A pharmacist from New Bern, North Carolina, Caleb Bradham, installed a soda fountain in his store to attract costumers. Bradham had his own special recipe of refreshment. "Brad's drink", as it came to be known, became rather popular in his town.
In 1898, Caleb Bradham changed the name of his popular product to "Pepsi-Cola" because of the ingredients used: pepsin and cola. Bradham wisely bought the trade name "Pep Cola" for $100 from a competitor from Newark, New Jersey who had filed for bankruptcy.
The new name was trademarked on June 16th, 1903, and Bradham's neighbor, an artist, designed the first Pepsi logo. Not long after, ninety-seven shares of stock for Bradham's new company were issued. In 1903 Bradham decided to start bottling the drink as well. He moved his offices from the back of his pharmacy to a warehouse in New Bern.
Although the drink proved to be quite popular, the company went through some tough times. In 1923, Pepsi-Cola Company went bankrupt due to the high sugar prices resulting from World War I. The franchise was sold to a Wall Street broker. The company went bankrupt again 8 years later.
In 1931, Pepsi Cola was bought by the Loft Candy Company president, Charles G. Guth who reformulated the popular soft drink. Guth struggled to make a success of Pepsi and even offered to sell Pepsi to the Coca-Cola company, who refused to offer a bid.
In 1940, Pepsi made history when they broadcast their first advertising jingle nationally. The jingle was "Nickel Nickel" an advertisement for Pepsi Cola that referred to the price of Pepsi and the quantity for that price. "Nickel Nickel" became a hit record and was recorded in fifty-five languages. The Pepsi-Cola logo also changed in 1941 to red, white, and blue, showing its patriotism and support of the war. These colors still remain in Pepsi's logo.
In 1964, Pepsi made soft drink history with Diet Pepsi, the first ever nationally sold diet soft drink. Its rival Coca-Cola would wait two decades before coming out with its own diet soft drink, Diet Coke. At this time Pepsi was also capitalizing on the coming of age of the baby boomers with their Pepsi Generation marketing campaign.
In 1975, Pepsi introduced the "Pepsi Challenge" marketing campaign where PepsiCo set up a blind tasting between Pepsi-Cola and rival Coca-Cola. During these blind taste tests the majority of participants picked Pepsi as the better tasting of the two soft drinks. PepsiCo took great advantage of the campaign with television commercials reporting the results to the public.
In 1984, Pepsi-Cola made advertising history for the company when Michael Jackson and his brothers were featured for the New Generation of Pepsi advertising. Pepsi's slogan becomes "The Choice of a New Generation."
From the 2000s to now, PepsiCo merges with The Quaker Oats Company. Pepsi continues to grow, owning companies like Lays, Naked Juice, and Tropicana Juice. In 2006, Indra Nooyi is named CEO of Pepsico. In 2012, Pepsi introduced Pepsi Next, the cola drink that has half the calories than the regular Pepsi. In 2013, Pepsi reshaped their 20-ounce bottle for the first time in 17 years, just to give it a new look.