Pepsi Cola Brand Management

1.0 Introduction
In this modern business age bound with tight and effective competition, it is essential for
businesses to develop a positive and strong image to maintain an efficient and lasting
competitive advantage (Birtwistle and Shearer, 2001). The constant change in markets
condition, unstable nature of consumer needs and behaviours further placed pressure on
businesses for the need to maintain and sustain a good brand image for its products as to keep
them up to date in meeting the needs of the markets and its consumers (Haeckel, 1993).
Brand image was described by Keller as the perception of a particular brand within the mind
of the consumer (1993), while brand awareness measures the abilities of the consumers to
recognize the brand through its characteristic such as the name, logo, symbol etc.(Aaker,
1991). To build a stronger brand image than rivals by a business require efforts and various
activities to place its products and services in a better position that will allow the business to
enjoy a degree of protection (Cheverton, 2002). Good brand image will create a better
consumer perception, help build customers loyalty, profitability and less vulnerability to
price and market fluctuations (Arslan, 2010). It is essential to understand that a brand
represents everything about a product or service to the customer (Kotler, 2009). Therefore, it
is important for business to ensure that brands are carefully developed, managed and
presented to the consumers as to maintain a good competitive advantage (Kotler, 2009)
PepsiCo Inc., one of the major leading global food and beverages manufacturer, distributor
and marketer with presence in more than 200 countries with products like Pepsi cola, snacks,
chips, cereals, dairy products, rice and pasta (IRI, 2013). As a global brand that competes
with local, national, regional and global food and beverages firms, it is essential to remain
competitive and profitable to study all the aspects its products branding , review their
effectiveness for good brand image creation and sustenance (Keller, 2013). The company
need to understand that building positive brand image for its products relies on strong brand
awareness that will ease the path for associations (Esch, et.al., 2006), this implies that for
customers to create an image of the Pepsi brand in their minds, there is need for them to be
aware of the brand first, this helps in developing a relationships between the company,
products and the consumers (Kotler, 2009).
The performance of the companys brand will be evaluated on the basis of the association
created for the brand, particularly as related to celebrities endorsement on the Pepsi Cola
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Pepsi Cola Brand Management

and its impact.
2.0 Review of Literatures
2.1 Brand
Pallister and law defined the term as the trade name used for the identification of a particular
manufacturer, product or distributor (2009).A brand describe a product, service, individual or
place that can possibly be identified and improved in a manner that will allow the buyers to
gain an essential and unique added values that satisfy their needs in the best possible way.
The success of a brand depends on the brands ability to maintain its added values in spite of
the rivals activities and actions. (McDonald, 1992). The AMA (American Marketing
Association) defines brand as the name, design, term, logo, symbol, attribute, quality or any
specific

characteristic that distinguishes the product from others and as well make it

recognizable (AMA,2015). Brand is a legal term and trademark of a product that define the
consumers experience, the feature of a product as felt by the customer (Nicholas, 1997).
Aaker (1991) further opined that brand signals the source of the product to consumers, and
provide protection against competitors attempt to provide identical products: Nicholas stated
that a product can be copied by a competitor but a brand is unique (Nicholas, 1997).
According to(WIMDR (Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research), a
brand was described as a promise of certain amount of benefits, attributes or services from
the manufacturer to the buyer of a product , WIMDR further stated that brand must be
reflected in these in four different manners;
i.

Must reflect the Values (what the product stands for).

ii.

Must reflect the Culture (the traits and norms for which the product is known for)

iii.

Must reflect the Personality ( the product being )

iv.

Must reflect the user ( for whom)

Brand can therefore be seen as the whole experience of its prospects and customers in
relation to company produce or service (MO, 2013). De Chernatony and McDonald (1992)
suggested that brands must be able to meet the consumers basic needs, retain old customers
and attract new ones through enhanced customer service and become augmented in new
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Pepsi Cola Brand Management

(better) ways that will add more values that will help to satisfy both the functional and nonfunctional needs of the consumers. To succeed, it is important for a brand to offer added
values to the main characteristics of the basic product as to prevent competitors from copying
its brand functional characteristics (De Chernatony, McDonald, 1992).
Since it is the aim of every business to succeed, it is therefore essential to distinguish the
brand from others, ability to generate a stable and long-term demand for the product through
adding values that will make the customers buy the products will help in building a strong
and successful brand (De Chernatony, McDonald, 1992)
2.2 Branding
Kotler and Armstrong in 2009 stated that Branding has become so strong that today hardly
anything goes unbranded, the UK online resource for businesses also described branding as
a way of distinctly highlighting the differences that makes a product or service more
attractive than the competitors, it is terminal phase of a process which consist of using a
company resources to focus on the creation of unique features that will differentiate the
company and its products from others (Caperer (1997), branding is more than just assigning a
name to a product but it encompasses of all what identifies the business to consumers, sum
their experiences and perceptions of the company and its product(s), which helps in building
the customers loyalty (Keller, 2013).
2.3 Brand Knowledge
Keller (1998), stated that brand knowledge consists of the brand awareness and image,
awareness, brand awareness is the measure of the ability of a potential consumer to recognize
or recall a brand features when making a purchasing decision (Aaker, 1991) and brand
image is defined by Keller as the set of perceptions help in the consumers memory
regarding a brand based on the associated reflection from the consumers senses (Keller,
1993). He further opined that brand knowledge contains a mutually related information about
a product like benefit, awareness, images, attributes, feelings, attitudes, thoughts and
experiences which all interact with customers to bring forth real understanding of the product
or service. (Richards et al., 1998).

Pepsi Cola Brand Management

Fig 1: Dimensions of Brand Knowledge (Keller, 1993)

2.4 Brand Awareness
Brand awareness describes the degree at which consumers associate with a brand and the
probability that they are familiar with the life and availability of the product (MSG, 2014),
which includes both the brand recognition and recall. Brand recognition describes the
potential of the customer to recognize a prior knowledge about a product when in contact
with the brand i.e., consumers ability to clearly differentiate the brand on the basis of
knowledge or information earlier noticed or heard and Brand recall is the consumers
potential to recover a brand information from memory when a signal about the product
benefits, category or buying scenario is given i.e., ability of the consumers to recall
information about a product from memory when given a related clue (MSG, 2014). Brand
awareness could either be aided (mentioning of the product category which provide a lead to
the consumer) or top of mind awareness (this is an immediate brand recall). Creation of
brand awareness requires a reliable brand image, taglines and slogans that is consistent and
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Pepsi Cola Brand Management

unique for the brand to which the consumers can become easily acquainted and familiar with
(MSG, 2014).
2.5 Brand Image
With reference to AMA (American Marketing Association), brand image is the way a brand is
perceived by people, i.e. the mirror reflection of a product personality. Brand image describes
peoples believe about a brand, the customers feelings and expectations, Keller on his part
defined brand image as an insight of a product as reflected by the brand associations in
customers memory which are created through the brand attributes, brand benefits and brand
attitudes, It is the understanding of the consumers about a product as generated through
brand related activities (Aaker, 1991). Hsieh, Pan and Setiono (2004), stated that a successful
brand image makes it possible for customer to easily understand its needs that the brand
fulfils and what differentiate the brand from other competitors. It increases the likelihood of
the product being bought by the consumers (Hsieh, Pan, Setiono, 2004)
2.6 Brand association
The brand association emanates from the customers memory towards a brand image, which
includes the benefits, brand and attitudes (Keller, 1993). Biel (1992) further classify that
brand association as a measure of brand image can be divided into commercial image, goods
image and user image , it is a general term that represents the link between the customers
perception and the product (Chen, 2001). Brand association is the key factor that drives the
development of the brand relationship because it leads to customers brand loyalty and
effective BWOM (Brand word of mouth) that will translate to good product performance and
a platform for relationship development. For instance, the Pepsi Cola blue colour provides
differentiation and acquaintance thats not replicable by the companys competitors to which
the consumers can easily associate (Jegede, 2016). Brand associations are those attributes of a
brand which come to the customers mind when the product is talked about, providing
implicit and explicit meanings to which the consumers can easily relates or associates with
(Chen, 2001). It can be seen as the customers overall evaluations of the brand that
distinguishes brand from the others, these attributes are product related (physical composition
of a product) and non product related (like price, packaging, users etc.) (Keller, 1993).

Pepsi Cola Brand Management

2.7 Celebrity Endorsements
Celebrities are individuals that enjoy a larger share of public recognition through their
attractiveness, lifestyle or special skills or abilities that made them differ from the common
norms, the term Celebrity is used to describe an individual that is well known to the public
due to his/ her achievements in areas like sports, entertainment or extraordinary knowledge
about something) (Friedman, 2009). And Endorsement is defined as a channel of brand
communication where a celebrity acts as the products spokesperson in certifying the brands
claim and acclaimed benefits through his/her personality or expertise to provide a distinct
differentiation that will aid the product acceptability (Roll, 2006). McCracken's described
celebrity endorsement as the process of using an individual that enjoys public recognition and
attention to communicate information about the potential benefit of a product to the
consumers (Lalwani, 2006). Consumers tend to develop connections with products to which
they have some sort of respect for the endorser or a celebrity they are willing to associate
with (Bettman 2003). The celebrities fame creates attention for a brand and also helps in
providing a high recall rates for products (Croft et al, 1996).
Celebrity endorsement increases consumers attention, the public recognition attached to
celebrities provides general attractive that will help persuading consumers acceptance and
association to the brand (Danziger 2000), particularly when the celebrities that endorses a
brand are viewed as an expert in the particular area such as an athlete endorsing a trainer
shoes (Chiaken 2011) or a model endorsing a make-up (Chiaken, 2011). Celebrities
association with a brand provides central information and media weight on the brand that can
easily be recognised and recalled in a manner that will sensitise the user to the benefit of the
product (Weiss 2002). The main reason why companies use celebrities is purely to use their
unique characteristics and qualities to establish a good analogy about their products
benefits and specialties by positioning them rightly in the minds of the target customers with
the celebrity personalities (Weiss, 2002).
3.0 Pepsi Cola Brand Association Performance Evaluations
The main reasons and objectives of Pepsi cola to have strong branding of its product is for
differentiating, informing, reminding and persuading Customers, through the product
branding activities, potential consumers are informed of its availability, benefits and
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Pepsi Cola Brand Management

associated potentials to persuade their purchasing intentions, brand association allows the
transmission of positive set of beliefs about the product key attributes (Belch, 2004).
Through a good positioning, Pepsi presented the brand as a refreshing carbonated beverage of
the youth, targeting young active adults (Interbrand, 2013) and with the benefit of curing
thirstiness,

crave for cola placation and caffeine boost. Pepsi also use its global presence and

reputation to influence the consumers purchasing behaviours and the use of celebrities like Britney
Spears, Beyonc, Ray Charles, Jeff Gordon, Nicki Minaj, Beckham and Ronaldinho, popular sports
and entertainment icons as endorsers was also helpful and effective in appealing to the social sense
of the customers. Pepsi cola normally used celebrities that are known for fun, adventure, energy,
consistency and success in their various fields, which further help in dictating the particular

image the brand Pepsi seeks to portray about the brand (Bazil, 2013).
Evaluating the impact of Pepsi Cola branding activities will be based on the impact it has on
the consumers and the product, measuring the sales figures is one of the ways to ascertain this
but a very difficult means of appraising branding performance, however, a model used by a
study conducted by Belen del Ro ,Rodolfo Vazquez and Vctor Iglesias of the
department of Economics, University of Oviedo, Spain evaluated the branding impact on the
product performance by assessing the social impact, status impact and competitive advantage.
1. Social Impact: the impact will be evaluated on the basis the brand's ability to

communicate the desire of the consumers(Shiffman, 2000), this can be noted through
the consumers feelings of by admiration and prestige from using the product
(Solomon, 1999), the social impact of the branding according to Johnson (1999) will
be based on the following characteristics:

The brand ability to symbolise power and social status

It potential to reflect social approval

Its exclusivity nature

Its ability to contribute emotional experiences

2. Status Impact.

Pepsi Cola Brand Management

The status impact of the brand is based on the product ability to possess and achieve
prestige and recognition among its peers, this is evaluated on the basis of the
consumer response to the brand normally regarded as brand equity i.e. the differential
effect of the brand knowledge that influences consumer perceptions, behaviours and
preferences, a high reaction to the product by consumers is an indication of favourable
status of the brand as influence by the brand imagery.
3. Competitive advantage
Another measure of the brand functions is the competitive advantages that result from the
impact of the brand image, this is evaluated on the basis of advantages related to current
performance, profitability of the brand , longevity of profits ,brand loyalty, low
vulnerability to market conditions and growth potential , the brand associations impact
can be assessed on the basis of its contribution to the brands ability to improve its
competitive advantage by creating an edge over competitors (Yoo et al., 2000).
Base on the above highlighted brand performance appraisal means above, the Pepsi Cola
brand association and its celebrity endorsement impact will judged on the basis of the
brands ability to create a social recognition, achieve a recognition that improves its status
and increases its competitive advantage in the beverages industry. Pepsi Cola has a very
good social recognition among its target audience, good status that place it well in the
sector and a good competitive advantage over its major competitors in attracting young
and fun loving consumers, the personalities of its endorsers (celebrities) further helped in
improving its status by association that allows consumers to relate with the product better.
Recommendations
As a measure for Pepsi to develop and maintain a positive brand image, the brand knowledge
creation should be more reflective of the consumers needs and desires, use of real life
professionals rather than just entertainment and sports icon for endorsement will also be
helpful in improving its social recognition, improve its market status and competitive
advantage.

Pepsi Cola Brand Management

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