Pepsi's Kendall Jenner AD: Communication Gone Wrong

PepsiCo was established in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay, Inc. The recipe for the first cola drink was developed by Caleb Bradham in North Carolina, in 1880. When his drink became popular, he established the Pepsi-Cola company in 1902. This later went on to become PepsiCo Inc. post the 1965 merger. Headquartered in Purchase, New York, the company owned several well-known global brands like Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Lay’s, Gatorade, Quaker, Lipton, and many others as of 2017. Pepsico served customers and consumers in more than 200 countries and territories across the world. In 2006, Indra Nooyi became the CEO of PepsiCo.

PepsiCo was involved in a series of acquisitions and mergers during the 1900s and 2000s, the largest of these being the acquisition of Tropicana Products in 1998 and the Quaker Oats Company in 2001. The latter added the Gatorade brand to its portfolio. PepsiCo had since expanded from Pepsi-Cola to a broader range of food and beverage products. The global net revenue of PepsiCo increased from US$ 39.47 billion in 2007 to US$ 62.8 billion 2016. But, since 2014, a gradual decrease had been noticed in the revenues (Refer to Exhibit I for the Revenue of PepsiCo. from 2007 to 2016). One major reason for the reduction in revenue was the shift in consumer tastes and preferences toward healthier food options. Hence, to cope with this change and to sustain itself in the market, Pepsi focused not just on cola but also on several other product categories like food, snacks, and beverages by expanding its portfolio ...