Mktg - Pepsi rolls out $1.2bn brand makeover

LONDON: Pepsi has unveiled a new-look logo as part of a radical $1.2-billion (£700m) global brand revamp ahead of plans to launch its US brands—Mount
ain Dew and Sierra Mist—in the UK. The brand’s red and blue globe icon was created in the 50s. The company now wants it to portray a series of ‘smiles’ on packaging across the portfolio.

PepsiCo says that the Diet Pepsi logo has a ‘slight grin’, Pepsi’s a ‘full smile’, while that for Pepsi Max expresses laughter. The font accompanying the logo will shift from a bold upper-case to a retro lower-case format, with the ‘e’ mimicking the white curve of the classic logo.

Citrus-flavoured Mountain Dew, which has been renamed Mtn Dew, has been available in the UK before; it was launched in 1996 but dropped in 1998 following poor sales.

In the US, the brand targets the youth market through its associations with extreme sports and computer games. PepsiCo launched lemon-and-lime soft drink Sierra Mist in the US in 2000 as a rival to Coca-Cola’s Sprite but also to its own 7-Up.