How Dr Pepper beat the big boys in the US

Dr Pepper has overtaken Pepsi to command second place in US soft drink market share in the 18-34 years age range. How did they achieve this?

Relevance drives preference for soft drinks

In the battle for soft drink supremacy, agreement with the statement “Is for people like me” predicts conversion from consideration to preference more than any other.

Tracksuit's research has found that Dr Pepper has outperformed both Coca-Cola and Pepsi as the most relevant drink for the 18-34 year old demographic (looking nationally, Dr Pepper stands just a hair's width behind Coca-Cola).

In so doing, it has also established itself as the most trusted soft drink brand of this demographic.

Dr Pepper stands out for its distinctive positioning

How did Dr Pepper win the allegiance of the 18-34 year old demographic?

Looking even across the national population, Dr Pepper stands out as the most “innovative” brand, with more respondents agreeing that it is “like no other” (distinctive).

These attributes are only exacerbated among survey responses of 18-34 year olds.

The same message appears in unaided responses:

• Dr Pepper is commonly thought of as “unique” and “different” while Pepsi is “okay”, “classic”, and “traditional”.
• The brands share the same associations with “Good”, “Sweet”, “Popular”, etc.

Conclusion

The results above echo the classic laws of marketing: Creative advertising builds distinct brands that win hearts (and wallets). By standing out, Dr Pepper has established itself as the most relevant and trusted brand of the younger generation.

While Dr Pepper still lags behind Coca-Cola and Pepsi nationally across all funnel metrics, it outperforms Pepsi in preference in the age group that consumes the most soft drinks (18-34 year olds) and threatens to challenge even Coca-Cola in the Gen Z demographic (18-24 year olds).

Above: Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper and Pepsi funnel metrics across all demographics.

Above: Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper and Pepsi funnel metrics in the 18-24 and 24-34 year old demographics.

Above: Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper and Pepsi funnel metrics in the 18-24 year old demographic.