Established consumer brands, like KFC and Taco Bell, are taking a “lifestyle brand” approach to reshape the narratives around them in the market and to better connect with consumers. The latest company to take a lifestyle approach is PepsiCo, which is turning to apparel, accessories and other products with the launch of fashion ecommerce site House of PepsiCo. The lifestyle brand focus comes as the company has upped its advertising and marketing spending by 12 percent this year.
House of PepsiCo, which launched October 31, features products from Forever 21, DSquared2 and Mandarina Duck, and highlights collections with brands such as Alexander Wang, Puma and Fila. Along with Pepsi, PepsiCo brands featured in the tie-ups include Cheetos, Mountain Dew and Brisk, among others.
The House of PepsiCo is not itself a retail site. Consumers clicking on products and collections are taken to partner retailers’ sites. The site’s content is intended to serve as a central hub for the company’s licensing business, and as a value-add for its license partners.
Speaking to marketing industry site The Drum, Matthieu Aquino, design vice president of global beverage design and brand experience at PepsiCo, says, “We are integrating licensing to strengthen the brand narratives around our campaigns and biggest events of the year. With this online portal, we are creating added value for our partners with a new traffic driver to their ecommerce pages. This gives visibility to the latest and greatest in our PepsiCo portfolio globally, and to our partners internally and externally.”