Dear Pepsi,
You've recently adopted a plan that most soda drinkers are
thoroughly enjoying: new flavors that are released frequently
and made available only for a limited time.
This gives us the fun and enjoyment of trying new flavors of
soda, while simultaneously offering you the initial burst of sales
as everyone buys the soda to try it at least once.
Mt. Dew has been the main beneficiary of this, having so much
success with Livewire that you saw fit to bring it back for 2004,
despite promising it as available summer 2003 only.
These limited edition sodas ensure good sales and allow you
to pull good flavors that are not well-established (like Colas are)
before people get sick of them - and sales slump - like with Josta
and Pepsi Blue.
Drinks such as Pepsi Holiday Spice, Pitch Black and so forth
demonstrate that it's financially plausible to market and sell a
beverage with the intent that it only be around for a short time.
This method appears to be successful.
There are two drinks that you made available for quite some time
that both have a decent number of very loyal fans: Josta and
Pepsi Blue. While these sodas couldn't support year round sales
in numbers sufficient to please, short bursts of production would
allow hardcore fans a chance to stock up on large quantities of
these sodas, while people who never had the chance to sample
them during their initial runs would have the opportunity to
try them out.
Josta has many fans that are still hopeful that it may one day
be resurrected, but most have resigned themselves to the fact
that PepsiCo doesn't seem interested in seeing Josta return. We
hope that you will consider making it available seasonally, as
you have with several other soft drinks of late. You won't be
disappointed!
Jason Latona
If you have ANY info, facts etc, about Josta that you'd like to share,
please e-mail me!
