Pepsi
Pepsi-Cola, most commonly called
Pepsi, is a
soft drink produced by
PepsiCo which is sold worldwide in stores, restaurants and vending machines. The brand was trademarked on
June 16,
1903, though the drink was first made on
August 28, 1898, by
pharmacist Caleb Bradham. Similar to
Coca-Cola, its major rival, Pepsi was originally intended to cure stomach pains.
There are several variants of Pepsi, including
Diet Pepsi (the most popular variant), Pepsi Vanilla, and outside the
United States,
Pepsi Max & Pepsi Samba (this was released in
Australia only, and was only released for a limited time). Perhaps, the strangest of all variants was the
Pepsi Blue, which was released in
India,
Australia,
New Zealand,
Jamaica and
Canada as a limited edition variant during the period when the
Indian Cricket Team was having a successful run after the
2003 Cricket World Cup. (The colour of their jersey was blue.) Recently, Pepsi released a new product called "
Pepsi Gold" in
Thailand,
Norway and several other countries.
|
"Pepsi" logo (used from 1906-1939 in several slightly different variations). |
|
The international Pepsi logo. Also used as logo from 1991-1998. |
|
The "Pepsi" logo (used from 1998- present). |
Pepsi-Cola was first made in
New Bern, North Carolina in the United States in the early 1890s by
pharmacist Caleb Bradham. On
August 28,
1898 , "Brad's drink" was changed to "Pepsi-Cola" and later trademarked on
June 16,
1903. There are several theories on the origin of the word "pepsi".
The only two discussed within the current PepsiCo website are the following:1) Caleb Bradham bought the name "Pep Kola" from a local competitor and changed it to Pepsi-Cola. 2) "Pepsi-Cola" is an anagram for "Episcopal" - a large church across the street from Bradham's drugstore. There is a plaque at the site of the original drugstore documenting this while PepsiCo has refuted this theory.
Another theory is that Caleb Bradham and his customers simply thought the name sounded good or the fact that the drink had some kind of "pep" in it because it was a carbonated drink, they gave it the name "Pepsi".
As Pepsi was initially intended to cure stomach pains, many believe Bradham coined the name Pepsi from either the condition
dyspepsia (stomachache or indigestion) or the possible one-time use of pepsin root as an ingredient (often used to treat upset stomachs). It was made of
carbonated water,
sugar,
vanilla,
rare oils, and
kola nuts. Whether the original recipe included the
enzyme pepsin is disputed.
[Mike Gange, Pop Culture Paraphernalia, The Encyclopedia of Pepsi-Cola Collectibles]["The History of Pepsi Cola", Mary Bellis, about.com]In 1903, Bradham moved the bottling of Pepsi-Cola from his drugstore into a rented warehouse. That year, Bradham sold 7,968 gallons of
syrup. The next year, Pepsi was sold in six-ounce bottles and sales increased to 19,848 gallons. In 1905, Pepsi received its first logo redesign since the original design of 1898. In 1906, the logo was changed again. In 1909, automobile race pioneer
Barney Oldfield endorsed Pepsi-Cola in newspaper ads as "A bully drink...refreshing, invigorating, a fine bracer before a race".
In 1923, Pepsico went bankrupt due to high sugar prices as a result of
World War I, assets were sold and Roy C. Megargel bought the Pepsi trademark.
["The History of Pepsi-Cola", sodamuseum.bigstep.com paragraph 8]Eight years later, the company went bankrupt again, resulting in a reformulation of the Pepsi-Cola syrup formula.
During
The Great Depression, Pepsi gained popularity following the introduction in 1934 of a 12-ounce bottle. With twelve ounces a bottle instead of the six ounces Coca-Cola sold, PepsiCo turned the price difference to its advantage with a slick radio advertising campaign which was the first use of a
jingle in advertising. "Pepsi cola hits the spot / Twelve full ounces, that's a lot / Twice as much for a nickel, too / Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you," encouraged price-watching consumers to switch to Pepsi, while obliquely referring to the Coca-Cola standard of six ounces a bottle for the price of five cents (a nickel), instead of the twelve ounces Pepsi sold at the same price. Coming at a time of economic crisis, the campaign succeeded in boosting Pepsi's status. From 1936 to 1938, PepsiCo's profits doubled.
[Jones, Eleanor & Ritzmann, Florian. "Coca-Cola at Home". Retrieved June 17, 2006.]Introduced in 1964, Diet Pepsi was the United States's first national diet soft drink.
In 1975, PepsiCo introduced the
Pepsi Challenge marketing campaign where PepsiCo set up a blind tasting between Pepsi-Cola and rival
Coca-Cola. During these blind taste tests the majority of participants picked Pepsi as the better tasting of the two soft drinks. PepsiCo took great advantage of the campaign with
television commercials reporting the test results to the public.
[SODAmuseum.com "The History of Pepsi-Cola", sodamuseum.bigstep.com, paragraph 31]In 1996, PepsiCo launched the highly successful
Pepsi Stuff marketing strategy. In 2002, the strategy was cited by Promo Magazine as one of 16 "Ageless Wonders" that "helped redefine promotion marketing."
Source: Promo Magazine, 2002.
Celebrity endorsers
As with most popular soft drinks, Pepsi and its associated beverages have had various
celebrity endorsers.
See also: List of Pepsi types |
Diet Pepsi first debuted in 1964, and is one of the most popular types of Pepsi. |
There are many types of Pepsi-Cola all differing in taste, price and appearance. Diet Pepsi is one of the most popular variations of the drink, containing no sugar and zero calories.Other popular variations of the drink are Pepsi Max and
Pepsi ONE, both sugar-free colas. A caffeine-free cola called
Pepsi Free was introduced in 1982 by PepsiCo as the first major-brand caffeine-free cola and is today sold as
Caffeine-Free Pepsi and
Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi.
In 1988, the company launched
Wild Cherry Pepsi as a response to the popularity of
Cherry Coke. Though rarely marketed, the drink remains widely available. Although there has always been a diet variation of the drink since it came out,
Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi didn't become widely available until 2005, when Wild Cherry Pepsi was reformulated.
As of 2006, the product has not been released to the UK market, where Cherry Coke continues to enjoy near 100% domination following Cherry 7-Up's withdrawal from the market. Also in 2005, Pepsi Lime and Diet Pepsi Lime were released to compete with
Coca-Cola's lime-flavored offerings. In the summer of 2006 Pepsi introduced their Jazz variation of diet cola with two flavors, Strawberries & Cream and Black Cherry French Vanilla.
Pepsico has attempted marketing many different flavors of the drink, however many were quickly discontinued amidst poor sales.
Crystal Pepsi was introduced in 1992 and sold until 1993 as a rival to
New Coke (which was also a failure). Many found the clear drink to be disconcerting, though it tasted similar to the original. Pepsico attempted the drink again with the
Pepsi Blue in mid-2002 and later withdrew it from the market in 2004.
Pepsico market tested
coffee tasting variations of the drink with
Pepsi Kona in
Lehigh Valley and
Pennsylvania areas between 1994 and 1996. In 2005,
Pepsi Cappuccino was released in
Romania and
Bulgaria with another coffee flavored cola called
Pepsi Tarik in
Malaysia and
Pepsi Cafechino in India. In late 2005/early 2006 in the UK Pepsi released Pepsi Max Cino, a cappuccino flavoured variant of its popular Pepsi Max beverage. In 2006,
Pepsi Gold was released in Romania, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Jamaica and Lebanon.
Many types of the drink have only been produced or sold for a limited time, such as
Pepsi Holiday Spice, a spicy Hanukkah/Christmas seasonal finish of
ginger and
cinnamon. PepsiCo also rivaled Coca-Cola's lemon-flavored products with
Pepsi Twist, which was a commercial failure due to criticism of the taste. Pepsi A-ha, with a lemon flavor was launched in
India, in 2002, but was not successful either. Pepsi Twist has been successfully marketed in
Brazil (with lime instead of lemon), where a limited-edition version is also sold, the
Pepsi Twistão, with an even stronger lime flavor.
Pepsi X is another variation which contains more caffeine than regular Pepsi-Cola and in addition also contains
taurine and
guaranine. It is similar to other energy drinks such as
Red Bull. Another type is Pepsi Samba which was released in Australia in the 3rd Quarter of 2005. It is Pepsi with a tropical taste of tamarind and mango.
While some people claim that Pepsi tastes exactly the same as Coca-Cola, other people say they can tell a difference in the two soft drinks. In the past, the difference in taste between Pepsi and
The Coca-Cola Company's Coca-Cola was even greater than it is today.
In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company, amid much publicity, changed the
formula. Some authorities believe that
New Coke, as the reformulated drink came to be known, was invented specifically to respond to Pepsi. Numerous
blind taste tests suggested that more consumers preferred the taste of Pepsi (which is believed to have more
lemon oil, less
orange oil, and uses
vanillin rather than
vanilla) to Coke. In taste tests, drinkers were more likely to respond positively to sweeter drinks, and Pepsi had the advantage over Coca-Cola because it is much sweeter.
[Mikkelson, Barbara (1999). "Knew Coke". Retrieved June 14, 2006.]In the United States, Coca-Cola outsells Pepsi because Coca-Cola is sold exclusively in more locations, such as restaurants that sell Coca-Cola, but not Pepsi. Overall, Coca-Cola outsells Pepsi in almost all areas of the world.
Saudi Arabia and the
Canadian provinces of
Prince Edward Island,
Newfoundland and Labrador,
Ontario and
Quebec are some of the few exceptions.
By most accounts, Coca-Cola was India's leading soft drink until
1977 when it left India after a new government ordered the company to turn over its secret formula for Coca-Cola and dilute its stake in its Indian unit as required by the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA). In
1988, Pepsi gained entry to India by creating a joint venture with the Punjab government-owned
Punjab Agro Industrial Corporation (PAIC) and
Voltas India Limited. This joint venture marketed and sold Lehar Pepsi until 1991 when the use of foreign brands was allowed; Pepsi bought out its partners and ended the joint venture in
1994. In
1993, Coca-Cola returned in pursuance of India's
Liberalization policy.
["India: Soft Drinks, Hard Cases", The Water Dossier, 14 March 2005] In 2005, Coca-Cola and Pepsi together held 95% market share of soft-drink sales in India. Coca-Cola India's market share was 60.9%.
["Fizzical Facts: Coke claims 60% mkt share in India", Times News Network, August 5 2005] Others claim that due to rumors of the use of
cocaine, Coke was banned for a long time in India and recently the ban was lifted, however, Pepsi had maintained a commanding market share.
Pepsi had long been the drink of Canadian
Francophones and it continues to hold its dominance by relying on local
Québécois celebrities (especially
Claude Meunier, of
La Petite Vie fame) to sell its product. "Pepsi" eventually became an offensive
nickname for Francophones viewed as a lower class by
Anglophones in the middle of the 20th century. The term is now used as a historical reference to French-English linguistic animosity (During the partitionist debate surrounding the 1995 referendum, a pundit wrote,
"And a wall will be erected along St-Laurent street [the traditional divide between French and English in Montréal] because some people were throwing Coke bottle one way and Pepsi bottles the other way").
According to Consumer Reports, in the 1970's, the rivalry continued to heat up the market. Research proved that Pepsi is preferred over Coca-Cola. The way that they proved this was by blind taste tests that were conducted in stores. These tests were called "Challenge Booths." The sales of Pepsi started to climb, and Pepsi kicked off the "Challenge" across the nation.
More importantly, Pepsi outsells its rival in grocery and convenience stores in the U.S. (regarded as an indicator of consumer preference), with Coca-Cola's dominance in exclusive restaurant, movie theater, amusement park, college, and stadium deals giving Coke the overall sales advantage. In the U.S., Pepsi's total market share was about 31.7 percent in 2004, while Coke's was about 43.1 percent.
["Beverage Digest Press Release", Beverage Digest, March 4 2005 (PDF)]In
Russia, Pepsi once had a larger market share than Coca-Cola. However, Pepsi's dominance in Russia was undercut as the
Cold War ended. Pepsi had made a deal with the Soviet Union for scale production of Pepsi in 1972.[
1] When the
Soviet Union fell apart, Pepsi, was associated with the old Soviet system, and Coca Cola, just newly introduced to the Russian market in 1992, was associated with the new system. Thus, Coke rapidly captured a significant
market share away from Pepsi that might otherwise have needed years to build up. By July 2005, Coca-Cola enjoyed a market share of 19.4 percent, followed by Pepsi with 13 percent.
["Coke Versus Pepsi, Santa Versus Moroz", The Moscow Times, December 30 2005]According to Consumer Reports, the overall advertising of the two companies still involve tv commercials that endorse the image of youth, beauty, family togetherness, fun, pleasure, celebrity and patriotism. These components are expected to bring positives to the company so that the rivalry will continue on.
| Amount 8 fluid ounces | | Calories | 100 |
| Fat | 0 g |
| Sodium | 30 mg |
| Potassium | 10 mg |
| Carbohydrates | 27 g |
| Sugar | 27 g |
| Protein | 0 g |
| Caffeine | 25 mg |
The Pepsi-Cola drink contains basic ingredients found in most other similar drinks including carbonated water,
high fructose corn syrup, sugar,
colorings,
phosphoric acid,
caffeine,
citric acid and
natural flavors. The caffeine free Pepsi-Cola contains the same ingredients but no caffeine.
*
Pepsico*
Pepsi Stuff*
Pepsi Points*
Soft drink*
Cola wars*
Coca-Cola (drink)
*
The Coca-Cola Company (Competitor)
*
Pepsiman (Mascot for the
Japanese division of Pepsi)
*
List of Pepsi types
*
Beverage World Magazine, January 1998, "Celebrating a Century of Refreshment: Pepsi - The First 100 Years"
* Stoddard, Bob.
Pepsi Cola - 100 Years (1997), General Publishing Group, Los Angeles, CA, USA
*
"History & Milestones" (1996), Pepsi packet
*
Pepsi World*
'Coke, Pepsi losing the fizz'*
1987 Audio Interview with John Sculley by Don Swaim of CBS Radio - RealAudio*
The Annual Pepsi Independence Day Celebration (Tri-Cities, TN.)*
"Ode to Pepsi" music video*
The Pepsi Max Cappuccino Wire, a fan site to Pepsi Max Cappuccino.
zh-yue:百事可樂
