2011).

This decision will be further analyzed to understand its impacts on the success of the organization, as well as point out its specific demerits.

Decision Options

Decision-making is one of the most essential processes of an organization as the choices that one individual or a Company makes, determines their career and progress for the days to come. A decision exclusively sets an individual or enterprise on a transformational journey and therefore must align with the individual or collective objectives (Arribas, García Hiljding, Susaeta, Arboledas & Ramón, 2016). In case of Pepsi’s decision regarding taking off Super Bowl advertisements, the decision was supported by implementing other options that involve consumer-participation, like making provisions for customer-created advertisements. The Company started a campaign called “Crash the Super Bowl”, which not gave away a total of US$ 5 million to the winners of the customer-created advertisement contest.

Pepsi’s connections with the Super Bowl were quite advantageous for the Company, from a certain perspective. However, with the advent of Pepsi Refresh Project, the managers felt the need to align their brand strategies with their Company’s objectives. Instead of investing millions of dollars on a national soccer game day, the Company decides to focus its marketing activities on the youth of the country—targeting the young millennial with powerful ideas. The chosen decision brought about a structural change in the organization’s perspective, which was highly relevant for the chosen objectives.

Decision Criteria

The major driving criteria for this particular decision were aligning the Company’s marketing strategies with their particular objectives, taking up a more consumer-oriented approach of decision-making and making a visible mark in the global market of carbonated drinks industries. Since the Company’s objectives focused mainly on helping Canadians and empowering new ideas to become realities, withdrawing from the Super Bowl to support new consumer-created advertisement contest signify the bend to a more consumer-interactive approach, than a profit-making approach. With the participation various customers in an interactive contest for encouraging new ideas, the Company could build substantial customer support and loyalty.

As the Company has already identified that the target consumers demand a more progressive organization that takes up progressive initiatives and are open to changes, the breaking away from traditional Super Bowl, which mainly attracted the middle-aged population, Pepsi successfully caught the attention of the youth and made its mark in the industry with the help of advanced communication technologies (Holland & Nichele, 2016). Adopting the PRP not only supported one event or incidence, rather set precedence for a long-term interactive communication between the Company and its consumers.

Recommendations for Pepsi Canada's Marketing Strategy

Critique of Option

As analyzed against the Company’s objectives, the option to go with the Super Bowl events would prove to be highly inefficient for the Company. Firstly, the Super Bowl events attract a particular section of the population, mainly dealing with middle aged people. Most consumers at National Soccer Games in America are mainly there for the game or fine dining. Though the Company does gain a substantial amount of sale and promotion, it still remains an additional factor to the main attractions of the event (Hafiz, 2015). Moreover, most middle-aged people are more attracted to a healthy lifestyle and work as safeguards of their families; hence, a large section of the audience still stand the chance to not buy any Pepsi products, owing to the health issues related with this industry.

Another major issue with the option is that it fails to create an independent brand image for the Company. As per the understandings from the conducted consumer-surveys, most of the target consumers wanted a fresh perspective, allowing freedom from conventions. Therefore, a football event might not work out as the best place to campaign for their brand.

Proof of Recommended Option

The option that was recommended and finally carried out played a huge role in synchronizing the organization’s objectives with its marketing policies. With the withdrawal from Super Bowl, the Pepsi Company invested in projects that would secure consumer interaction and support. With the advertisement-making contests devised for customers, the Company allows an extensive exchange of ideas and knowledge, as well as makes space for one-to-one interactions and more.

This option also addresses the company’s objective to invoke positivity, optimism and democracy in their organizational outlook. Not only that, this option also strives as a catalyst for changing ideas into realities, which is another major objective of the organization. The fresh flow of ideas and new concepts keep the consumers distracted as well as keep the organization updated and adapted with its changed external environments.

Unlike the Super Bowl, the organization does not have to face any ethical issues regarding the health issues caused by carbonated drinks (Hans, Thomas, Garla, Dagli & Hans, 2016). On the other hand, the huge investments for the encouragement and empowerment of potential talents and ideas plays an important role in balancing the damages caused by business enterprises on the surrounding society and environment. Choosing a Social Marketing Strategy is not only beneficial for the environment but also for the Company itself.

Recommended Decision

In case of the Pepsi Company in Canada, which is adopting US Pepsi’s marketing strategies and the Pepsi Refresh Project, the recommended option would be to align the Company objectives with the marketing strategies and emphasize on the particular areas that would allow them to attract more people, and build an interactive relationship with the customers (Mialon, Swinburn & Sacks, 2015). Along with holding various entertaining contests involving major sections of the society, the Company should focus on taking up relevant Corporate Social responsibilities, which would not only encourage the external environment around, but also build loyalty and trust with the customers.

Conclusion

In order to emerge as a conscious and aware market force in the international business market, it is important for an organization to be CSR certified, which has now become a minimum criteria for participating in international business. Taking up various social management policies that would make a difference in the lives of the Canadians is an important recommendation that can help in designing the organization’s actions with relevance to its pre-decided objectives.

Disadvantages of Recommended Option

Though the recommended option of aligning the marketing strategies of the Pepsi Company, across the globe, with their specific Social Marketing Strategies proved beneficial for the organization, there are still a few loopholes that can be identified with a more detailed investigation of the market industry the Company is operating on. With a consumer-oriented approach, the Company focused its study and research on the young generation or the Millennial of the country as their chosen target of consumers. Though this has few merits, it also ignores the choices and preferences of a large section of the population, who do not belong to this group.

Pepsi’s efforts to attract the young minds with positivity and change do not specifically apply to the middle-classed people, who constitute a major part of the population and are potential customers to the organization. Therefore, the recommended option reveals its hidden loophole as the failure to be more inclusive and wholesome experience.

Action Plan 

Goals

Identification of the most appropriate strategy for the Company isn’t sufficient without a proper plan of Action. In order to devise a relevant Action Plan, it is important to note the specific goals that the Company is trying to achieve:

• Be more inclusive of customers of all ages and classes, in order to attract more potential customers.
• Reduce practices that drive away certain section of the consumer base, depending on the organization’s ethical choices and beliefs.
• Take active steps to neutralize the issues rising from health debates, related to the carbonated drinks industry (Turkington, Ward & Farrell, 2017).

The particular Action Steps that can be identified as useful in the process of achieving the mentioned goals are:

Long term:

• Instead of focusing just on one section of the consumer-base, it is important for the organization to be more inclusive of voices of other variables, who also are potential customers of the Company.
• Explore and analyze the particular issues related to health and the carbonated drinks industry, in order to be more sensitized regarding not only the Company’s consumer satisfaction goals but also its understanding of ethical issues (Biggs, Dunn & Yao, 2017).

Short term:

• Undertake relevant CSR activities that make an effort to reduce the Company’s undesirable ethical issues related to health (Mehta, 2016).
• Major Risks and Responses

Some of the major risks that can be estimated from the recommended plan are briefly discussed below:

• In the process of expanding the Company’s consumer base, it is possible for the organization to lose its focus from the existing loyal consumers.
• As the market industry already faces sufficient criticism regarding its health impacts on the young Millennial, it is difficult for the organization to beat the challenges as it is based on the production and retail of carbonated drinks.

In-depth analysis of the identified risks of the chosen recommendation also reveals various means of response that can be applied to reduce the undesirable changes (Zhang & Borden, 2017).

• In order to particularly deal with the health issue, Pepsi needs to incorporate more health related programs and awareness campaigns that would improve its position regarding health related issues.
• In order to not lose focus from its existing consumers, the Company needs to incorporate a more inclusive consumer-survey, reflecting voices and opinions from different strata of the society.

Conclusion

To conclude, marketing strategies of an organization has a very important role to play in determining the course of action and achievement of objectives in a business enterprise. Taking into account the Pepsi Canada case, the research explored its various sections in order to explain the need to align Company’s marketing strategies with the Company objectives. The Pepsi Refresh Project marked an important change in the history of the Company, especially with their decision to withdraw from Super Bowl and instead invest on more consumer-oriented activities. The Pepsi Refresh Project was taken up by Pepsi Canada in 2010, imitating US Pepsi by amending its strategies with a more PRP approach.

The decision of the Company to withdraw from profit-oriented marketing schemes to a more social marketing strategy approach, has been further explored to understand the necessity and importance of the change in perspective. The research explores the various impacts of the decision on the career of Pepsi Company and critiques the decision by enlisting its specific benefits and loopholes. The research also offers further recommendations on the Action Plan that can be implemented to minimize the challenges.

References

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