Discussion Questions for “PepsiCo Challenges Itself To Make Healthier Snacks”

1.         People increasingly value their health in America.  Some citizens eat healthier foods, some work out, some take vitamins and some avoid direct exposure to the sun.  The 20-29 and the 30-39 year old age brackets rate health and fitness as their third most important value.  Even more, baby boomers, who account for 56-58% of the purchases in consumer product and service categories, face a growing concern for their own health as they age in to the mid 50’s.  The events support a growing health trend in the U.S.  PepsiCo’s marketing division is taking notice of the health trend and meeting the new need by developing healthier products.

2.         PepsiCo changing their product line creates a number of risks for the company.  The new products could fail by not creating decent sales.  A majority of consumers may still choose taste over health in foods like they have in the past.  Also, consumers are apprehensive about eating new, biologically engineered fats and oils.  One such example, Olestra, causes stomach cramps and loose stool.  The complications with this product make many consumers unwilling to try to other new, healthy products because they fear what is in them. Want to learn how to beat Solitaire guide?  

PepsiCo also risks losing sales on the current products.  CEO Steven Reinemund states “Overindulgence in any of our products is not something we encourage or recommend.”  This statement does not encourage consumers to purchase the current PepsiCo products.  Frito-Lay produced $2.66 billion dollars in profits last year.  Its risky to interfere with a product group making this much profit.

3.         Researchers at PepsiCo are challenged to develop/modify products to be healthy without losing the much-loved taste.  Some ideas envision fortifying the current products with healthy benefits.  Unfortunately for PepsiCo, federal regulations forbid many combinations.
           
            Trans fats and saturated fats are extremely unhealthy and are used in chips, cookies and other snacks.  To make the products healthier, the researchers are focusing on finding substitute oil.

4.         Many factors of consumer behavior support a health-conscious strategy for PepsiCo. 
-  As shown by the facts in the answer to question one, baby boomers are motivated to eat healthy and live active lives as they age.
-  People selectively perceive exposure to products, listening to advertisements about healthy products and trying to ignore the unhealthy products.
-  PepsiCo customers are brand loyal.  If PepsiCo can alter their products to adapt with their loyal customers needs, they will keep these loyal customers.
-   Attitudes towards snack foods are that the snacks are unhealthy and fattening.  By making healthier products, PepsiCo may be able to change America’s attitude towards snack foods and acquire new buyers.

    There are also some factors that work against PepsiCo’s new strategy
     -   Consumers have a perceived risk associated with trying these new healthier products.  What is PepsiCo putting in the snacks to make them healthier but still taste good?  The food may have less fat, but the new ingredients may be harmful.
     -   Brand Loyalty also works against PepsiCo.  Consumers may want to stick with brands that cannot be made healthy, like Cheetos.
     -   Opinion leaders may resist the change of their favorite foods and rally up their followers to stand against the change in the form of a boycott of PepsiCo
    -    Consumer socialization of Americans when they were young caused them attachment to the unhealthy PepsiCo snack foods.  They have always eaten them and will continue to eat them until they die.

5.         PepsiCo demonstrates societal marketing.  Consumers need snack food and PepsiCo satisfies that need.  The way PepsiCo satisfies the consumers’ needs, by supplying an alternative to extremely unhealthy snack food, provides for society’s well being.
Yet, there are many area’s of their marketing plan, where PepsiCo lacks concern for society’s well being.  Snack foods use a lot of packaging compared to the small amount of food contained in each package.  With products like chips, Consumers cannot recycle chip bags.  All the chip bags become waste.  PepsiCo will continue to produce its unhealthy Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Lay’s, Fritos, Ruffles, Doritos and Cheetos.  Many Americans are practically addicted to these sugar filled or fattening snacks.  Although, PepsiCo helps society by producing healthier snacks, their marketing plan does not attempt to look out for society’s well being in other areas.