Cola wars begin again

Pepsi is relaunching its cola wars ad from 1995 with a new generation twist. (Click here).
Interestingly they are comparing Coke Zero with Pepsi Max.

Interesting sections of the NY Times news article:

Introduced in Britain and Italy in 1993, and widely available in Europe ever since, Pepsi Max was not introduced in the United States until 2007. The sugarless cola, which is sweetened with a combination of aspartame and acesulfame potassium, contains nearly twice the caffeine of Diet Pepsi, and also contains ginseng.

A 2009 report by Mintel, the market research firm, said the soda’s sales had been “impressive,” even during the economic downturn, “likely by attracting price-sensitive energy drink users.”

I had earlier blogged (in November 2008) about the potential of Pepsi Max in the US market (click here) due to the attractiveness to price-sensitive energy drink users. I am pleased to see that variant doing well.

Also interesting to note, from the same NYT article:

Diet Pepsi is more popular with women, but about 60 percent of Pepsi Max drinkers are men, according to Lauren Hobart, chief marketing officer of the sparkling brands division of PepsiCo. Diet sodas popular with men, like Pepsi One, Pepsi Max and Coke Zero, which many in Europe refer to as “bloke Coke,” avoid a word to which marketers believe men are averse: “diet.” (It is a widely held view in the weight-loss industry that men are more apt to say they need to “get in shape” than “go on a diet.”)

Among the company’s sugarless brands, Pepsi Max is popular with Gen X and Diet Pepsi with baby boomers.“Boomers generally grew up drinking Diet Pepsi but Gen X has been raised with more choices, and we’re trying to provide more choices that may meet their needs differently,” Ms. Hobart said.

Its interesting how demographic (gender, age) segments have distinct choice preferences and how product names can play a big role in product choice. Brand managers at both Pepsi and Coca Cola must be busy poring through their Usage & Attitude (U&A) studies to understand the segmentation better and to better target their products... Watch out for interesting positioning moves in the cola variants!!

Is gender a meaningful way to segment office products customers?

OfficeMax is now targeting working women (aged 28-45) according to this Ad Age article (click here). They have launched a new ad campaign called 'Life is Beautiful' (click here), targeted squarely at women.

OfficeMax is known for unusual promotions like it's hugely popular three-year old Elf Yourself holiday promotion, which allows customers to convert themselves (or their friends) into animated elves and send it to others. Their Back-to-School 2008 campaign "Power to the Penny" and their "A Day Made Better" program have been noticed by many business writers.

Officemax spends approximately half the money that Office Depot spends on advertising and only a fourth of what Staples spends.

Is this unusual way of segmenting the office products market (working women) a good idea?

I think this is a brilliant idea only so long as OfficeMax does not alienate the male buyers.

• None of the other major players (Staples, Office Depot) actively target the working woman, a significant portion of the working population.
  
• Research studies have shown that women hate shopping for office supplies
  
• I assume that mothers make a lot of buying decisions during Back-to-School season as well (for their kids).
• However the risk that OfficeMax runs is that men may not like to associate themselves with a store that is seen as 'feministic'.
  
• Also the purchasing departments of many corporates may not be affected by gender-specific advertising. (When is the last time, you as an employee told your purchasing department where to buy printing paper and office supplies from?)

Let me know what you think...