What We Can Learn From Pepsi

For over 20 years, Pepsi bought TV commercials during the Super Bowl. This year they are abandoning it and reinvesting the $3 Million or so per commercial they’ll be saving in various online initiatives.

This is important for several reasons. For one thing, Pepsi is a huge company. It’s not like they have to choose between the TV ads and the online projects – they can easily afford to do both. By choosing to drop a strategy that’s been a staple of their marketing for decades, Pepsi is indicating that it’s simply not a profitable investment for them. The fact is that no matter how funny or clever the commercial is, you’ve got to sell an awful lot of soda to cover the millions spent to produce it and the $100,000 per second it costs to run it.

The other reason it’s important is because Pepsi falls into one of the categories that many advertising “experts” seem to think can only be marketed effectively through high-concept “branding” campaigns. In reality, what’s being discovered is that no matter how big or commoditized a product may be, the Internet provides a plethora of ways to engage in two-way dialogue with customers that is much more valuable than the dubious results of bombarding them with cute TV spots.

Chances are, your company doesn’t have the resources that Pepsi does. You may not even have the resources your competitor does. 10 years ago, that kind of thing mattered a lot more than it does today.

The most important thing you can possibly do to grow your business is earn the right to communicate directly with your customers. Build your database by creating products and experiences that people want to be a part of. Create something worth finding. Give your customers a place to talk about your brand and them let them know you are listening. All of this can now be done online for a fraction of what it costs to out-shout your competitors with boring ads promoting free consultations, low prices and convenient locations.

Pepsi is doing it. You can too.