Coke has its iconic contour bottle design, and now, Pepsi has released its own unique bottle design. It can be assumed that the company hopes to achieve similar iconic status with its new bottle.
The new Pepsi bottle design features a swirl shape at the base and a smaller label. You can see the new bottle in the image to the left. This is the first bottle redesign for Pepsi since 1997.
Pepsi is a brand that isn’t afraid to change its logo and taglines frequently, so a bottle redesign isn’t surprising. In fact, it’s surprising that the company hasn’t redesigned the bottle in over 15 years. The question is whether redesigning the bottle now will drive the attention and sales that the Pepsi company wants.
According to Ad Age, the new bottles will be in stores across the United States by the end of the year, but it’s unlikely that they’ll boost soda consumption in the United States where soda consumption is down to the lowest levels since 1996 and Pepsi ranks third in sales behind Coke and Diet Coke
The new Pepsi bottle design looks cool. However, it represents yet another change in the Pepsi brand elements and marks another step in brand inconsistency that it’s top competitor, Coke, never seems to have. The Coca-Cola brand is all about consistency. What is the Pepsi brand all about? It changes too frequently to know for certain.
According to Nina Mandell of Fast Company, the redesign is part of Pepsi’s Live for Now campaign that launched nearly a year ago. The marketing team looked to its archives of bottles and cans for inspiration in designing the new Pepsi bottle. A Pepsi spokesperson said the new bottle design is “the best visual expression of Live For Now” because it’s the “most visible and tangible connection” the brand has with consumers.
The question is whether consumers will feel motivated to buy more Pepsi with the addition of the new bottle design to the Live for Now campaign. Or is this just one more chapter in the ever-evolving Pepsi brand story that will be replaced in a few years?
What do you think?
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
