🥤How Dr Pepper rose to the #2 soda brand

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Hopefully nobody punked you on April Fool’s Day yesterday. I get fooled daily, so it wasn’t much of a change here.

Onward we go with today’s Feature Story. I’ll give you ways to challenge larger brands in your industry just like Dr Pepper did as it clawed its way to the #2 spot in the highly-competitive soda arena. I’ve got simple tips from Dr Pepper’s CMO on how to be a successful “challenger brand.”

After that breakdown, I’ve got heaps of good stuff in the following sections: 

• The Knowledge Base  

• Self Help (getaways)

• Facts & Stats (U.S. vs. Australian influencers) 

• Get Hacking (do what ALDI does)

Appetizer: Watch CEO break down The State of the Ad Market. 

Now, let’s get into today’s Feature Story…

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How Dr Pepper Went from Underdog to the #2 Spot

You may not think of a big brand like Dr Pepper as an underdog or a “challenger brand.”

But that was absolutely the case. 

And seeing how they peeled their competition’s caps back can help you compete with larger brands - no matter what industry you’re in.

Here are some quick takeaways from a recent interview with Dr Pepper’s former chief marketing officer:

1. Be where consumers are (for Dr Pepper, it’s college football)

2. The CMO is all about “the funnel”

3. Seek out new occasions to find new users of your product

4. Use social listening, but don’t hop on EVERY trend

5. Good creative isn’t good if it doesn’t produce good business results

Ok, those five points are a good start. Let’s dig deeper, though. Then we’ll look at where a “suit” actually agrees with me on “suits” knowing their place.

*A challenger brand is a company or product that actively disrupts the status quo in its industry by challenging conventional norms and practices. These brands are not necessarily market leaders but have the ambition to challenge established players. They often achieve this through innovative strategies, bold actions, and a willingness to take risks, even with limited resources. 

Examples: Uber challenged traditional taxi services. Airbnb transformed the hospitality industry. Both were underdogs in the beginning.

Tracking Dr Pepper’s Rise 

• 2000: Dr Pepper held a market share of about 6.3% and was ranked around No. 6 among U.S. soda brands, behind Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, Diet Coke, and Mountain Dew.

• 2015: Dr Pepper grew to a market share of 7.2%.

• 2017: Marked the beginning of seven straight years of dollar share growth for Dr Pepper, driven by its unique taste and innovative marketing.

• 2020: Market share rose to 8.0%, further closing the gap with Pepsi.

• 2023: Reached a market share of 8.3%, effectively tying Pepsi as the second most popular soda brand in the U.S.

• 2024: Dr Pepper passed Pepsi, with a slight edge in market share, although they are often considered tied due to the small margin.

Impressive timeline from 2017 to today. Still, the timeline also shows that overtaking the top brands takes time. It took Dr Pepper 24 years to hit #2.

The brand did it in several ways. 

One, they leaned into how their drink was different. No other soda promotes “spices” as part of the appeal. Going further into unique tastes, they introduced trendy (wacky) flavors like Strawberries & Cream and Creamy Coconut. 

There was even some kind of pickle Dr Pepper trend last year. Hey, if you cater to a bunch of weirdos, give ‘em what they want!

Other strategies include:

• Strategic distribution (apparently it's not as locked in as Coca-Cola is)

• Aggressive marketing and expansion

• Appealed to younger demographics

Younger folks are who I meant by weirdos. Don’t worry, the youngsters think the same about anyone older than them. 

The point is Dr Pepper now has carbonated bragging rights in an industry that’s as competitive as cage fighting. 

Need further insights on how you can do what this soda brand did to overcome better-known products?

More Tips from Dr Pepper’s Former CMO

Mr. Springate noted that you need to care about your consumer. No duh, you say? That is not an obvious goal these days. See FTX, see UnitedHealthcare, see Charlie Javice, I could go on for days…

So, again. Care about consumers.

Another tip was to be speedy with decisions and hire driven people. Also, if you’re offering a unique product, you should look for unique customers.

Springate said Dr Pepper still utilizes “big TV” but leans hard into tiny screens with TikTok challenges. 

As for keeping the brand’s marketing fresh, especially with the Fansville campaign (7 years and running), the former CMO said college football has constant news coming out. That helps keep the campaign from getting stale. The lesson?

Try to connect your marketing to something that has newsworthiness 365 days a year, not just a holiday season. 

Last Insight — a Big One

I regularly criticize company “suits” (execs who get in the way of creative folks and ideas). However, this suit - Dr Pepper’s former marketing chief, agrees with me. Dude’s clearly a genius.

He said, “We use a small team to do social listening and take action on trends that are a fit. I stay out of their way.”

Sometimes that’s the smartest thing a boss can do. 

Let their people do what they do best. And if they’ve hired good people with a fire under their butts, they’ll be glad to take the blame when a campaign flops. Because they were trusted to be creative and to stand out, which is an underutilized way to rise to the top of any industry.

Moving on to the Knowledge Base…

Self-Help

I’m a big believer in vacations. They’re the best refresher a human being can get. 

Even if you can only take micro trips in the afternoon (hike, kayak, hammock, Barnes & Noble meandering, whatever), getting away from your normal environment is a huge help.

I’ve been thinking of taking longer vacations too — beyond 7 days at a time (recommendation from this book). 

The longer the break, the better the refresh, I’m guessing. Plus, it gives us time to figure ways out of work that’s making us need a refresh in the first place.

If you lack funds for longer vacays, get creative by offering house / dog sitting in desirable vacation locations. 

Extra Help: New research shows an alternative reason to try intermittent fasting.

Facts & Stats

Bonus: U.K. publishers are turning to _______ (up 18.3%) and _______ (contributing to a 66.3% increase in miscellaneous revenue) to offset display ad declines. Answer at end of email.

Get Hacking

A specific strategy to implement today

Simple hack to implement, unless you don’t think ALDI is a success story.

Turns out that adding mystery to the shopping experience is a big part of ALDI’s profitability.

Their so-called “Aisle of Shame” with rando products (with no business being on a grocery shelf) has a cult following. Why?

People love the feel of a treasure hunt. No matter how small the treasure. The “unexpected,” that’s the appeal.

And if you need more proof that you should add randomness and unexpected finds to your inventory, look at the booming re-commerce industry.

A huge driver for this $200-billion industry is that people walk in a thrift store with hope. Hope that they’ll find something odd, valuable, or just something NOT available on all of Amazon.

So get hacking. Add unexpected fun and finds to the shopping experience.

*BTW. Re-commerce jumped by $60 million from 2020 to 2024.

Thanks for reading Inbox Hacking. Please share it with your peeps - it’s sugar-free but stings a bit.

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

Bonus answer from Facts & Stats section: U.K. publishers are apparently turning to sponsorships (up 18.3%), and data sales (contributing to a 66.3% increase in miscellaneous revenue) to offset display ad declines (AOP).

Watch: Ad of the Day 

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