PepsiCo has launched Starry — a substantial new lemon-lime soda brand introduced in January 2023 to replace Sierra Mist. The Sierra Mist replacement positioning, the Gen Z-targeted positioning, the regular and zero-sugar formulations, the substantial U.S. retail distribution including Walmart, Kroger, and convenience channels, and the broader cohort-driven product development approach.
For instance, everyone is familiar with the popular white logo on a red background from Coca-Cola.
QR codes died in 2014 and came back in 2020. Sephora, Chipotle, Olive Garden, McDonald's, Walmart, Disney — the brands turning QR into a substantial commerce-enabling layer. Lead generation is one of the smaller uses now.
Positioning, Purple Cow, Hooked, Crossing the Chasm, StoryBrand — the marketing books that rewrote how brands are built and how products get sold.
Maverick Apparel sent Logan Paul a cease-and-desist on Jan 4, 2018, demanding he stop using the Maverick name on merchandise. The case became a reference point in trademark, influencer marketing, and crisis communications.
Conduent — the Xerox spinoff that touches two-thirds of American households while operating with deliberately minimal consumer-facing brand visibility. The case study in "deliberately invisible" B2B services communications strategy, and what it demonstrates about audience targeting, content marketing, and the AI Communications dimension for B2B brands.
PepsiMoji ran across 100+ countries in 2016 with emoji-branded packaging, a #SayItWithPepsi hashtag, and five-second video spots via Ketchum and Porter Novelli. The execution missed — generic symbols, no behavior driver. The instinct — symbol communication on packaging — was a decade early.
General Mills built the most durable character IP portfolio in American CPG — Betty Crocker, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Lucky the Leprechaun, the Trix Rabbit, BuzzBee. Synthetic personas, refresh cadences, removal-as-strategy, parody-resistance.
PepsiCo continues to operate as one of the more substantial portfolio reinvention machines across multiple categories. The diversified portfolio structure, the multi-category architecture, the continuous experimentation culture, the cohort-driven product development, and the broader snack-funded experimentation across Frito-Lay, Quaker, Gatorade, Tropicana, and broader beverage operations.
Periscope shut down in 2021. The live-streaming category is bigger than ever — Twitch, TikTok Live, Amazon Live, YouTube Live, Instagram Live. The Periscope failure was a product failure, not a category failure.
