Pepsi's story: How did a soft drink created by a pharmacist become a global brand?

The original formula of Pepsi Cola belongs to Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist in 1893. Bradham lived in New Bern, North Carolina at the time. Like many other pharmacists, he kept a soft drink cabinet in a part of his pharmacy and sold his own drinks. His most popular drink was the "Brad's drink", which he named after himself, containing lemon, sugar, caramel, cola nuts, water, and many more.

From time to time, the soft drink started to become famous. Bradham wanted to give this increasingly popular drink a new, more catchy and sophisticated name. He decided on Pepsi-Cola. By the summer of 1903, it had already purchased the naming rights to the brand and was already distributing the beverage to other pharmacies and centers in North Carolina. By the end of 1910, vendors had become widespread, Pepsi-Cola could be found in 24 different states of America!

Originally, Pepsi was marketed as a digestive beverage, not to mention it tasted good and was refreshing! As the brand's market share grew, the company decided to change its marketing tactics and instead of marketing a digestive beverage, it decided to market a soft drink that was also enjoyed by celebrities. In 1913, Pepsi-Cola signed with Barney Oldfield. Oldfield was a famous race car driver at that time, an icon. Barney Oldfield advertises himself: “For Pepsi-Cola. You will be satisfied.” he was saying. Over time, this slogan also became famous and Oldfield began to be mentioned with these words. When the company saw the success of its marketing techniques, it decided to work with famous faces in the years to come.

After years of stellar success, the industry was plagued by instability in sugar prices during the First World War, and Bradham decided to take the risk: He decided to stockpile sugar for future periods now, as he thought sugar prices would rise even higher. But things didn't turn out as he had hoped, with sugar prices plummeting instead of rising as Caleb had predicted. This would have left Bradham and Pepsi-Cola with a stockpile of sugar that was purchased far above its price. It didn't take long for the company to go bankrupt: Pepsi Cola went bankrupt in 1923.

In 1931, after going through the hands of multiple investors, Pepsi Cola was bought by Charles G. Guth, the manager of Loft Candy Company. It wasn't easy for Guth either, the time he took over the company coincided with America's Great Depression, and Charles G. Guth worked hard to create a success story from Pepsi under these circumstances. At one point he fell into such despair that he even offered to sell Pepsi to Coca-Cola, but company officials refused to make an offer.

Realizing that he had to take care of himself, Guth had a new formulation prepared for Pepsi Cola. It also increased the weight, although it was sold in bottles twice as much as Coca Cola, the price was the same as Coca Cola. At that time, Pepsi-Cola, which marketed its products with the slogan "Double for the same money", achieved an unexpected success. Of course, the commercial music also played a role in this sudden success, the first commercial to be broadcast on the coast belonged to Pepsi Cola. The song became so famous that it was recorded in 55 different languages ​​and went down in history as one of the most influential commercials in the 20th century.

The company that learned from the mistakes it made last time, he was sure that he had stocked up on enough sugar during World War II. It was normal to see Pepsi Coke in the hands of American soldiers fighting on different fronts around the world. Even though American soldiers had returned home in the postwar years, the brand's name would remain there. Returning to the United States, Pepsi also showed great success in the postwar years. Company executive Al Steele married actress Joan Crawford. The company's technique of using famous faces was still in effect, with Crawford drinking Pepsi at company meetings and touring Pepsi shops and bottling centers in the 1950s.

In the early 1960s, companies like Pepsi identified the younger generation as their new target audience. In the first advertisements to appeal to the new generation, young people were called the Pepsi Generation, in 1964 the company's first diet cola, again a product appealing to youth, was launched.

Of course, over the years, the company was also changing and developing. Pepsi was now so big that it bought the Mountain Dew brand in 1964 and merged with the Frito-Lay brand, which produces snacks a year later. The Pepsi brand was growing rapidly. The brand that was once bankrupt and offered to Coca-Cola in the late 1970s threatened Coca-Cola's position as the market leader in America. Pepsi even expanded internationally in 1974, becoming the first American brand to be produced and sold in the Soviet Union at the time.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Pepsi Generation ads continued to appeal to younger audiences. On the one hand, the company started to run Pepsi ads with various challenges in order to appeal to the older consumer audience, and it was tasting in stores. The breaking point for Pepsi-Cola was the deal with Michael Jackson in 1984. In those days, intoxicated with the fame that the Jackson Thriller song brought him, he was known by everyone in America and was now the new face, brand ambassador of Pepsi. After this point, television commercials came, the commercials were so successful that they almost cast a shadow on Jackson's clips. Pepsi opened its mouth for the famous commercial clips it made during this period, it was getting along with the most famous musicians and celebrities of the period. Among the names they signed were Tina Turner, Joe Montana, Michael J. Fox, and Geraldine Ferraro.

The work of the marketing department was so successful that in 1985 Coca Cola announced that it had changed the formulation that had become the company's signature. But things did not go as Coca Cola wanted, the new Coke was so bad that the reaction of the customers reached a level that could not be ignored. The brand had to step back, they had made a comeback to the classic formula. However, this classic formula was called Pepsi. But a mistaken move in 1992 would have crippled this brilliant progress: Crystal Pepsi, which was designed to impress Generation X, was a complete failure, and its production was discontinued not long after.

Just like its competitors, the Pepsi brand went beyond what Caleb Bradham could even imagine and became a billion-dollar global brand. In addition to the classic pepsi cola, customers could also buy diet pepsi if they wanted to. The options weren't just limited to that: there were even decaf, no corn syrup, cherry or vanilla flavored versions available. What cannot be denied was that it was the original formula that made the brand famous. As the brand grew, it diversified and started to produce in new branches and sectors. It started to produce drinks for athletes under the brand of Gatorade. Bottled water under the Aquafina brand, energy drinks under the Amp brand, and even Starbucks coffee drinks…