2004 / September 17^th/ Using a competitors campaign for benifit

Every once in a while a competitor comes out with a great product, and there is no other solution but to combat this product with one of equal value, but from your brand. Confused of what I mean? I’m talking about the latest C2 or Pepsi Edge campaign. Coke hit something great here - make a product that’s not quite diet, not quite regular, and mark it up for a higher profit. They called it Coke 2 or C2 for short. Pepsi attempted something like this earlier with their Pepsi One - only one calorie. People didn’t buy it, products didn’t move. But this newest C2 craze has got people rushing to stores to buy their new fancy 8-packs (yet another genius marketing move, although that will wait for another day).

It was working brilliantly for a few weeks. Then Pepsi took notice, decided this was unacceptable and came out with Pepsi Edge. What is it? Pepsi with 50% the sugar. Hmm, seems awfully familiar. Oh well, it’s bound to happen - especially in the brand wars of Cola. Now comes the challenge for Pepsi: How do they market their “new” product without sounding like copycats?

Fight fire with fire

The answer was right in front of them, and honestly I think they’ve done a brilliant job here. Simply turn the tables around and make it seem like Coke copied their idea. Hmm, not as easy as it sounds, especially with laws to prevent some of the more obvious methods. Now here’s where the genius comes in.

Pepsi’s newest commercial starts off with a man sitting in a red chair in a red room drinking a Pepsi Edge. In the background there’s an old country song singing “You’re cheatin’ heart.” The man takes a sip of Pepsi Edge and smiles. He sits back and repeats this. After he takes this last sip, his dog barks at him and the camera whips views to the dog. Suddenly the screen is filled with Coca Cola merchandise: the dog is wearing a Coke sweater, there are posters and memorabilia all over the walls - his entire apartment is Coke. The commercial then goes into the details - what Pepsi Edge is, why it has 50% less sugar, etc. After this, the man is sitting outside his apartment drinking a Pepsi Edge, wearing all Pepsi merchandise with all of his Coke stuff kicked to the curb.

Now, while watching this commercial you are given the distinct impression that the man likes Pepsi Edge so much he is giving up Coke. Not C2. This subtle change is massive. By simply not referencing C2 at all, the viewer, in their mindless TV-watching state, is given the impression that Pepsi came out with a new product that is better than Coke. So much so that you should consider switching. They are later given the information that Pepsi Edge has 50% less sugar and people that had not heard of C2 before think “Hmm, I’ll have to try that Pepsi Edge, it sounds pretty good” What’s the problem here? The viewer just thought of switching to Pepsi. They’ve now associated 50% less sugar to Pepsi. Whenever they see a C2 ad now they’re going to think to themselves about how Coke is just copying Pepsi. This is another subliminal branding point that might just make people choose Pepsi instead of Coke at the store next time. Just maybe.

This is just one of those things you’d never notice usually, and the entire process just goes through your head subliminally. Hell, you might even have a 12-pack of Pepsi Edge in your fridge right now and you’re rethinking why you bought it. I would have never noticed this except one of my friends pointed out to me while a C2 commercial was playing “They’re just copying Pepsi”

In my opinion, this was an excellent marketing move by Pepsi. I love it. You should take from this a lesson on how to advertise a product that in all honesty does not have any advantage over your competitor. Even if you weren’t the first to come up with the product, you can sometimes make the consumer think so. Hell, even the name of the product, Pepsi Edge implies it has something over the competition.

Pepsi: 1 Coke: 0

1. 

   Wired

   September 17^th | #

   Coke rocks, Pepsi Sucks. Eat it.

2. 

   Raven

   September 17^th | #

   I dunno. I don’t like this kind of commercials. In fact I hate it when they use their competitor and say he’s bad. That just sucks… maybe it works for someone but not for me. I’m never going to have Pepsi after this commercial again, though i like both pepsi and coke.

3. 

   Kyle Neath

   September 22^nd | #

   Unfortunately Raven, that’s the world we live in. I’ve been learning a whole bunch about weird advertising stuff lately (mostly from my Psychology teacher) and it intrigues me. Once you get past the “get your name out” stage of advertising, things get tricky. I suppose you have to knock a competitors campaign. Take political campaigns for example - John Kerry is mentioned more times on http://www.georgebush.com than George Bush (at last count). Why? Because making someone else sound bad is better than making yourself sound good.

4. 

   A. Tapley

   December 15^th | #

   OMG you people are so weird! Pepsi is awesome and the commercials are awesome, too! Get that through your thick skulls!

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