1. A research report on reasons for Pepsi
Atom brand failure with their self-
proposed solutions

2.  Demerits in the product
 Brand ambassador and advertising
 Product projected as a surrogate rather than
something new
 Poor business strategy by PepsiCo
 Product’s strong rival:- Thumbs Up

3.  Taste – According to the people reviews, Indian
people didn’t like the product taste. Pepsi Atom
failed against its expectation of having a strong
taste. It tasted more like a cinnamon cola, and let’s
just say the two don’t blend. Indian consumers
mostly consume soft drinks with their food or
when they are hungry. The product did not meet
the expectation.
 Packaging: – The design of the PET bottle was also
not very eye catchy or innovative. The design of
the bottle looks very old. Pepsi is known for its
youth appealing designs but it failed in its
packaging with Pepsi Atom.

4.  Ambassador- Hindi film Kai Po Che actor Sushant Singh
Rajput has been appeared as the brand ambassador for
Pepsi Atom. Just before the product launch, the actor’s film
was a hit and successful,so the company was confident in
showing him as the “Youth Icon.”
But the product’s rival brand ambassador was Salman
Khan who is much more famous and recognizable among
youths in India and so Sushant Singh Rajput couldn’t cope
up with the rival product’s ambassador image.
 Advertising- The Atom ad shows a macho man getting
slapped by a woman after he mistook her husband for a
thief and then the smart guy comes and offers him Atom.
 Ad executives should understand that slapping itself is a violent
physical action and gives the product a degraded value and promotes
violence prone culture. A lot of kids see such ads and might just get
pushed the wrong way.

5.  “ Somehow, every time I see the @ Pepsi Atom ad , I’m
reminded of Thumbs Up,”
tweeted on 4 may,2013 by Ashok Lalla, Global
head of major digital software marketing at Infosys
This statement is one of the many opinions how the brand
Pepsi Atom projects its image before people.
 Rather than appearing as a brand new product it is seen as a
surrogate for the brand Thumbs Up owned by Coca-Cola.
 Even the sense of advertisement and the tag lines were also
similar to that of Thumbs Up.
the tag was also similar to its rival product. Pepsi Atom’s
tag line was ‘ Piyo Josh Mein, Jiyo Hosh Mein’ while
Thumbs Up‘s tag line was ‘ Aaj kuch toofani karte hain ’.

6.  Pepsi being an innovative brand should have come up with a
product which is more youth appealing. As in today’s time people
are getting health conscious and love to consume which is healthy.
Keeping this in mind they could have come up with a new
product with the combination of cola and some energy ingredients
making it a real energy drink rather than giving the mixture of
cinnamon in cola which has become an epic disaster.
 Or instead of wasting its time effort and money on doing
something different, it was better off than what is already there
and solidly established in the market. There are many more
flavours of PepsiCo around the globe, which they can launch in
India like 27 varieties of Lipton Tea Beverages for examples ---
Lipton Green Tea, Lipton Iced Tea , Lipton Peach Ice Tea, Lipton
Original Green Tea, Lipton Lemon Ice Tea , Lipton Raspberry Ice
Tea , Lipton Mango Ice Tea, Lipton Red Ice Tea, Lipton Green Ice
Tea and fruit derived
carbonated soft drinks example ---18 Izze products

7.  Thumbs Up is already a strongly stabilized product in india. It is
the first preferred cola brand in India which outsells even Coca-
Cola and Pepsi. Thumbs Up is too well established in the Rs
14,000-crore soft drinks market with a 15% share. People have
already been well familiarized and associated with the product.
 May be this is due to the fact that Thumbs Up is considered as a
‘local’ product because it was a local brand created by the Parle
Agro and so its taste and image blends with Indian people so
easily.
 For example- biryani with Thumbs Up is almost a staple diet in
Andhra Pradesh. It has the strongest carbonation among all the
beverages. Indians like strong taste and rich cuisine. Thumbs
Up goes perfectly well with spicy food.
 As Coca-Cola managed to gain market share by discounting the
price of its bottles and gained an advantage of Pepsi’s disaster
product Pepsi Atom- a more aggressive failure of Pepsi.