When you are craving soda, which one do you pick? Pepsi or Cola? The battle of the carbonated ages has come to an interesting point in the Coke-Pepsi Cola rivalry. The 2024 sales data has come out, and Pepsi fell flat out of the top 3 slots. What happened to the giant that caused this tumble?
Soda Rankings of 2024
Americans have listed soft drinks as their second favorite beverage purchased in 2024, and they have spoken as to which brand of soda they prefer to send their money on. Beverage Digest crunched the numbers and listed Coca-Cola Classic as number one. Dr.Pepper took second place in sales, similar to the sales rank in 2023. We expected Pepsi-Cola to remain at number 3, like in 2023, but we were shocked to find it wasn’t there. Sprite surprisingly climbed up into 3rd place, pushing Pepsi-Cola into 4th place.
Pepsi Took a Sales Trip
So what happened to Pepsi’s sales in 2024? Coke and Pepsi have been in a Cola war since the 1970s, and Pepsi almost topped Coke in sales back in the 1980s. In recent years, Pepsi has dropped in sales, with 2023 marking it in 3rd place, and 2024 ranking it in 4th. The numbers show a pattern in decline due to the changes in marketing and trends. New soda brands are coming out with new flavors, creating low-sugar sodas, securing positions on market shelves, and cleverly advertising on social media.
How Can Pepsi Bound Back?
What did Pepsi have to say about its ranking drop? Pepsi spokespeople remind us not to just look at one part of a company’s profits because it doesn’t represent the company’s momentum. Pepsi is planning on adding some innovations to its flavor palette and is confident in where it stands in the soda market overall. One thing they are trying to reignite is the successful Pepsi Challenge, a marketing strategy they used in the 1980s. They plan on using blind taste testing pop-up booths to compare the flavors of Pepsi Zero Sugar with other zero-sugar competitors.
Final Thoughts
As for the speed of recovery, that is a grey area and will depend on how Pepsi approaches certain external aspects. Some state governments in the United States are limiting the use of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on sodas. There are also the political and economic factors at play, such as Trump’s trade tariffs. With import taxes and tariffs on aluminum increasing, the pricing of soda will likely increase. It is up to Pepsi on how they will strategize those roadblocks to climb back up the ranking list.
