PEPSI EXPECTING TO GET BIG BANG FROM POP

RICHARD TURCSIK

SOMERS, N.Y. -- Pepsi-Cola Co. is expecting big things from its point-of-purchase displays this year.

The soft-drink marketer here expects to build sales this year by using a proven winner of memorable television commercials, coupled with massive displays that will be rolled out to several thousand supermarkets.

Pepsi's 1996 advertising schedule will kick off during this month's Super Bowl and the commercials will run throughout the year. The campaign will be supported by point-of-purchase materials, David Egner, Pepsi spokesman, told Brand Marketing.

"We're having several new commercials for this year's Super Bowl and the POP will be primarily in supermarkets and tie in with them so that the consumers can see the connection between the TV commercials and the displays," Egner said, adding that the campaign will center around the flagship Pepsi, but also include some other Pepsi products. For the Super Bowl, Pepsi has set up in supermarkets TV monitors that play a continuous loop of comedy bits containing football jokes interspersed with Pepsi commercials.

Pepsi has historically relied on POP materials to build sales and company awareness and has developed a wide variety of in-store coolers and holiday-themed promotions, like the popular Halloween Monster Smash.

"POP gets more important as we introduce more and more beverages," Egner said. "Two of our products in test market are Mazagran sparkling coffee in California and Smooth Moos, a low-fat dairy shake being tested in Texas, parts of Oklahoma and Wichita, Kan. The POP for Smooth Moos revolves around a character called Spot the Cow. We've found Spot has been very effective in getting the attention of teenagers, which are our target."

Pepsi also aims to build sales

through a massive display called Pepsi Island, originally introduced in late 1994. It will be rolled out to several thousand supermarkets this year. The displays are available in four sizes, depending upon the size of the store: 60 inches by 109 inches, 60 by 55.5, 80.5 by 87 and 80.5 by 172. Each display is over 8 feet tall.

"Shoppers cannot miss these displays because they really stand out. Pepsi Island is the type of POP that consumers see and it draws them into the store. The largest one can hold 365 cases of Pepsi beverages and all of our brands -- Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Slice, Lipton Brisk, Lipton Original, Ocean Spray, Aquafina water -- will be featured," Egner said.

"The largest displays will go in the largest supermarkets, and we are looking into expanding the displays into other classes of trade, such as mass merchandisers," he added.