PEPSICO Iberia: achieving growth in a mature market

Monday morning, and Eugenia Pujol, Marketing Director of PepsiCo Iberia was preparing an important meeting: with her team, she had to decide how to respond to the challenges the New Year presented. Eugenia lived by three maxims: growth, growth and growth. The company needed growth in sales, more growth than the competition, and growth in innovation, so as to offer new and better products to a hyper-segmented market, which constantly demanded variety and novelty. Although the company had for years held its position as market leader in certain sub-categories of the Iberian Peninsula snack market, the previous year's results had indicated that any projected growth might be under threat. In the potato chip sub-category, the consumer segment that valued the 'traditional' potato chip was undergoing significant growth, yet PepsiCo had almost no market presence. The market leaders in this segment were numerous small businesses with a traditional 'artisan' image. Eugenia got on the phone to Nacho Rodríguez, the new product manager in charge of this product area, to get him to assess the situation and to find a quick solution. They had to come up with something good before summer.