The Secret Tao of Pepsi Refresh - Tom Troja - MediaBizBloggers

When someone is standing in front of a drink display and seeing all the choices… what drives them to pick Pepsi over Coke or anything else?

Pepsi's big bet is that Social Marketing will drive that inner voice to say yes! Yes to Pepsi in that moment of purchase. So…can we leverage social marketing to influence the ying and yang of every day forces?

Pepsi Refresh has gotten the word out with a sports and celebrity paid media plan anchored in getting real people to participate through social platforms to drive earned social benefits.

Pepsi promotes, "We're looking for people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact. Look around your community and think about how you want to change it."

THE TAO OF SOCIAL MARKETING

Tao can be roughly stated to be the flow of the universe, or the force behind the natural order, equating it with the influence that keeps the universe balanced and ordered.

Pepsi taps into this flow with its community call to action that engages people locally, gets them involved and allows people to release multiple emotions. People are engaging with Pepsi in a broader spectrum of their lives where Pepsi has not been relevant before.

What is happening emotionally is that People experience the brand based on the brand listening to the people. What they see from Pepsi is openness and relevance. What they feel is love and interest for themselves and others. What they share socially is personal and Pepsi is involved.

ENTER AND BLEND

What Pepsi is doing is entering people's lives where they were not invited before, becoming part of them. They are invited in and are able to blend by being a helpful catalyst for their passion.

People notice that the brand is seeing their position through people's eyes. When Pepsi does this, people see they are listening, becoming a part of what the people care about.

This is a way of combining forces with people. It is a tactic of blending with people for the purpose of driving social actions with minimal efforts. The reciprocal part of Pepsi refresh allows Pepsi to be a part of conversations where refreshment becomes relevant, connecting back to purchase intent.

DEVELOPING SOCIAL BALANCE

All brands need to develop this social balance, to become adept at being relevant, at being involved and being trusted by the community. The key is playing to the relevance of the brands true value.

In social marketing the brands display that core strength by their ability to communicate in flexible ways and develop the balance to come back to their center, their core value, in relevant ways

Pepsi is able to do this by allowing people to express their many ideas, release many emotions and come back to Pepsi as refreshment across multiple social platforms. Pepsi helps them feel like having a Pepsi whenever that urge for refreshment comes.

HARMONIC SOCIAL MARKETING

So many brands have expressed frustration on "how can we be relevant in social".

The answer is here, to tap into that social power and enter and blend in balance with social people. In Blending and balancing, you are gaining control. You are gaining by blending, becoming part of people, adding your value and using their energy to move them and their friends closer to you

Whether it is soda, fast food, beer, cars, appliances, medication or politics… this will directly influence people to make purchase decisions in your brands favor.

Most recently as the founder of the Social SymphonyTom has, weaved social tactics in concert with CRM 2.0 social strategies with Colgate, Cadillac, Kraft, Gallo, Reebok and others and has spoken about these subjects at iMedia Brand Summit, IAB Social, MITX and OMMA Social. Tom can be reached at TomTroja@TheSocialSymphony.com.

Read all Tom’s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at the Social Symphony - MediaBizBloggers.

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