Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. It was originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham as Brad's Drink in his New Bern, NC drugstore in 1893. The name was changed to Pepsi-Cola in 1898 and then renamed to Pepsi in 1961. The name "Pepsi" is believed to have come from its ability to relieve dyspepsia or indigestion and cola refers to the ‘cola’ flavor.

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In 1903, Bradham moved the bottling of the drink to a rented warehouse. He sold 7,968 gallons of syrup that year. The next year, he sold it in six-ounce bottles, and sales increased to 19,848 gallons.

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In 1923, the Company filed for bankruptcy because of the financial losses incurred by speculating on the wildly fluctuating sugar prices during World War I. Roy Megargel bought the Pepsi trademark but was unsuccessful in finding funding and the brand was sold to Charles Guth, the president of Loft Inc, a candy manufacturer with retail stores that contained soda fountains. He wanted to replace Coca-Cola from his stores' fountains as the Coca-Cola Company had refused to give him additional discounts on syrup. Guth then had Pepsi-Cola syrup formula reformulated by his chemists.

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The Coca-Cola Company had the opportunity to purchase the Pepsi-Cola Company on three occasions between 1922 and 1933, which it repeatedly declined.

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During the Great Depression, the smart introduction of a 12-ounce bottle at the price of the regular 6.5-ounce bottle, a nickel, gave Pepsi the boost in popularity it needed, thereby doubling its profit between 1934 and 1938. The jingle: "Pepsi-Cola hits the spot; Twelve full ounces, that's a lot; Twice as much for a nickel, too; Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you.” did the trick.

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From the 1930s through the late 1950s the jingle was the most commonly used and popular slogan in the early booming days of radio and television. They used the services of a young, up-and-coming actress named Polly Bergen and Joan Crawford to promote their products. Joan Crawford, after marrying Pepsi-Cola president Alfred Steele became a spokesperson for Pepsi, appearing in radio commercials and television specials on behalf of the company. She also had images of the soft drink placed strategically in several of her films. When Steele died in 1959, Crawford was appointed to the Board of Directors of Pepsi-Cola, a position she held until 1973.

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Walter Mack was then named the new president of Pepsi-Cola, who guided the company through the 1940s. Mack supported progressive causes. Mack realized that blacks were an untapped market and that Pepsi stood to gain market share by targeting its advertising directly toward them. As a result, Pepsi's market share as compared to Coca-Cola's shot up drastically in the 1950s with African American soft-drink consumers three times more likely to purchase Pepsi over Coke. 

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In 1965, PepsiCo was formed with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay Inc. PepsiCo has since expanded from its namesake product Pepsi Cola to a vastly diversified range of food and beverage brands. The biggest recent acquisition was Pioneer Foods in 2020 for US$1.7 billion.

Indra Nooyi became the CEO of the company in 2006. She took the lead in the acquisition of Tropicana in 1998, and the merger with Quaker Oats Company, which also brought Gatorade in 2001.

 

The $3.3 billion acquisition of Tropicana initially faced a lot of opposition from many PepsiCo executives and other critics.  Acquiring Tropicana allowed PepsiCo to gain a great competitive edge; Tropicana had almost 50% of the orange juice segment, the fastest-growing segment of the juice market, compared to Coca-Cola's Minute Maid which had less than half of Tropicana's market share. The Quaker Oats Company’s ownership of Gatorade was a great strategic move for PepsiCo since Gatorade had 80% of the sports drink share at the time. Similar to the Tropicana acquisition, this strategic move gave PepsiCo leverage against Coco-Cola, owner of Powerade – second in the sports drink segment. With these acquisitions, PepsiCo’s annual net profit more than doubled from $2.7 billion to $6.5 billion.

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Ramon Laguarta has been the CEO of PepsiCo since 2018. As of January 2021, the company has 23 brands that have over US$1 billion in sales. PepsiCo has operations all over the world and its products are sold in over 200 countries, with annual net revenues of over US$79 billion. PepsiCo is the second-largest food and beverage business in the world based on net revenue, market capitalization and profits behind Nestle. Although Coca-Cola outsells Pepsi Cola in the United States, Worldwide, PepsiCo is almost twice the size of Coco-cola.

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