Key developments: Launching Smart Spot logo to identify healthful products and working with organizations to increase health and wellness awareness.
What's next: Using technology to make it easier for PepsiCo to do business with its customers.
It was smart thinking that led to the introduction of Smart Spot products within PepsiCo's food and beverage portfolio.
The manufacturer introduced the Smart Spot logo to make it easier for consumers to identify products that meet nutrition criteria based on statements from the federal government and the National Academy of Sciences, and it's now featured on over 100 items. The company is aiming for half of new product revenues to come from Smart Spot products.
Providing more healthful products also is taking the form of new and reformulated products and community outreach. The company has cut trans fats from its Frito-Lay chips and reduced the amount of sugar in many of its foods and beverages. PepsiCo is the national presenting sponsor for America on the Move, which encourages Americans to take 2,000 more steps a day and cut calories. It also funds YMCA activities and childhood obesity prevention research.
All this is happening under the leadership of Steve Reinemund, who has staked the company's future on health and wellness. "We believe consumer demand for products that contribute to healthier lifestyles will continue to grow," Reinemund told SN.
The company will continue to emphasize diet carbonated soft drinks while developing its non-carbonated beverage business, which constitutes 63% of the company's beverage revenue in North America. This year, PepsiCo introduced a reformulated Pepsi One and two new varieties of Aquafina, a flavored still water called FlavorSplash and carbonated Aquafina Sparkling water. Also new are Milk Chillers (flavored milk drinks with about half the fat of comparable products).
"We constantly differentiate those brands in the marketplace by what we do with ingredients and nutrition science, product packaging and processing," Reinemund said.
Packaging changes help communicate PepsiCo's better-for-you initiatives. They have included 8-ounce cans of Pepsi and a redesigned sports bottle. The company created a new logo for its Tostitos tortilla chips and salsas to create a consistent look that stands out on store shelves, and added "0 grams of trans fat" to chips packages.
In addition to health and wellness, convenience is driving new product development. "Consumers are increasingly time-starved and constantly on the go," Reinemund told SN. "They're looking for brands and products that mesh with their active lifestyles."
Reinemund also promised technological changes to improve data flow and hence, decision making, that would benefit retailers and consumers. "Our goal is to make it easier than ever for our retail customers, suppliers and consumers to do business with PepsiCo," he said.
