A packaging change by PepsiCo illustrates social media’s growing influence on corporate marketing. Just another example of how consumer behavior is changing the world. With a huge stage called the internet to voice opinions, upload video content and share with friends and foes the opinions they harbor, the citizen journalist can be a dangerous enemy to make.

In January, Pepsi tried to introduce a new label on its Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice cartons in the US. They soon discovered that to replace the traditional straw-in-an-orange logo of 24 years might not be such an easy task. Consumers immediately turned to the internet to show their clear dismay.  Annoyance over the new packaging became clear through a series of blog entries, emails and letters to PepsiCo. It didn’t take long for titles like the Sucky new Tropicana orange juice carton and Pepsi Takes the Tropic out of Tropicana to make it up the Google result pages.
The power of social media resulted in PepsiCo bowing to public demand and scrapping the changes made to Tropicana  and reverting back to the old design.

Who would have thought 10 years ago that public outcry over the design of a product can be escalated to such a level that it would influence corporate decisions on the highest level?

The truth is that the internet is a powerful tool in the hands of your consumers, can you really afford not to know what is being said about your company or brand out there?

I found this very interesting especially in light of YouTube’s appointment of a News Manager along with their CitizenNews channel that launched in May. This channel is encouraging ordinary citizens to report on events in their communities and countries, but its ultimate goal is to become a go-to news destination on the web. If you consider this along with estimates from research companies like Forrester Research in the United States, that 40% of all programming will be viewed through the web by the end of 2008, it seems that Peter Shankman’s remarks are not as far off into the future as some would like to believe.