advertising and other stuff. no, really.



Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Pepsi’s retrover movement.











(It’s retro. It’s a makeover. Awww. You get it now!) I do not get this brand. I love dat there Pepsi doncha’ know, and nothing they do in terms of advertising will make me stop drinking it, (along with its special cousin Mt. Dew), but as a brand, Starbucks’ moves make more sense. Above are current iterations for the two soda makers in the current retrover craze we’re in. (Pop to my PA/Western NY tribes.) The new Coke summer series? Totally pwns/owns/rules the thing on the left.

Where to start.

Okay, first, well, Coke again shows it understands the vibe its brand has while Pepsi is just playing at it. Part of the Pepsi redesign launch and blogger outreach included retro cans. The actual look from days of yore. So... if you were going to do an actual retro can again, um, why. not. go. back. to. those? When the NFL does the throwback uni thing, they don’t just swap out the jersey for the day. Everything goes.

Yeah, you’re getting the picture, aren’t you.

Second, I know products can do seasonal releases as the Coke design shows, and sugar/not-sugar is the latest whipping boy product feature, but you spent all this money on a redesign and then throw out the retro thing not long after. We may be in a brave new world of time-shifted media, but consumers aren’t huge fans of change. *cough, Tropicana, cough*

Then there’s the use of the new Pepsi logo on 12-packs of retro cans. The idea was probably to use the new logo as a global element and face of the brand, but it feels at odds with the notion of what retro really is. Why not let the redesign take time to build in consumers’ minds before messing with it? (Hey, what’s this, the original global domination rollout thing, ain’t?)

Why not instead just go back to the all-white cans. THOSE were badass.

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2 comments:

the girl Riot™ said...

white!! want the white ones!! :D

...oh i'm sorry, were you looking for something more intelligent from me? i'll work on that.

phillybikeboy said...

So, going through the checkout at the Giant today, I grabbed a Pepsi Throwback. Now, usually I drink Diet Pepsi, because regular Pepsi's usual corn sweetener aftertaste makes me spend the rest of the day thinking I was a fluffer for the latest Jolly Green Giant porn flick. Nasty aftertaste. So, throwing back a Throwback reminded me of just how much Pepsi didn't suck at one time. How it actually was good. And that made me hate the regular Pepsi all the more.

Do you think that's what they're going for?