The benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility (or CSR, for short) have long been debated among corporations. The debate is a legitimate one as the decision where to invest money is always a difficult one. Should the money be put towards marketing to better brand your company? Should it be invested in infrastructure to improve the efficiency of the company and better position it for the future? Or should it be invested back into the community in which the customers live? This professional report will detail and analyze a number of company initiatives that are currently going on or that have taken place in the past in the name of Corporate Social Responsibility. My intentions are to look at these CSR programs through the lens of ROI and, more specifically, profitability. / text

Limited observing time at large telescopes equipped with the most powerful spectrographs makes it almost impossible to gain long and well-sampled time-series observations. Ditto, high-time-resolution observations of bright targets with high signal-to-noise are rare. By pulling an optical fibre of 450m length from the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) to the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) to connect the Potsdam Echelle Polarimetric and Spectroscopic Instrument (PEPSI) to the VATT, allows for ultra-high resolution time-series measurements of bright targets. This article presents the fibre-link in detail from the technical point-of-view, demonstrates its performance from first observations, and sketches current applications.

This thesis looks at the actions of Coca-Cola and Pepsi in South Africa during both the anti-apartheid movement and the post-apartheid era. The processes which led to those actions, both corporations’ removal of their presence in South Africa, the effects this had on South Africa, and their reemergence in a post-apartheid state are examined. It will be shown that, despite the public relations campaigns of both Coke and Pepsi, far more importance was placed on their products’ profitability than the well-being of the black Africans who produced, delivered, or consumed the soft drinks. However, both companies found their actions during the 1980s to affect their success after the fall of apartheid. Coke never truly left the country, leading to overwhelming dominance through the rest of the 20th century. Pepsi adhered to different social imperatives and suffered exceptionally low market shares as a result.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2009. / Title from file title page. Jared Poley, committee chair; Mohammed Hassen Ali, committee member. Description based on contents viewed Feb. 11, 2010. Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-80).

Problemformulering och syfte: När en kris uppstår för en organisation är image och ett starkt varumärke en viktig del som lätt kan ta skada av krisen. För organisationer är bilden av varumärket en viktig grundpelare, där det finns begrepp som profil, image och identitet (Larsson, 2014:125-127). Syftet med studien är att analysera hur ett företag arbetar med sin kommunikation för att rädda sitt anseende när krisen är framme, där Pepsi används som ett exempel på ett företag som genomgått en kris. Metod och material: I studien har en kvalitativ innehållsanalys med semiotiskt inslag används. Där en analys genomfördes på twitterinlägg publicerade av Pepsi och dessmottagare. Det semiotiska inslaget genomfördes som ett första steg på Pepsis kampanjfilm. Detta för att få en djupare förståelse kring kritiken som Pepsi utsattes för och förstå innebörden av kampanjfilmen genom denotationer och konnotationer. Den kvalitativa innehållsanalysen på twitterinlägg utgick med frågeställningar med koppling till teorierna image repair och corporate apologia. Genom detta kunna besvara studiens syfte och frågeställningar. Huvudresultat: Resultatet i studien visade att en snabb och välformulerad ursäkt kan vara helt avgörande för hur mottagarna ska ta emot den. Genom att stå för det som skett och att budskapet landade fel kan rädda ett varumärkes image. Med hänsyn till de valda teorierna fanns det mycket som gick att koppla från handling till teori och för framtida varumärkensom genomgår en kris så finns det mycket hos Pepsi att inspireras av. Genom djupareförståelse i de olika strategierna i respektive teori kan en kris hanteras på ett föredömligt sätt,där det i denna studie var Pepsi som fick framstå som det goda exemplet.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This research aims at examining in what ways brands configure their consuming public's identity via advertising in the contemporary context. For that, it departs from observing the adverts from both competitor brands over the same period of time: the ones from Coca-Cola and the ones from Pepsi. Considering that the main product offered by those brands - soda - is very similar, sold at identical prices and whose flavour is sometimes indistinguishable for the consumer, it seems pertinent to propose the hypothesis that what determines consumption of a certain brand as opposite to the other is related to the way of characterisation and interpolation of consumers, engraved in those brands's adverts, which, in a certain manner, interferes in the choices made by individuals. Such configuring elements of the consumers's image projected by the company would have the capacity to allow sudden identification of individuals aimed at by one of the brands - and not the other. Thus, this research's main objective is to comprehend the relations that are established by brands and their public as from the observation of televisual commercials vehicled by the before-mentioned companies. So that we can better visualise such a relation, we have defined the following specific objectives: (1) analyse discursive strategies employed in televisual adverts for brand and offered product characterisation; (2) identify values put on the agenda by those brands to interpolate the consumer; (3) look for configuring threads of the consuming public summoned by both brands in their interpolation process; (4) verify configuration of the consumption surroundings of those products proposed by commercials (elements and/or situations which involve type/habit of consumption), looking forward to better understanding the public in question. The analysis's steps include: (a) description of different Coca-Cola and Pepsi televisual adverts selected to compose our research corpus; (b) identification of themes and values involved in those texts; (c) examining of manipulating figures and discursive strategies employed in the narratives; (d) description of brand discursive configuration, of consuming public and of surroundings in which that consumption occurs (procedures of figurativisation, actoralisation, spacialisation, temporalisation and tonalisation). Employed methodology is inspired by discursive semiotics developed by the Greimasian group. / A presente pesquisa propõe-se a examinar de que maneira as marcas configuram a identidade do seu público consumidor via publicidade no contexto contemporâneo. Para tanto, parte da observação das ofertas publicitárias de duas marcas concorrentes em período simultâneo: as da Coca-Cola e da Pepsi. Considerando que o principal produto oferecido por essas marcas, o refrigerante, é bastante similar, com preços idênticos e diferença de sabor às vezes imperceptíveis para o consumidor, parece pertinente a hipótese de que o que determina o consumo de uma marca em detrimento da outra está relacionado à forma de caracterização e interpelação do consumidor, inscrita nas campanhas publicitárias dessas marcas, que, de certa forma, passa a interferir nas escolhas feitas pelos sujeitos. Tais elementos configuradores da imagem dos consumidores projetada pela empresa teriam a capacidade de possibilitar a pronta identificação dos sujeitos visados com uma das marcas e não com a outra. Assim, o objetivo central da investigação é a compreensão das relações que se estabelecem entre as marcas e seus públicos, a partir da observação de comerciais televisuais veiculados pelas referidas empresas. Para que se possa melhor visualizar tal relação, definiram-se os seguintes objetivos específicos: (1) analisar as estratégias discursivas empregadas nas publicidades televisuais para a caracterização da marca e produto ofertado; (2) identificar os valores colocados em pauta por essas marcas para interpelar o consumidor; (3) buscar os traços configuradores da identidade do público consumidor convocado pelas duas marcas em seu processo de interpelação; (4) verificar a configuração do entorno de consumo desses produtos propostos pelos comerciais (elementos e/ou situações que envolvem o tipo/hábito de consumo), com vistas a melhor compreender o público visado. As etapas de análise compreendem: (a) a descrição das diferentes publicidades televisuais das marcas Coca-Cola e Pepsi selecionadas para comporem o corpus da pesquisa; (b) a identificação dos temas e valores envolvidos nesses textos; (c) o exame das figuras de manipulação e das estratégias discursivas empregadas nas narrativas; (d) a descrição das configurações discursivas da marca, do público consumidor e do entorno em que se dá esse consumo (procedimentos de figurativização, actorialização, espacialização, temporalização e tonalização). A metodologia adotada inspira-se na semiótica discursiva desenvolvida pelo grupo greimasiano.

This dissertation deals with marketing communication of three brands: Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Kofola on the Czech market. The aim of the work was to analyse and assess the current state of marketing communication of these three brands and with the help of research among consumers to propose activities that could help them in their communication. Information from consumers of cola based beverages of these three brands were gathered by means of a questionnaire survey.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur digitala memes kan skapas för att fungera som inlägg i pågående debatter. För att göra detta analyseras tre av de fotobaserade memes som skapades med anspelningar på Pepsis omtalade reklamfilm ”Live for Now” från 2017. Vidare studeras på vilka sätt dessa memes fungerar identifikationsskapande samt hur identifikation kan fungera övertygande. Detta analyseras med hjälp av en hermeneutisk retorisk metod tillsammans med visuell och postmodern retorikteori. Analysens resultat visar att memes som medium tilltalar en stor publik och appellerar såväl till känslor som värderingar och kan på sådant sätt skapa identifikation. Dess argumentativa styrka står dock att finna i de dolda budskapen, vilka enbart uppfattas av mottagare med särskild förförståelse. Här bidrar särskilt humor och stilfigurer till att skapa identifikation.

This diploma thesis in the first chapter characterises the concepts of brand and marketing strategy including their main components. In the second chapter deals with the brands Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Kofola and their elements, image, positioning and marketing mix. In the final part, the results of two surveys are presented - a survey of the retail chains and a survey among consumers of those brands, which are dealing with analysis of the market positiong of those brands and their perception by the consumers.