How Pepsi is Delivering More with iPhone's and iPad's

Great video on how Pepsi is leveraging technology with their in-house distribution and merch app on iPhone's and iPad's to improve customer satisfaction (retailers and consumers) efficiently.

Some key highlights:

• “In North America we run approximately 17,000 distribution routes a day,” says Brian Spearman, Senior Vice President of Go-To-Market and Service for PepsiCo North America Beverages. “We have to get the products from our manufacturing and warehouse facilities onto our trucks and into stores in time to meet demand. With iPhone and iPad, we can be more efficient and get in front of problems before they even happen.”

• To make merchandising and distribution as seamless as possible, PepsiCo North America Beverages created Power4Merch, a custom in-house app for iPhone. With Power4Merch, merchandisers are immediately notified when a driver has arrived at a store and can be sure that deliveries are unloaded quickly and displayed correctly, so the right products are always on the shelf and ready to buy.

• “A manager can make manpower assignments right on iPad,” Uppaluri says. “It automatically sends a push notification to the merchandiser’s iPhone, so he knows he's got a new stop. Life before was all about being on the phone, checking email in the office, checking paperwork. Now with iPad, the manager starts and ends his day where he needs to be, with his team.”

Link to article here.

Look Closer To See The Demograhic Future of the US

The U.S. Census recently released various interactive graphics showing the countries of origin of Hispanics around the US.  The maps reflect the expected, Puerto Rican population clustered in the DC-Boston corridor, majority of Cuban population in Miami, and so on.

However, on closer inspection the Mexican population map is very interesting because it visually reveals how the US Hispanic population, which is majority Mexican ancestry, has expanded into almost every state of the union. Its a portent of the future of the country and how US Hispanics are  more and more a part of the social fabric not just in Calfornia and Texas, but Colorado, The Carolinas, Georgia, Oklahoma and even Arkansas.

The last Census raised awareness of skyrocketing Hispanic population growth in unexpected areas, such as the South and Midwest, but these new interactive graphic maps serve to communicate the breadth of the US Hispanic consumer expansion in a way that numbers and statics cannot.

With the 2010 data, the Census mapped 22 different origins that included Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. To access the interactive maps click here.

In Other News: Salsa Beats Ketchup 2.0

With the gov't shutdown and debt ceiling crisis over for now, it's time to change the conversation — to food.

Not surprisingly Salsa continues to pull ahead of Ketchup at a blistering pace with some familiar Mexican items not far behind — Tortillas replacing standard "Wonder Bread" and potato chips across the country getting a Mexican makeover with chile and limon flavors.

Not long ago the conventional wisdom was that Hispanics would assimilate to American culture, instead we are seeing the American culture, in certain cases and geographies, adopt parts of Hispanic culture. We see this in music, entertainment, recent presidential elections, but on a national level, its especially visible with food.

And Hispanic marketing experts and consultants are inventing new terms, such as Ambicultural™, to define how many in the US now easily mix and blend two cultures throughout their day, in family, work and leisure.

Money quotes:

"From queso fresco to chorizo, traditional Hispanic foods - or even just the flavors of them - are making their way into our everyday diet, particularly among the millennials - those born between the early `80s and the turn of the century. Generation Y's Hispanic community was born into an American culture but still holds onto its traditions, often eating white rice and seamlessly switching between English and Spanish."

"As immigrant and minority populations rewrite American demographics, the nation's collective menu is reflecting this flux, as it always has. And it goes beyond the mainstreaming of once-esoteric ethnic ingredients, something we've seen with everything from soy sauce to jalapenos."

"This is a rewrite of the American menu at the macro level, an evolution of whole patterns of how people eat. The difference this time? The biggest culinary voting bloc is Hispanic."

To read entire article click here.