TIRUCHY : Amid the surge of nationalism during the pro-jallikattu protest in Tamil Nadu, when a call went out to boycott multinational products, PepsiCo India appears to have gone for some spin doctoring. But this time it is not the big brand ambassadors who are doing image building, but professional influencers who are trying to tap bloggers who could be opinion makers.
The New Indian Express has learnt that the cola major has hired a Chennai-based influencer to reach out to bloggers with good following for an image revamp.
Chennai-based Digital Influencer or Dinfluencer is currently conducting a telephonic survey and sending out questionnaires on behalf of PepsiCo to hardsell its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
Since the cola major has been in the news for all wrong reasons, with protesters holding them responsible for depletion of ground water table, Dinfluencer told that objective of the survey was to change that perception.
“There is a perception that Pepsi is depleting groundwater and not doing anything to the farmers, but actually it is not true. They (Pepsi) are giving more to farmers. We need to create awareness about their new CSR initiatives,” the marketing representative says.
Here’s how the conversation goes: “Do you know that PepsiCo helps around 25,000 potato farmers in Punjab by buying their produce for its popular snack, Lay’s? Do you know that PepsiCo sources about 65 per cent of all fruits used in their products like Tropicana from Indian farmers? You can write about these CSR initiatives in the social media,” the caller helpfully suggests.
As part of the public relations exercise, the callers request the bloggers to make on-site visits to check out the CSR initiatives and write about them.
Next month, an interactive event with PepsiCo will be organised in Chennai to put all bloggers who are on board on one platform.
After this reporter sent his responses to the survey, another representative of Dinfluencer called in, saying: “We will be contacting you through e-mail for influencer campaigns to promote the CSR initiatives of PepsiCo, and the association can be long term. At the end of survey, we will send you a gift hamper worth Rs 300 to your address.”