Dear Pepsi: Stop Anointing and Start Listening

Published by Karen Snyder on

WHEREAS
I don’t really give a rat’s a** what your logo looks like, as long as you don’t change the taste of Diet Pepsi (by the way, I preferred the way it tasted last year, when the cans were light blue. It tastes funny now.) However, I would appreciate it if I could get Diet Pepsi at every fast food joint, restaurant and Movie Theater. My preferred soda is notably absent at AMC Theaters and Chik Fil-A.

It’s clear that you are not asking your customers what they want. If you had asked for MY feedback, instead of rebranding, I would have suggested you focus on improving your distribution.

FURTHERMORE
Stop anointing people as “top 25” influencers. The other hundreds of top influencers are probably peeved that they weren’t chosen in your top 25. Remember that they all got to be “influencers” because, much like entertainers, they seek the approval and attention of the outside world (no offense to anyone, I’m in that category too.) This reminds me of Intel’s stunt with their “insiders” campaign. I’m sure those chosen ones are enjoying their new Macbook Airs. At least Intel used the pretense of asking social media experts for guidance. But YOUR lucky top 25 are getting packages full of old cans and bottles. Where’s the fun in that? I’d rather be an “Intel Insider” than a Pepsi “top 25-er”

IN SUMMARY
Here is my “Pepsi Challenge.” If just ONE Pepsi employee responds to this post, I’ll be thrilled and will tell MY huge following of 200+ Twitterati that Pepsi “gets it.” If not, well then Pepsi will just join my list here on my blog of the companies that DON’T. But yeah, I’ll still drink Diet Pepsi anyway.


3 Comments

Jim Storer · October 30, 2008 at 9:52 am

Sorry, I’m not from Pepsi, but I can’t wait to see if they reply. Nice post!

Jim | @jstorerj

Josh K · October 30, 2008 at 8:47 pm

Karen, thanks for the feedback. As a member of the team running this program at PepsiCo, I can tell you that we are all definitely listening—and are not anointing anyone but merely starting a new dialogue. We also made it clear in the Friendfeed room and in the packages we delivered that we are looking for guidance and contributions. We made it clear that this is a start for us. We should continue talking. Hope to see you in the room.

Anonymous · November 2, 2008 at 1:13 pm

Pepsi’s friendfeed room posted 3 bloggers that actually received the packages and wrote about them = FAIL!

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