Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Not my Health Police...


After reading about PepsiCo's hire of Derek Yach, a former executive director for the World Health Organization and expert nutritionist, a glimmer of hope twinkled within me. Upon hire, Yach unveiled his vision for PepsiCo and their growing team of Mayo groomed PhDs. In response to the growing demand for "healthy" snack alternative and the increasing scrutony descending upon the snack food industry, Yach hopes to create a new force within PepsiCo. With the help of his PhD army and the utilization of new technologies, Yach plans to develop PepsiCo's "healthy" foodstuffs portfolio significantly over the next 10 years (all this while admitting that people aren't going to give up their guilty pleasures which they happen to specialize in).

PepsiCo's most recent self described technological "success" has been the development of an "all-natural" zero calorie derivative of the stevia plant. This cutting edge sweetener is one that can go into multiple products. Which raises the question in my mind, "Isn't that what got us in this mess in the first place?" Why are we developing more empty calories that trick our bodies into storing more when we finally do decide to eat something with caloric value? Maybe I am a closeted granola loving hippie just waiting to come out in a organic food gloried frenzy, but I don't thing so.

The most frightening thing to me is that "all-natural" has lost it's meaning. How can something derived using technology be all-natural? Natural by definition means unprocessed, unrefined, pure.

PepsiCo had the right idea with their Thowback campaign. Not only is the Throwback campain a perfect answer to their rivals success with Mexican Coke(who's success can be attributed to the fact it is made with real sugar), it's much more affordable. An 18 pack of Throwback Pepsi cost me $4.99. A case of Mexican Coke would have cost $18.00. I don't buy Pepsi and I certainly don't buy regular pop. However, Throwback Pepsi's hip retro label caught my eye, and then I saw it was made with real sugar, and then I bought it! I figured, what the heck? I'll give my body a break from whatever it is in Diet Coke that is slowly killing me and give it a shot. I drank some. I enjoyed it. This is important because in my 27 years of life, I have NEVER purchased a Regular Pepsi(or Regular Coke for that matter), EVER.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_04/b4164050511214.htm



Monday, January 18, 2010

The Blogging Experiment Launches

As The Great Blogging Experiment commences, I feel it important(so does my professor grading my blog) to share a few things about the person behind the commentary. My name is Beth. I have a passion for marketing and all things related. I am currently a senior at Grand Valley State University pursuing (appropriately) my BBA in Marketing. I am working on an internship with the Arena District Committee which is a co-op marking group of restaurant and night life venues in the downtown Grand Rapids area.

In my "free time", I enjoy sharing interesting conversation with friends over an equally interesting glass of wine or new micro-brew. I also proudly describe myself as an aggressive foodie with a strong interest in interesting, well prepared foods. I was fortunate enough to re-take up snowboarding this year after a 5 year hiatus and was pleased to discover that I still had it. As sharing my thoughts and opinions is among my past times, I am very much looking forward to blossoming into a proficient blogger.

The feeds the feeds that I have chosen reflect a variety of my interests both personal and profession which, fortunately, in my eyes blend well together...

Advertising Age- As a advertising is an important facet of marketing, I subscribed to this feed because of the clout it carries in the industry and the insider view it offers.

NPR Topic: News- I need a liberal media source in my life.

BusinessWeek.com- I need a non-liberal media source in my life.

Seth's Blog- My professor recommended this one to me.

The New Yorker- This is another magazine I have been meaning for ages to subscribe to. I expect to find some interesting management related articles.

Branding Strategy Insider- As brand awareness is something we are working towards growing at the ADC, I hope to find some insights from others though subscribing to this blog.

Harper's Magazine- I ment to subscribe to the hard-copy of this ages ago...

HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing- I am interested in the way in which internet marketing is going and hope to catch wind of some up and coming trends.