300m ‘blue’ revamp fails to lift Pepsi sales

Pepsi’s much vaunted $500m (300m) Project Blue relaunch of its brand last month appears not to have made a significant impact on UK sales.

Despite employing everyone from supermodel Claudia Schiffer to Russian cosmonauts to promote the brand, figures obtained by Marketing Week show Pepsi Cola’s volume share of the carbonated soft drinks sector rose by only 0.1 per cent from April, when the brand was relaunched, to May.

The figures are taken from the Nielsen Total Home Trade survey which covers sales through grocery superstores and convenience stores, but does not cover sales through pubs. Nielsen refuses to comment on the figures.

Pepsi Cola took three per cent of sales in April and 3.1 per cent of sales in May, compared with 3.8 per cent in May 1995.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola took a 14 per cent volume share of the market in April and 13.9 per cent in May, compared with 12.1 per cent in May 1995.

Sales of all the Pepsi brands, including Pepsi Max, amounted to 7.9 per cent of the total in April and 8.2 per cent in May, compared with 9.4 per cent in May 1995.

All Coke brands took a 26.8 per cent share in April and the same in May, compared with a 24 per cent share in May 1995.

Pepsi, however, claims its volume sales were up 15 per cent in April 1996, compared with the same month last year.

Simon Calver, Pepsi area vice president, says: “The figures show Pepsi’s share is increasing. We are seeing all our consumer measures moving strongly towards Pepsi in terms of preference and we are in line with our predictions for market share.”