Walking down the snack or beverage aisles of any grocery store you will find that many of the products on the shelves are made by PepsiCo. In 1965 Herman W. Lay and Donald Kendell of the Frito-Lay Company and Pepsi-Cola combined to form PepsiCo. The businesses merged in 1986 under PepsiCo Worldwide Foods and PepsiCo Worldwide Beverages. By merging with Quaker Oats in 2001, PepsiCo became a $25 billion company (Friesner, 2012). What are some things PepsiCo does to consistently stay at the top of the food and beverage industry? By examining PepsiCo's marketing mix, organizational structure, social responsibility, use of technology, and financials, this question can be answered. Every large company has a marketing mix; product, price, place and promotion. PepsiCo produces a wide variety of beverages and snacks. Drinks include Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Tropicana, Aquafina bottled water and Sierra Mist. Some of PepsiCo's savory snacks are Fritos Corn chips, Ruffles chips, Lays chips, Tostitos, and Doritos. Breakfast cereals, cakes and cake mixes are also PepsiCo products (Friesner, 2012). Like all companies, PepsiCo must provide its customers with products at a reasonable price while trying to operate profitably. Some of the ways PepsiCo tries to achieve this is by reducing overhead, redesigning the manufacturing process, and using inexpensive recyclable plastic bottles. Prices may be affected by PepsiCo's relationship with Wal-Mart, whose pricing strategy forces PepsiCo to keep prices low. Although PepsiCo does its best to keep prices low, the company has increased some prices in recent years. The beverage industry in general is… launching new brands and ideas for new product development. These are just some of the things PepsiCo does to consistently compete and stay at the top of the food and beverage industry. References: (2013). Retrieved from PepsiCo.com: http://www.pepsico.com/Aguirre-Mar, M. (2013). Global structural design and results: PepsiCo case. Journal of Strategic Leadership, 6-13.Friedman, H. (2011). Product Policy; Development of new products. Retrieved from http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/economic/friedman/mmproductpolicy.htmFriesner, T. (2012). Retrieved from Marketing Teacher.com: http://www.marketingteacher.com/case-study/pepsico-case-study.htmlLarson, A. (2012). Retrieved from Lard Bucket: http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/entrepreneurship-and-sustainability/s01-about-the-author.htmlPlant, R. (2011). Retrieved from Reliable Plant.com: http://reliableplant.com/