Pepsi Jumps the Smartphone Bandwagon with P1 – This is not Fake News at all!
Pepsi, the soft-drink company that sells sodas in varied flavors has become ready to sell you a smartphone. The news might be weird for many as we fail to see the sense in the combination but the branding challenge has been accepted. The company recently announced limited edition of fictional drink Pepsi Perfect for celebrating “Back to the Future Day” on October 21.
Pepsi now confirmed its plans of releasing a Android smartphone. The phone is expected to be launched in China only.
Pepsi Behind the Mobile Phone!
Presumably, Pepsi is not expected to manufacture the phone itself, but the company has not revealed any more details about it. Chinese site Sina though reported that the launched phone will be called the “P1” with some average specifications that are expected to literally fizz out from the competition.
- The rumored specifications include a large 5.5-inch, 1,080p HD display; a reasonably powerful 1.7GHz CPU; 2GB RAM; and just about 16GB storage.
- It is also expected to feature a 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel smart front camera sporting the Android 5.1 (Lollipop) version.
- The pricing is expected to touch just about $200 and the launch will be held on October 20.
Pepsi is also expected to introduce the transparent “Crystal P1” model too, although it is more of a rumour.
Pepsi with a Partner – Licensed!
Pepsi has confirmed that with the help of a licensing partner of mobile phones and accessories, especially for China, Pepsi will be making its foray into the field. It is difficult to place the company strategy with its other efforts where local e-commerce platform JD.com is also offering Pepsi-branded socks as an incentive.
Pepsi is trying to bank on youth culture by reaching out to the mobile-addicted youth of China since according to a Milward Brown study, Chinese people usually spent 170 minutes a day on mobile phones, which is double the time they spend in front of their television sets.
A Large Market Base for Pepsi in China
China has nearly 525 million active smartphone users, according to statistics revealed by eMarketer, which constitutes more than a third of the population.
Pepsi believes that technology is a key cultural pillar at present, and hence it is trying to have a name for itself in the field, especially to be at the heart of consumer interaction,” according to a PepsiCo spokesperson.
Pepsi still has not revealed anything about its smartphone plans. So it is difficult to assess whether the strategy involves the Pepsi logo on them or entertainment apps that are a huge focus of PepsiCo in China. For years, Pepsi has worked with China’s biggest stars and even featured the annual campaign, called Bring Happiness Home.
Branded Smartphones from Misfit Brands
Guitar amp maker Marshall and construction equipment company Caterpillar have released branded smartphones off late. Beverage conglomerate Pepsi joins the not-so-exclusive list with a mid-range Pepsi-branded Android phone that is reserved for China.
For Pepsi are banking on its brand recognition rather than its average specs with capacitive buttons beneath the screen and a fingerprint sensor too.
Pepsi Phone – Unique or Terrible?
P1 is unique because of its color scheme wherein the latest renderings reveal home screen background with Pepsi’s signature style and color combinations while there were some logo customizations too.
- Branded handsets are trendy, but Pepsi does not quite gel with the smartphone world because of its unintuitive pairing.
- The Pepsi P1, according to the early estimates, by comparison, seems pretty homogenous.
- Pepsi also confirmed the P1 to Reuters and it is expected that more will be revealed on October 20.
- At the time of this blog’s printing, you must have already become aware of the supposed new phone.
One can hope that it has a Crystal Pepsi dispenser, Pepsi-can aluminium-based body, incredibly good waterproofing, and any of the features too.
Dhruvil is a Writer & Marketeer for Nimblechapps, joined in December 2014, based out of Sydney, Australia. He has worked briefly as a Branding and Digital Marketing Manager before moving to Australia. At Nimblechapps, he worked on Social Media Marketing, Branding, Email Marketing and Blogging. Dhruvil studies Business at University of Western Sydney, and also handles Operations for the company in Australia.