Comments on: The Fight for Good: Disney vs. Pepsi

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:09:28 +0000

Pepsi may have done it partly for branding reasons, but in the end, I would think that they would also want to sell more Pepsi. And, who’s to say Disney isn’t doing it partly for branding reasons? I’d say they’ve had a bigger hill to climb in overcoming criticism.

I don’t think it needs to be either/or, branding or sales. I think both want better brands, both want better sales and both want to do good. I just think Disney found the better route to accomplish all the above. However, both are great case studies that I hope we continue to learn from and discuss.

Alas, if we knew the goals and could see the strategy documents, we’d be able to better assess.

By: Geoff Livingston

Geoff Livingston — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:14:56 +0000

I am not sure thinking of it from a do-good approach is the right approach. Each campaign had a different “marketing” goal. Pepsi – branding, Disney, get people to trade labor for the price of admission. One wants a better image, the other better sales. They both are using corporate social responsibility to achieve those means, but that’s where the similarity ends.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:56:29 +0000

I can acknowledge that–and I’ll be interested to see if that increased buzz has a direct effect on sales too. For this post though, I was looking more at both the approaches not from the perspective of the company, but from the perspective of our do-good community. I feel like Disney’s approach serves us and them in a more sustainable, more authentic way than Pepsi’s….even though Pepsi is doing good too.

Plus, it’s a bit difficult to compare apples to oranges–especially without all the information. My main point was to highlight another way a company is doing good, not everyone needs to do a contest. Will Robinson sums this up good in his recent post: Less Money, More Value (http://socialherder.com/vbcb-vote-based-contest-burnout/). In the case of Pepsi vs. Disney, I think Disney offers us more value.

By: Geoff Livingston

Geoff Livingston — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:30:42 +0000

I think you underestimate the amount of buzz Pepsi generated for itself outside of the do-good community by opting out of the Super Bowl. Given the quality of this year’s ads, a huge win for Pepsi.