Editing Pepsi (section)

====Niche marketing====

[[Walter Staunton Mack Jr.|Walter Mack]] was named the new president of Pepsi-Cola and guided the company through the 1940s. Mack, who supported [[progressivism|progressive]] causes, noticed that the company's strategy of using advertising for a general audience either ignored African Americans or used ethnic stereotypes in portraying Blacks. Up until the 1940s, the full revenue potential of what was called "the Negro market" was largely ignored by [[Caucasian race|white]]-owned manufacturers in the U.S.<ref name="WSJ">{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116831396726171042|title=How Pepsi Opened Door to Diversity|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=January 9, 2016|access-date=March 10, 2017|archive-date=February 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205030105/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116831396726171042|url-status=live}}</ref> 

Mack realized that Black people were an untapped [[niche market]] and that Pepsi stood to gain market share by targeting its advertising directly towards them.<ref name="nytboyd">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/business/06boyd.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin|last=Martin|first=Douglas|date=May 6, 2007|title=Edward F. Boyd Dies at 92; Marketed Pepsi to Blacks.|work=The New York Times|access-date=May 5, 2007|archive-date=December 14, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181214011657/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/business/06boyd.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin|url-status=live}}</ref> To this end, he hired Hennan Smith, an advertising executive "from the [[Negro]] newspaper field"<ref name="capparellreview">{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/money/books/reviews/2007-01-22-pepsi-book_x.htm?csp=34|title=Pepsi's challenge in 1940s: Color barrier|work=[[USA Today]]|first=Michelle|last=Archer|date=January 22, 2007|access-date=May 7, 2007|archive-date=June 10, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610193625/http://www.usatoday.com/money/books/reviews/2007-01-22-pepsi-book_x.htm?csp=34|url-status=live}}</ref> to lead an all-black sales team, which had to be cut due to the onset of World War II.

[[File:Pepsi targeted ad 1940s.jpg|thumb|A 1940s advertisement specifically targeting African Americans, an untapped niche market that was largely ignored by white-owned manufacturers in the U.S. A young [[Ron Brown]] is the boy reaching for a bottle.]]
In 1947, Walter Mack resumed his efforts, hiring [[Edward F. Boyd]] to lead a twelve-man team. They came up with advertising portraying black Americans in a positive light, such as one with a smiling mother holding a six pack of Pepsi while her son (a young [[Ron Brown]], who grew up to be [[United States Secretary of Commerce|Secretary of Commerce]])<ref name="latboyd">{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-may-05-me-boyd5-story.html|title=Edward Boyd, 92; Pepsi ad man broke color barriers|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|first=Jocelyn Y.|last=Stewart|date=May 5, 2007|access-date=August 12, 2012|archive-date=October 10, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010203908/http://articles.latimes.com/2007/may/05/local/me-boyd5|url-status=live}}</ref> reaches up for one. Another ad campaign, titled "Leaders in Their Fields", profiled twenty prominent African Americans such as [[Nobel Peace Prize]] winner [[Ralph Bunche]] and photographer [[Gordon Parks]].

Boyd also led a sales team composed entirely of blacks around the country to promote Pepsi. [[Racial segregation]] and [[Jim Crow laws]] were still in place throughout much of the U.S.; Boyd's team faced a great deal of discrimination as a result,<ref name="capparellreview" /> from insults by Pepsi co-workers to threats by the [[Ku Klux Klan]].<ref name="latboyd" /> On the other hand, it was able to use its anti-racism stance as a selling point, attacking Coke's reluctance to hire blacks and support by the chairman of The Coca-Cola Company for segregationist [[governor of Georgia]] [[Herman Talmadge]].<ref name="nytboyd" /> As a result, Pepsi's market share as compared to Coca-Cola's shot up dramatically in the 1950s with African American soft-drink consumers three times more likely to purchase Pepsi over Coke.<ref>Brian D. Behnken, Gregory D. Smithers (2015). "Racism in American Popular Media: From Aunt Jemima to the Frito Bandito". p. 34. ABC-CLIO</ref> After the sales team visited [[Chicago]], Pepsi's share in the city overtook that of Coke for the first time.<ref name="nytboyd" />

Journalist Stephanie Capparell interviewed six men who were on the team in the late 1940s. The team members had a grueling schedule, working seven days a week, morning and night, for weeks on end. They visited [[Bottler (company)|bottlers]], churches, ladies groups, schools, college campuses, [[YMCA SCUBA Program|YMCAs]], community centers, insurance conventions, teacher and doctor conferences, and various civic organizations. They got famous jazzmen such as [[Duke Ellington]] and [[Lionel Hampton]] to promote Pepsi from the stage. No group was too small or too large to target for a promotion.<ref>Stephanie Capparell, "How Pepsi Opened Door to Diversity." ''CHANGE'' 63 (2007): 1-26 [http://www.comlabgames.com/45-870N/instructor/01_day/How_Pepsi_Opened_Door_to_Diversity.pdf online]. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408033355/http://www.comlabgames.com/45-870N/instructor/01_day/How_Pepsi_Opened_Door_to_Diversity.pdf |date=April 8, 2016 }}.</ref>

Pepsi advertisements avoided the stereotypical images common in the major media that depicted [[Aunt Jemima]]s and [[Uncle Ben's|Uncle Bens]], whose role was to draw a smile from white customers. Instead, it portrayed black customers as self-confident [[Middle class|middle-class]] citizens who showed very good taste in their soft drinks. They were economical too, as Pepsi bottles were twice the size.<ref>Stephanie Capparell, ''The Real Pepsi Challenge: The Inspirational Story of Breaking the Color Barrier in American Business'' (2007).</ref>

This focus on the market for black people caused some consternation within the company and among its affiliates. It did not want to seem focused on black customers for fear white customers would be pushed away.<ref name="nytboyd" /> In a national meeting, Mack tried to assuage the 500 bottlers in attendance by pandering to them, saying "We don't want it to become known as a [[nigger]] drink."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200702/20070227_boyd.html|first=Tavis|last=Smiley|author-link=Tavis Smiley|date=February 27, 2007|title=Edward Boyd|publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]|format=interview|access-date=May 4, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929205458/http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200702/20070227_boyd.html|archive-date=September 29, 2007}}</ref> After Mack left the company in 1950, support for the black sales team faded and it was cut.<ref name="WSJ" />

Boyd was replaced in 1952 by [[Harvey C. Russell Jr.]], who was notable for his marketing campaigns towards black youth in [[New Orleans]]. These campaigns, held at locales attended largely by black children, would encourage children to collect Pepsi bottle caps, which they could then exchange for rewards. One example is Pepsi's 1954 "Pepsi Day at the Beach" event, where New Orleans children could ride rides at an amusement park in exchange for Pepsi bottle caps. By the end of the event, 125,000 bottle caps been collected. According to ''The Pepsi Cola World'', the New Orleans campaign was a success; once people's supply of bottle caps ran out, the only way they could get more was to buy more Pepsi.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weems |first1=Robert E. Jr. |title=Desegregating the dollar: African American consumerism in the twentieth century |date=February 1998 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=0-8147-9290-1 |pages=50–51}}</ref>