When December starts to descend upon us, everyone braces for the release of Coca-Cola’s traditional “Santa Pack.” I’m among the many that just has to have a case of Coke with Santa displayed prominently on the box. The downside is that I’m not a huge soda drinker and find myself looking a Santa chilling in my fridge well in to February.
Many storefronts run in to the same problem, only it’s far more detrimental. A “dated” product in my refrigerator is still consumable. A “dated” product on the shelves of Safeway won’t sell. Even though Coke has a long shelf-life and far-future expiration date, no one wants to buy a Santa-branded product in January. They’ll pass it by for the regular cases of Coke … even if the regular ones are in fact older than their Santa-faced bretheren.
Easter, while technically a more important holiday to the religious, is seen as a lessor one by commercial outlets. There’s no month-long ramp-up for sales and merchandising, so no one wastes valuable capital on a Bunny Pack of soda. All the same, it’s an iconic holiday and images of rabbits help sell products as the big day approaches. While walking through Haggen the other day, I saw Pepsi’s creative Easter response to the Coca-Cola Santa Pack … its merchandising display.
Here’s a well-branded Easter display that plays to customers in the mood for the holiday. It’s easily re-stocked and manages to connect Pepsi and Easter in the mind of consumers without spending millions on custom packaging that limits the perceived shelf-life of their product.
In reality, this is a far better way to co-brand a product with a holiday. As much as I love my Coca-Cola, I have to tip my hat to the marketing team at Pepsi for this idea. Great job, guys!
