Pepsi and Healthy Living

One of the biggest external forces affecting Pepsi today is the changing attitudes of people towards healthy living As people focus more and more on healthy eating and overall healthy lifestyles, Pepsi has tried a number of strategies to make their usually unhealthy drinks healthier and their more healthy options stand out.  An example of this is the new “Pepsi Special” released in Japan in late 2012 that contained fiber and is said to reduce the absorption of fat. The drink has even been given a FOSHU labeling, which stands for "Food for Specified Health Uses”, by the Japanese government. Pepsi has also seen a great opportunity in releasing healthier options in China that include ancient Chinese medicine ingredients. This has been especially successful for the Quaker brand. They have also worked to expand their Gatorade, Tropicana, and Quaker brands, as these have more potential in a health conscious market. People know of these brands as having healthier options, so expanding them seems to be a good strategy for where the market is heading. One challenge Pepsi has faced as of late is that in their efforts to focus on healthy options, they seemed almost forget about their soda brand, and because of the door was left open for another external factor: competition. Pepsi has been criticized in the past few years for dropping the ball on soda advertising, which became evident when they slipped to the number three spot of soda sales in mid-2011.