Editing John Sculley (section)

=== 1967–82: Pepsi-Cola ===
Sculley joined the Pepsi-Cola division of PepsiCo in 1967 as a trainee, where he participated in a six-month training program at a [[bottling plant]] in [[Pittsburgh]].<ref name="Odyssey">{{cite book | first1=John | last1=Sculley | author-link1=John Sculley | first2=John A. | last2=Byrne | title=Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple ... A journey of adventure, ideas and the future | publisher=Diane Pub Co | isbn= 0788169491 | oclc=947796756 | date=1990 | orig-year=October 1, 1987}}</ref>{{rp|30}} In 1970, at the age of 30, Sculley became the company's youngest marketing vice-president.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-02-08-mn-20471-story.html|title=Saga of Apple's Ex-Chief Takes an Unusual Turn : Business: John Sculley quits as Spectrum chairman, alleging deceit. He sues executive who hired him.|last=WEBER|first=JONATHAN|date=February 8, 1994|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=February 16, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}}</ref>

Sculley initiated one of the company's first consumer-research studies, an extended in-home product test in which 350 families participated. As a result of the research, Pepsi decided to launch new, larger, and more varied packages of their soft drinks,<ref name="Odyssey"/>{{rp|43–44}} including the [[two-liter bottle]] Sculley worked with [[DuPont]] to develop.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sculley |first=John |date=2014 |title=Moonshot! |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d8omDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT68 |publisher=RosettaBooks |page=68 |isbn=9780795343360}}</ref> In 1970, Pepsi set out to dethrone Coca-Cola as the market leader of the industry, in what eventually became known as the [[Cola wars|Cola Wars]]. Pepsi began spending more on marketing and advertising, typically paying between US$200,000 and $300,000 for each television spot, while most companies spent between $15,000 and $75,000. With the Pepsi Generation campaign, Pepsi aimed to overturn Coca-Cola's classic marketing.<ref name="Odyssey"/>{{rp|54}}

In 1974, Sculley became president of PepsiCo's International Food Operations division,<ref name=":0" /> shortly after he visited a failing potato-chip factory in Paris. PepsiCo's food division was their only money-losing division, with revenues of US$83 million and losses of $156.5 million. To make the food division profitable, Sculley improved product quality, enhanced accounts, and established financial controls.<ref name="Odyssey"/>{{rp|63–66}} Within three years, the food division was making US$300 million in revenues and $40 million in profit.<ref name="Odyssey"/>{{rp|68}}

Sculley was best known at Pepsi for the [[Pepsi Challenge]], an advertising campaign he started in 1975 to compete against Coca-Cola to gain market share, using heavily advertised taste tests. It claimed based on Sculley's own research that Pepsi-Cola tasted better than Coca-Cola. The Pepsi Challenge included a series of television advertisements that first aired in the early 1970s, featuring lifelong Coca-Cola drinkers participating in [[blind taste test]]s. Pepsi's soft drink was always chosen as the preferred product by the participant; however, these results have been criticized as being caused by Pepsi's sweetness, rather than its superior taste.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Yglesias |first=Matthew |date=2013-08-09 |title=How Coke Won the Cola Wars |url=https://slate.com/business/2013/08/pepsi-paradox-why-people-prefer-coke-even-though-pepsi-wins-in-taste-tests.html |access-date=2022-11-04 |website=Slate Magazine |language=en}}</ref>

The Pepsi Challenge was mostly targeted at the Texas market, where Pepsi had a significantly lower [[market share]] at the time. The campaign was successful, significantly increasing Pepsi's market share in that state. At the time the Pepsi Challenge was started, Sculley was senior vice-president of United States sales and marketing operations at Pepsi.<ref name="Odyssey"/>{{rp|71–75}} Sculley himself took the taste test and picked Coke instead of Pepsi.<ref name="Infinite Loop"/>{{rp|287}}

In 1977, Sculley was named Pepsi's youngest-ever president. Although commonly called the CEO of Pepsi, this was never the case. At the time of his departure, [[Donald M. Kendall|Don Kendall]] was CEO of Pepsi.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Pollack|first=Andrew|date=1983-04-09|title=Apple Gets President from Pepsi|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/09/business/apple-gets-president-from-pepsi.html|access-date=2023-02-08|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>