Where have we heard this strategy before?  How did corporations manage to warp “growth” to mean workforce shrinkage?  The world is truly full of mysteries.  They really should liken this kind of approach to pruning a plant.  Anyhow, Pepsi is planning to revamp its image and marketing along with lay-offs and closing 6 plants.  My favorite tactic is changing “Mountain Dew” to “Mtn Dew.”  That’s brilliant!  Now that I don’t have to read the entire word, I’ll definitely go out and buy some … Haha, I’m actually glad to hear that their CEO Indra Nooyi recognizes in an economic downturn that soft drink and juice’s primary competition is tap water — though, the last time I checked my utility bills tap water was wasn’t free …  Now if only they would address those pesky health issues like obesity, tooth decay, and kidney and bladder stones (ouch!  All reasons why there is no soda allowed in my house).  It does seem that it is on her mind from the last paragraph:

Ms. Nooyi went on to say that in order for the soft-drink category to grow, sugar must be addressed. “Once we have a breakthrough on a natural low-calorie sweetener that can be used in colas, we have a reason to talk about this category growing again.”

Well, she isn’t one of my favorite CEO’s to follow through the news for nothing :).  Umm … how about putting less sugar in.  I like bottled teas drinks from outside of the US because they use cane sugar and less of it.  This makes the beverage taste light and refreshing.  Another thing I have noticed about beverages in the US is that favoring is added for tartness.  When combined with the high sugar content, beverages taste way too “heavy” and leave a sticky acidic taste in my mouth and fuzz on my teeth.  Yuck!  Even the unsweetened versions have tartness added — yuck!

Anyhow, here’s a link to the article for more details on Pepsi’s plans.  I can’t wait to see the new labeling.

(By the way, it appears that Jack-in-the-Box has changed the logo on some of its restaurants.  Some restaurants have a more low key low logo that doesn’t bring the clown to mind.  I haven’t been inside any of these restaurants to see if they are differentiated from the other restaurants.)