Pepsi Recognizes Gen Y Optimism, But Fails to Follow Through

Good post.

I'm sick of Boomers and Xers thinking they understand Millennials when they really do not.

I'm curious about the level of communication Pepsi had with Millennials — not polling data, but focus groups and other conversations — that led to this new campaign.

Thanks for writing this.

Ryan,

The dirty hippie idealist in me agrees with you 100% but… at the end of the day, I just want to drink a can of soda. I don't really think about whether or not Coke helped change the world and aligned with my ideals more than Pepsi did. I like the taste of Pepsi better, so that's what I drink.

Advertising is almost always just decoration. A quality product is what really matters.

@Craig – Millennials don't even understand Millennials. There's as much diversity within us as there is between us and other generations. The only thing that truly unifies us is the technology we've grown up with and certain political events. Ryan even caveats as much in his statement, "I'm generalizing here, but…"

There is no such thing as the "typical" Millennial. We're just a bunch of people who grew up with computers and 9/11.

Great post. Pepsi is also missing the boat with this boomer (cusper) as well with their recent logo change. All of their new bottles look "weird" and I avoid them because I'm afraid it's not the same Pepsi that I expect. Looks like Pepsi just has bad marketing all around on this one.

The Pepsi commercials are cute — but they don't make me say, "ooh, Pepsi gets me, I'm going to go drink a Pepsi!!"

And I hate their new look!

Then again, I hate the basic element – the taste! So nothing was really going to work with me anyway.

@Craig, thats a good question, I wonder if they went beyond a survey. I'll do some digging…

@Chris, this is true, I am sitting here drinking a diet pepsi But I'm drinking it because I do happen to like the product. The commercials and the new logo are not the reason

@Kate, Glad to see its not just Gen Y who doesn't like the new campaign!

@Natalie, Great point, they are cute commercials, but Pepsi is pushing the campaign as a sort of call to arms for Gen Y. Thats the strange thing in my mind.

Thanks for the comments!

Ryan

Hi Ryan:

Insightful post. However, the reason I really don't think this is going to work is that 1) Gen Y doesn't watch much television (where I'm sure the commercials are intended to land) and 2) Gen Y doesn't really believe "the experts," they believe their friends. If Pepsi really wants Gen Y, they need to get Millennials engaged and recommending their friends drink Pepsi.

-GenerationXpert

Hey Ryan!
I recent saw a Subaru commercial that I thought really was hitting home with the socially conscious Millenials. If you buy a Subaru, they will donate money to a charity of your choice. Way cool!

-bret j

@GenXpert I actually don't think that's true. Gen Y watches a lot of television. They just don't watch the commericials . Good point though about not believing experts. It's very true. There needs to be a healthy mix of word of mouth advertising and traditional advertising to best reach Gen Y

@Bret That is pretty cool. I wonder if its really a charity of your choice or a list of potential charities though?? Regardless its a good idea.

It is actually they have a few charities to pick from. However,as an added value even if GenY's don't watch the commercials (to GenXpert's point) if a company is known as a socially responsibile company…GenY's love that becuause they are contributing to the greater good.

@Bret – that's definitely cool, and I've loved Subaru's social commitment for a while now. They also have very environmentally manufacturing facilities.

Here's the thing, though. I just bought a new car. I could have bought a Subie, but I didn't. Why not? They only come in AWD, so they're worse on gas. Also, I just think they're not that attractive.

So yea, Gen-Yers value social commitment, but we also care about aesthetics. And not all Gen Yers value social commitment at all, or even the same social issues.

Like all things in life, you can't generalize.

In order to make any sociological statement and recognize patterns generalizing is going to be inevitable. And while you're correct in that not every Millennial is going to subscribe to the value of social commitment or other social values, research has shown that, more often than not, Millennials do subscribe to these values.

@Chris — I like your point about Subarus being strictly AWD — if they're going to talk up social responsibility, they need to walk the walk.

Thanks for the info on Hyundai!

As far as Pepsi goes they could have leveraged their media options better. While I agree that Gen-Y is still watching television, advertising response rates are not at the level they once were. Grabbing great product placement on tv would have been a better fit for them on that medium (Coke and American Idol). Jumping into online video would have propped a better solution as well as an interactive blog that looked into the lives of Gen-Y Pepsi advocates that are helping to change the state of the economy. Just some 2 cents, but glad you brought this to my light.

Funny…I don't think that their market segment is city drivers. It looks like it is more of people who actually use the AWD feature.

@Greg-another idea is that GenY's love to be a part of the calling the shots. Think of American Idol (since you brought it up) the music industry used to be built on artists who made good songs and sold records. Now the top 10 usually has 3 or 4 American Idol winners who the voters decided was the best. I think a company probably should look into letting the consumer decide promotions/deals/etc by putting it out there…not just putting something out there and hoping it sticks.
-bretj

A lot of (gen-y) graphic designers like myself HATE the new logo, and have had numerous debates on it.
Kate hits it on the head. They just advertised themselves as unreliable.
Us Gen-Ys can still remember the soda commercials from our childhood, with Ray Charles (You got the right one, baby, uh huh) and Michael Jackson (I sooo wanted that jacket).

Ray's gone, Michael's weird, and now the soda of "the next generation" got their logo botoxed.
These fools had the president elect win using their logo concept! What the heck kind of missed opportunity was THAT??