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  • Of those people that recently made consumer electronics purchases in a store, 80 percent visited the store's website first. - Nielsen Online survey source ›
  • V users watch more TV than before (127 hrs, 15 min per month) and also spend 9 percent more time using the internet (26 hrs, 26 min per month) than they did last year source ›
  • Unaided ad awareness for podcasts was an impressive 68% on average (compared with industry benchmarks of 21% for streaming video and 10% for television) source ›
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MAR 1

The Pepsi challenge

Can this snack and soda giant go healthy? CEO Indra Nooyi says yes, but cola wars and corn prices will test her leadership.

FORTUNE, March 1, 2008 — Pepsi can have a strange effect on people. The company, that is, not the beverage. No sooner had PepsiCo president Indra Nooyi gotten word 18 months ago that she was to become the next CEO than she hopped on a plane to Cape Cod, where Mike White, her main challenger for the job, was vacationing. The two had worked together for years. Both had been CFOs and rising stars. Both loved music. When they'd been kicked out of a board meeting the previous month while their fates were being discussed, they went to the Jersey Boys musical on Broadway and sang along to all the Frankie Valli songs.

As Nooyi's plane landed on Cape Cod, there was White waiting for her at the airport with a card he'd written to congratulate her. They took a long walk on the beach. Back at his beach house, he played the piano and she sang. Before she left, they went for ice cream. "Tell me whatever I need to do to keep you, and I will do it," she told her longtime colleague, who was vice chairman at the time. White said he would sleep on it.

That kind of scene may be rare in the hypercompetitive realm of C-suites, but not at PepsiCo (PEP, Fortune 500) (rank on the 2007 Fortune 500: No. 63). PepsiCo's three ex-CEOs, all on good terms with one another, weighed in to help Nooyi keep White onboard.

Categories: Innovation, Brand Strategy, Marketing Strategy
Tags: Pepsi, Business Strategy, New Products

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