Overview of Pepsi
Understanding the behavior of the consumer is very essential before framing any strategy or launching the product in any market. If the business got unsuccessful in analyzing the exact response of the customers for a specific product, the company has to deal with huge losses (Stephens, 2016). Consumer behavior is complex because every customer has diverse attitude and mind towards consumption, purchase, and product disposal. Studying the behavior of the customer support in marketing the services and products successfully and this could be done with the help of a survey (Utami, 2016). A survey is one of the methods of research used by businesses to collect data from the pre-defined respondent’s group to get information on different topics of interest (Bryman, 2016). As there, is constant change in the standard of living, fashion, technological advancement, and trend, the attitude of the consumers varies towards the product purchase. Hence, the survey can support in identifying the changing attitude of the customer towards a product due to trend, and fashion. This report is being framed in order to understand the changing behavior of the customers for the product Pepsi, with the help of a survey comprised of different questions. A proper analysis will be presented of the responses provided by the participants of the survey.
Pepsi is one of the known carbonated soft drink produced by PepsiCo. Caleb Bradham originally established it in 1893 as Brad’s Drink, but it was retitled as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then in 1961 as Pepsi (Supporting Quality, 2018). The original recipe of the drink includes vanilla and sugar. The aim of creating Pepsi was to boost the energy and aid in digestion. Pepsi is one of the biggest companies of beverages in the world, with products accessible in around 200 countries. In 1965, it adopted its name when the Company Pepsi-Cola initiated its contract with Frito-Lay; Inc. Headquarter of the company is in New York (Quality, 2018). In the initial stage of the 21st century, the company started focusing towards expanding its operations in different nations, particularly Russia, which was considered as the second biggest market of the company (Pepsico, 2018).
Buyer behavior means the behavior that is reflected by an individual at the time they purchase, dispose, or consume any specific service or product. These behaviors could be influenced by numerous factors. Furthermore, it also involves examination for a product, assessment of product where the customer assesses diverse elements, consumption, and purchase of the product (Gbadamosi, 2017). For every business, it is very essential to examine the behavior of the customers to understand the demand and supply of their services in the market. Therefore, to recognize the demand and behavior of customers towards Pepsi, this survey was conducted with the help of 10 different questions. Moreover, it also helped in examining the influence of driving forces such as lifestyle, culture, attitudes, family, individual and group differences, and perception on the changing behavior of the customer.
The instrument that was used to conduct the survey is Survey Monkey Application. It was covered with 10 questions aimed at different perspectives such as culture, perception, group and individual differences, attitude, lifestyle and family, and motivation. All the questions were framed after detailed research and analysis of the consumer behavior and changing trends in the market. The questionnaire was comprised of multiple-choice and open-ended questions. Besides this, different perspectives and factors were examined to understand the reason behind altering consumer behavior.
Purpose of Survey
The survey was presented to 16 people, among them there were 5 males and 11 females. The survey was conducted fairly with the effective participation of all the people. Participants of the survey were very corporative as they took out some time from their busy schedule to provide their precious feedback for Pepsi.
The participants in the survey were professionals; they were familiar with the Pepsi brand. It has been analyzed that around 33.33% of the participants have a good opinion of Pepsi, as it is one of the old brands of carbonated soft drinks (Refer to Appendix 1). Besides this, the company makes use of a different strategy to market its products such as using endorsing celebrities to increase its sales by encouraging customers (Psychedelic, 2015). Moreover, only 5.56% of the participants voted for the negative reaction for Pepsi.
This question was asked to know, what people think about the quality of Pepsi and 50% of the participants responded for Pepsi to have high quality because the company is customer-centric and give major priority to their health (Refer to Appendix 2). Since the products of Pepsi are sold in different countries around the world; hence, it has a responsibility to maintain the trust and health of its customers. Pepsi has framed some rules and regulations for maintaining the quality of its products, therefore, to do so it takes all the inclusive measures to encounter the highest quality and food safety standards. Moreover, the company has introduced a global Food Safety strategy to meet important food safety goals (Pepsico, 2018). These goals comprise protecting PepsiCo brands and business status by assuring healthy “on the ground” food safety and controlling agreement and delivering the design of the product that builds in quality and safety by appropriately adhering to the standards of quality, procedures, and specifications (Pepsico, 2018).
According to the survey analysis, it could be said that the quality of the Pepsi is above average because it helps in boosting the energy of consumer and aid the digestive system. Moreover, there were just 11.11% participants, who said that the quality of Pepsi is below average (Refer to Appendix 3). Pepsi has a quality certificate of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), which is the worldwide know third-party organization. This organization conducts self-governing reviews to check the manufacturing sites’ food safety practices of management (Pepsico, 2018).
According to the feedback from the participants, it has been seen that from the total number of 16 participants around 8 of them desire to replace Pepsi with fresh fruit juices (Refer to Appendix 4). This is because fresh fruit juices are comprised of different vitamins and proteins as compared to Pepsi or any other carbonated soft drinks. Juicing extract, the fluid from the fruits or vegetables that is in the form of a liquid comprised of plant chemicals, minerals, and vitamins found in the fruit. Therefore, most of the people think fresh fruit juice is a better option than Pepsi or carbonated soft drinks.
In today’s dynamic environment, there are different options or substitute products present in the market that offer a similar type of benefits to the customers. This makes the customer increase its demand in search of a unique and different product (Sygna, O’Brien and Wolf, 2013). Therefore every business conducts an analysis to identify what new a customer wants in the product that can meet their changing needs. The purpose of this question was the same, to known the changing demand of the customers for Pepsi. From the analysis, it has been identified that most of the participants wanted that company should work on providing Pepsi in different flavors as well as packaging .
Development of Survey Instrument
Opinions of customers and trends are very essential for every business to survive in the market successfully. They reflect the actual place of the product or service in the market. Customers provide their views on the different type of issues like how good is the service or product. Is it meeting your requirements? Does it taste good? (Kureemun and Fantina, 2011). In order to know the place of Pepsi on the market, this question was framed and it was analyzed that most of the participants consume Pepsi because it tastes good (Refer to Appendix 6). However, there were some respondents, who commented on the quality of the product, but it is known that Pepsi is one of the carbonated drinks that follow all the safety measures in the production process.
Brands need to acknowledge the ensuing value a product has on the customer in answer to the efforts in marketing provided by the company (Mortimer, 2017). Brand image is essential as optimistic insights are ensured by emotional and functional experiences. The biggest challenge that marketer deals in making a powerful brand are to ensure that the experiences of service and product delivered to the customers generate desired results (Mortimer, 2017). The analysis conducted to known how strongly customers relate to the brand image of Pepsi and it has been analyzed that 8 participants provided a positive response to strongly relate the brand image .
The analysis regarding the emotion is related to Pepsi reflects that it is refreshing and boost the energy of the consumer. However, on the other side, the same number of participants said that it is unhealthy and harm their health. 5 of the participants said that they relate Pepsi to the celebration .
According to the survey, it has could be observed that Pepsi is mostly consumed by adults and kids because it is famous among this age group (Refer to Appendix 9). This is due to the marketing strategies conducted by Pepsi targeting the youth generation.
Since its beginning, Pepsi has continuously targeted the segment of youth. The altering sentiments and demands of the younger age group in the nation have resulted in variations in the standing of Pepsi (Design Shack, 2018). This could be noticed from the alterations in the logo, means of communication, taglines, and advertisement messages. Pepsi has leveraged every type of musical celebrities over years, from Britney Spears to Ray Charles (Idea Make Market, 2018). All these efforts were made by the company to attract more and more adults and teenage groups.
The survey asked participants about what is the biggest motivation for them to purchase Pepsi, to understand the reason people consume Pepsi. From the analysis, it has been identified that Pepsi is available at every near place to the customers such as retail store, supermarket, and convenience stores (Refer to Appendix 10). Pepsi has a wide market presence, which is based on its well-organized network of distribution. It makes use of different type of distribution systems depending on the needs of the customers, characteristics of the product along with domestic trade practices (Pratap, 2017).
Pepsi with its distributors and bottlers operates the DSD systems that permit it to offer beverages and snacks to different retail stores. The company offers its stock in the retail stores that support in attaining maximum appeal and visibility. This system is appropriate for the products refilled more frequently and for merchandising and promotion (Pratap, 2017).
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it could be concluded that Pepsi is one of the well-known brand of carbonated drinks worldwide; however, it deals with huge competition from the players to gain the maximum market share. The report has analyzed the changing consumer behavior and its reasons in regards to the Pepsi drink. For this, a survey was conducted comprised with 1o questions to understand the aspects that affect the demand and behavior of the customers and those aspects are attitude, lifestyle, and family, culture, group and individual differences, perception, and motivation. The highest motivation that let customers’ consume Pepsi is its easy availability in the market. Moreover, the taste of the product is another appealing factor that affects the consumer behavior. From the survey, it was also observed that customers desire to have different flavors of Pepsi to experience a new delight.
References
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