Is Pepsi okay?

Despite holding the second-place spot behind Coca-Cola for nearly 4 decades, Pepsi’s market share has been gently fizzling… while the ambiguous-tasting Dr Pepper is frothing to new heights.

Data from Beverage Digest, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, shows that Pepsi and Dr Pepper are now tied as runner-up (8.3%) to Coke in the US carbonated soft drink sector by sales-volume — which, with more than double the market share of any other beverage (19.2%), remains dominant in the drinks space.

Invented by a pharmacist in the 1880s, Dr Pepper has steadily risen to become one of America’s most beloved drinks. With a hard-to-pin-down flavor — that ChatGPT unhelpfully described as “a unique blend of 23 flavors, combining hints of cherry, vanilla, and spices” — the drink was in 6th place as recently as 2004, per the WSJ. But, in the last 20 years, thanks to careful product placement, innovative marketing campaigns, unusual flavors like creamy coconut, and viral social media trends, its sales have pepped up… particularly with Gen Z.

Pepsi, meanwhile, has struggled. Although the wider PepsiCo conglomerate is still a $236B behemoth, sales growth at the snack and drinks giant has been sluggish in recent quarters, thanks in no small part to price hikes. Even so, losing solo second place to Dr Pepper in the drinks space is a major blow... softened, at least, by Subway’s recent announcement that Pepsi will become the sandwich chain’s sole drink supplier across all US stores.