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Diving overview:
- PepsiCo has unveiled its first new corporate brand identity in nearly 25 years to better highlight the breadth and diversity of its global food and beverage portfolio, according to a press release.
- At the center of the updated logo is a white “P” surrounded by an earthy orange symbol for food and grains, blue water droplets, and a leaf-like green shape symbolizing the Pep+ sustainability program. The icon is above a deeper green slash representing a smile, in reference to PepsiCo’s new tagline: “Food. Beverage. Smile.”
- The change marks a departure from PepsiCo’s past visual identity, which has moved closer to the branding of its flagship soda, Pepsi. The transformation comes as the owners of Quaker and Frito-Lay face greater pressure to shake up their businesses amid growth challenges.
Dive Insights:
PepsiCo’s rebrand brought about many changes, but one aspect of the revamp that was immediately noticeable was the attempt to shift the emphasis away from Pepsi. The previous PepsiCo logo reflected the marketer’s flagship soda brand, with a blue and red color scheme and various iterations of the beverage’s signature globe icon. These elements are largely missing from the latest update, which instead focuses equally on food and grains, beverages and water, and the Pep+ sustainability program, all emphasized with a smile.
In the announcement, PepsiCo noted that only 21% of consumers can identify a brand other than Pepsi, indicating an awareness problem for the company, which owns more than 500 brands. PepsiCo’s previous logo, with a bold blue “PEPSICO” in capital letters below a globe, was implemented in 2001.
“Our new identity boldly reflects who we will be in 2025: a company with broad reach and an unrivaled family of beloved food and beverage brands that aim to make a positive impact around the world,” PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said in a press statement.
PepsiCo’s corporate logo over time
According to PepsiCo, the new identity’s color palette is rooted in the “real world,” using earthier, more muted tones, and the custom typeface is lowercase to convey accessibility. Jane Wakely, chief consumer and marketing officer and chief growth officer at PepsiCo International Foods, said in the announcement that the focus on smiles is intended to signal PepsiCo’s “consumer obsession” that it wants to reach further opportunities.
Wakely said PepsiCo’s new look will begin appearing on packaging early next year and will be phased in to other markets over time. It already exists on marketers’ social media and digital channels, including the PepsiCo corporate website.
In an open letter, Laguarta detailed some of the initiatives the rebrand will help strengthen, including supporting high-growth brands like Lay’s and Tostitos. Removing artificial ingredients and colors from products like Doritos and Gatorade (a response to the Make America Healthy Again movement). Reposition your brand for different occasions and reach consumers through new channels, including away from home. Internally, PepsiCo has been investing more in artificial intelligence to streamline operations and for “precision and impact.”
Laguarta has been under pressure to turn things around amid declining sales and market share of some PepsiCo brands. Activist investor Elliott Investment Management acquired a roughly $4 billion stake in PepsiCo in September with the goal of shedding underperforming products and revamping aspects of its bottling network.
The sugar-only variant of Pepsi fell from second place in U.S. sales to fourth place in just a few years, according to Beverage Digest data. Earlier this year, PepsiCo acquired Poppi, a disruptor in the fast-growing prebiotic soda category, for nearly $2 billion. This better-for-you brand received a callout in the corporate rebrand announcement, as did another recent acquisition, Mexican-American food label Siete.
