After 29 years in business separately the two companies would merger to become Frito-Lay. Then in February 1965 Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola merged to form what is now known as PepsiCo. (www.fritolay.com).
In the thirty eight years since PepsiCo was formed they have had only four CEO's, the most recent being Steve Reinemund. He started at the company as the CEO of their Pizza Hut division and then as CEO for the Frito-Lay Division. He believes the companies future is in growth and productivity and knows that in order for PepsiCo to remain at the top of their game they have to recognize that "PepsiCo does not produce anything that the consumer needs" therefore ensuring new ideas and marketing strategies to focus on the changing taste of the consumer. .
With over 100 products Pepsico's biggest strength is it's brand recognition. Four of the top ten soft drinks (Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi and Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi) are made by PepsiCo, Frito's are the number one corn chip and Lipton Tea is the number one tea in the United States. With so many products widely known it is easy to see why PepsiCo is a strong viable company. The one great thing that PepsiCo does to build and maintain brand awareness is to take much of their proceeds and put it towards advertising. The use of millions of dollars in advertising gives PepsiCo the ability to reinforce their products, introduce new products and ensure customer awareness. And when PepsiCo recognized that consumers were becoming more health conscious they began pushing their non-carbonated drinks like Aquafina, whose U.S. market share is growing 60% faster then soft drinks and made them #1 in the non-carbonated market. By pushing new products such as Mountain Dew Code Red, Sierra Mist, PepsiCo was able to grab the US market share away from Coca-Cola. .
One of the competitive advantages PepsiCo has is in their product Mountain Dew, which in the past several years has grown by 74% and is the first non-cola to reach the one billion gallon mark in one year.
