Pepsi hearts the Obama Generation, but do they heart Pepsi back?

PepsiCo has been making big waves this month in the blogosphere with design overhauls for three of their largest brands. There's a lot of negativity about Tropicana's new minimalist design, and Gatorade's new Sesame Street- looking getup. This bottle of Gatorade is brought to you by a lightening bolt, and the letter "G." Says one DieLine.com commentor, "I saw this and immediately thought of Super Grover from Sesame Street."'

But the most buzz has gone to the new look for Pepsi, and their "Refresh Everything" campaign, which includes a logo that looks a lot like Obama's. The logo has even been grouped, by the New York Times, with "Obamabilia," merchandise that shows or references the President-Elect in order to generate sales.

So is PepsiCo trying to follow Obama's footsteps and gain grassroots popularity? Are they reaching out to America's youth? They sure are. Pepsi has created a cutesy video full of celebs, calling on "YOU" to film an open letter to President-Elect Obama, and upload it to their YouTube Channel, which currently has 44 videos and a mere 352 subscribers. The Jonas Brothers Channel has 421,646 subscribers.

So if Pepsi is not wildly popular on YouTube, what about on the Facebook? During Obama's campaign, he had widespread support across Facebook, including groups, events, applications, and mentions in profiles, posted items, and blog posts.

Facebook's Pages feature allows users and companies to create a page dedicated to a product/organization/person/etc., and then allows users to become fans. Users can also search to see which pages have the most fans, overall or by category. So who has the most fans of any page on Facebook? Barack Obama, with over 3 million fans. Coca-Cola is in at number three with over 2 million fans, but Pepsi does not even appear to have an official page. A search of Pages brings up fan pages for a few of the Pepsi varieties (Max, Crystal) but none for the soft drink itself. Clearly, they are not capitalizing the way the Obama campaign did. Even Captain C.B. Sully Sullenberger has a fan page, (with over 24,000 fans!!!) and he's only been famous for less than a day!

So, if Pepsi is serious about riding the Obama wave to become the new All-American cola, they need to get to the heart of Obama's success: Change you can believe in. Can a campaign called "Refresh Everything" really convince consumers that Pepsi is any different than the soda that's been trailing Coke in US sales for years? If it could, wouldn't Pepsi be riding in between Obama and Coca-Cola in Facebook popularity, instead of who is there now? D'oh!

Dining out less frequently, are you doing it now?

Last night, my friends and I went for a dinner special at a local restaurant. For $24.95, they offered an entree for two (that could have fed four) and two glasses of Sangria. On our way to the restaurant, I noticed another restaurant offering a 2-4-1 entree deal on weeknights. Earlier in the day, I noticed that The Good Fork, a favorite of mine, was offering $14 comfort food entrees during the week.

So, I wondered, how badly are these restaurants doing? Are people eating out drastically less? Eater reported that three restaurants in the popular B.R. Guest chain have just shuttered, including one in Chicago, so it's not just a New York thing, some sort of trickle down from out-of-work Wall streeters. I took to the blogs to see what people had to say about their dining out habits.

There was a lot of conversation about cutbacks in meals outside of the home. It seems that many people out there are cutting back on all sorts of expenditures, and dining out is just one of the first to go. Additionally, Suze Orman was on Oprah last week, and she issued a money challenge, one of the terms of which was to not eat out for a month. This generated substantial buzz.

Many bloggers noted that they had made a New Years Resolution to eat out less either to save money, or lose weight. So if they're not eating out this year, surely they're eating in? According to Yahoo! Finance 3 month charts, Kroger, Safeway and Winn-Dixie have all had drop-offs in earnings since the beginning of the year, that took them below their levels from before the holiday jumps. So are people just not eating? Watch out Jenny Craig!

Personally, I have been eating at less expensive restaurants, though not necessarily dining out less. At the grocery store, I will look for sale items, and then purchase ingredients to make large meals that I portion off and keep in the freezer for lunches and dinners. This makes my trips to the grocery store less frequent.

Are you dining out less? Buying less groceries?

You've Been Sacrificed

Burger King was the subject of many articles last year, concerning their extreme marketing campaigns. The Whopper Virgin campaign, in which BK served Whoppers in a blind taste test to rural people who had never tried a burger, was criticized by bloggers and others as an overt example of the perils of globalization.

Then there was "Flame," the Whopper-scented spray, which prompted many advertising blogs to proclaim BK responsible for the worst marketing idea of 2008.

The newest viral campaign is on Facebook, and it allows users to sacrifice 10 of their friends in the name of the Whopper. Upon removal, the sacrificees receive a notification from the BK application, and the sacrificer receives a coupon for a free Whopper.

At the time of this post, over 189,000 friends had been sacrificed, which shows just how useful Facebook can be to corporations. Bloggers have weighed in, as well. I found nearly 600 posts about the Whopper Sacrifice, as well as a few Facebook groups - including one calling for a boycott.

Would you be willing to sacrifice?

Best Wishes for 2009

Here's hoping this year brings joy and prosperity to all.

With a New Year comes New Year's Resolutions. A sweep of the blogosphere found the following popular resolutions:

Lose weight/look better
Diet/eat healthy meals
Visit the gym more often/exercise more

Other resolutions included:
Gaming-related goals
Watching the news more frequently
Spending more time on hobbies
Being more cleanly

What was your resolution?

I don't drink soda

Disclaimer: I do drink soda. Specifically, Dr. Pepper and the tried and true "DC" (Diet Coke).

If you live on the coasts, it's called soda, if you're in the Midwest it's pop, and if you're in certain parts of the South it's "a Coke" (even if it's not Coca-Cola.) But do you drink it? And if not, why?

With NY's Governor proposing a budget that would include a tax on Coke and Pepsi, I wondered, are there good reasons for not drinking soda?

“I stopped drinking it because it was too much sugar and the caffeine was hell on my stomach and nerves. I really like cherry or vanilla colas and dr. pepper though. I still get the occasional craving for one of these.” Female, Early 20s, Colorado

“Pop is so bad for you!!! Bad for your skin, bad for your insides. Over all
it's not a healthy choice.”

“I don't like soda. Makes me feel all bloated and gross. Ick.” Female, 19, California

So, for the most part, the consensus among those who choose not to drink soda seemed to be that the choice was due to the physical impact: Soda makes you sick... and overweight.

The majority of professed "Soda haters" were young women, though there were a smattering of males, mostly those who seemed athletic, who also expressed disdain for the beverage. Of the top sodas imbibed by "Non- Soda Drinkers" were Dr. Pepper and Ginger Ale.

Some other reasons described were financial (the money could be better spent elsewhere) and weight loss (quitting soda was a quick way to shed some pounds). There was a healthy debate on facebook as to whether the drink should be "soda" or "pop," as well as a number of groups who didn't care because they "drink beer."

Preference against soda also appeared often on blogs, MySpace and other social networking sites as part of different surveys that circulate the web. On the questions that asked about soda preference, many soda adversaries expressed their distate for any type of soda.

So what do you think? Do you drink Soda? Will you quit?

Interested in more analysis? Drop me a line at heatherm@nicholasresearch.com

Even though I can't afford it

With pocketbooks pinched, and the holidays approaching, many people are reaching for their credit cards to pay for things that they can not necessarily afford. We wondered, what type of items are people still buying, even though they can't afford it?

One frequently mentioned category was camera equipment. This was surprising, since cameras tend to be luxury items. For more insight, I contacted professional photographer Max Flatow, who attributed this phenom to the fact that, "camera companies are constantly trying to one-up one another. As soon as a new product comes out from one manufacturer, another one comes out from a different manufacturer the next month, so people become overly consumed in wanting to buy new equipment."

Other frequently mentioned splurges included:

Travel: Weekend trips, visits to families, and vacations. Bloggers noted that "they needed a vacation," or that visiting their relatives was a priority, regardless of funding.

Coffee: Expensive lattes or flavored coffees from Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, or other local chains. Some cited their addiction to caffeine, while others saw the drinks as a way to treat themselves.

Education: Student loans and books or other expenses related to education. Some referred to the fact that they needed education in order to excel in their future careers.

Are you interested in consumer splurging patterns? Drop me a line at heatherm@nicholasresearch.com

When did Ugly Christmas Sweaters become a business?

The Ugly Christmas Sweater has been around for a long time. In fact, so has the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. But as of late, it seems that the perfect Ugly Christmas Sweater is the new Tickle Me Elmo. What was once an item that could be easily purchased at a Goodwill shop is now a commodity with a high level of bidding on EBay. What does the online community think?

www.uglychristmassweaters.com allows visitors to purchase sweaters, and offers tips on how to throw your very own Ugly Christmas Sweater party. The site had received 49,000 Page Views in the 60 Days preceding November 24th. Facebook lists more than 500 events related to "Ugly Christmas Sweater," and more than 100 user groups.

Off the blogs:
The premise of Ugly Sweater Parties is that you go to a Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc store (any store that has second-hand goods for sale), find the ugliest sweater you can, preferably related to Christmas/winter theme and wear it to the party. (Female, 20’s)

I'm not proud to admit it, but I bought one of those expensive eBay sweaters. I didn't want to, but I didn't really have much of a choice. Don't worry though. It's going back on eBay the morning after the party. (Male, 20s)

I just got my ugly sweater from ebay today. If I don't win I will be incredibly sad. It's soooooooo ugly. That's all I can say about it since it's a surprise. I have a feeling there will be some stiff competition this year. It's not just about the ugly Christmas sweater, but the entire ensemble. (Female, 31, Austin, TX)

The phenomenon seems to center mainly around men and women in their 20s and 30s. The sweaters have become "ironically chic" in their kitchiness. The older generations seem to refer to them just as "Christmas sweaters," and don't seem to appreciate the novelty that the younger generations have so overwhelmingly embraced.

Interested in more analysis? Drop me a line at HeatherM@nicholasresearch.com.