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PepsiCo launches a festive retail push after losing KFC to Coca-Cola, Suntory takes Teacher's premium, and Heineken acquires Brazilian yerba-mate firm Better Drinks.
PepsiCo is counter-punching after losing KFC pouring rights to Coca-Cola. Meanwhile Heineken just bought into yerba mate, and Suntory is betting Teacher's can go premium.
In this episode:
The FMCG Marketing Daily is a concise briefing for FMCG and CPG marketers, brand managers and CMOs, hosted by Marco & Klara. New episode every day.
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Also from Marco & Klara: The Digital Commerce Daily · The Health Marketing Daily
The essential morning briefing for brand leaders in fast-moving consumer goods. Hosted by Marco and Klara — two senior strategists with decades of experience inside global CPG companies and consultancies. Every episode covers retail media and distribution shifts, brand and competitor moves from Unilever, Coke, Nestlé, and challenger brands, and the macro and regulatory forces reshaping the category. Authoritative. Analytical. No noise. Built for brand managers, trade marketers, CMOs, and agency directors who need to stay ahead.
Marco: Good morning — three stories worth your attention today.
Klara: PepsiCo is making a big festive push at retail, Suntory is repositioning Teacher's into the premium single malt world, and Heineken is deepening its bet on functional drinks with a Brazilian acquisition.
Marco: Lots to unpack across all three.
Klara: Let's get into it.
Marco: PepsiCo is going big this holiday season — deliberately, and with something to prove.
Klara: Let's set the scene. Pepsi and Coca-Cola have been competing for shelf space — the physical room retailers give to products in-store — and for pouring rights — exclusive contracts to supply drinks at restaurant chains — for decades. It's one of the most closely watched rivalries in consumer goods.
Marco: And Pepsi just took a hit. A few weeks ago, PepsiCo lost its US pouring rights contract with KFC to Coca-Cola. That means every KFC in America will now serve Coke products instead. It's a big, visible defeat — and in this industry, visibility is everything.
Klara: So what's Pepsi doing about it? They're pushing hard at retail for the holiday period. They're expanding their physical presence in stores — more shelf space, more display — and anchoring it around a creative campaign called "soda for Santa." The idea is simple: Pepsi as part of your Christmas tradition. Emotionally warm, family-friendly storytelling.
Marco: And the timing is not accidental. You lose a major foodservice deal, you immediately go consumer-facing to protect how people feel about your brand. It's counter-programming — using a campaign to compensate for a distribution loss by staying front of mind during the highest-spending weeks of the year.
Klara: I think the emotional angle is smart. But I'd question whether a "soda for Santa" idea actually shifts how people shop, or whether it just earns some warm press coverage.
Marco: That's a fair challenge. My view is that at scale, being consistently visible during the festive period does compound. It's not one campaign — it's accumulated presence.
Klara: So the lesson for brand managers: when distribution takes a knock, don't retreat. Use your consumer marketing to hold the line.
Marco: Now, on to our next story.
Marco: Suntory is making a bold move with Teacher's — a Scotch whisky brand that has never played in the premium single malt space before.
Klara: A quick bit of context. There are two main types of Scotch whisky. Blended Scotch mixes whiskies from different distilleries together — it's typically more affordable and consistent. Single malt comes from one distillery only, it's positioned as more artisanal, and it commands much higher prices. Teacher's has always been a blended Scotch. That's what it's known for, that's who buys it.
Marco: Until now. Suntory Global Spirits — the Japanese drinks giant that owns Teacher's — is launching the brand's first-ever single malt range. It's a deliberate push to move the brand upmarket. And the broader context matters here: the spirits industry is under real pressure. People are drinking less overall, and trade tariffs are creating cost uncertainty across the category. So brands are looking upward — to higher-margin products — to protect their revenues.
Klara: The strategic logic is clear enough. But I'm sceptical. Teacher's has spent decades being the accessible, everyday choice. That identity is baked in. Walking into a premium single malt aisle and expecting shoppers to follow you there is a genuinely difficult ask. The people who buy luxury single malts — your Glenfarclas drinker, your Oban loyalist — they're not waiting for Teacher's to arrive.
Marco: I don't entirely disagree on the risk. But I'd separate the two jobs this launch is doing. One is recruiting new premium buyers — yes, that's hard. The other is giving existing Teacher's drinkers a reason to trade up within the brand they already trust. That second job is more achievable, and it's probably where the real volume sits.
Klara: Worth watching how retailers range it — whether it lands in the premium whisky section or stays near the blended bottles.
Marco: Our third story is up next.
Marco: Heineken has just agreed to buy a Brazilian company called Better Drinks — and this deal is about a lot more than beer.
Klara: Some context first. Brazil is already one of Heineken's most important markets. But like every major drinks company, Heineken is facing the same uncomfortable reality: people — especially younger ones — are drinking less alcohol overall. So the pressure is on to find growth beyond the traditional lager core.
Marco: Better Drinks operates in two areas. It has a beer business, but more interestingly, it's also active in yerba mate — a naturally caffeinated drink made from South American holly leaves, deeply embedded in Latin American culture and now picking up real momentum among health-conscious consumers in Europe and beyond. This deal gives Heineken a stake in both.
Klara: I think the yerba-mate angle is the real story here. It has something most energy drinks don't — genuine cultural roots. It's not a lab-created functional drink. It's been part of daily life in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil for centuries. That authenticity is very hard to manufacture, and Heineken just bought some of it.
Marco: Agreed on the cultural credibility point. Though I'd add a note of caution. Bringing a regionally rooted drink to a global scale without stripping out what makes it special — that's genuinely tricky. We've seen other brands try to export cultural products and lose the very thing that made them compelling in the first place.
Klara: So the question for Heineken's brand teams is not just "can we grow this?" but "can we grow it without breaking it?"
Marco: And for brand managers watching from outside the drinks category — this is the clearest possible signal that portfolio diversification is no longer optional. Betting everything on your core product, when that product's category is slowly shrinking, is a risk no business can afford to ignore.
Marco: Today's clearest lesson — seasonal relevance isn't given, it's fought for, and the brands that win shelf space at Christmas are the ones who planned for it in January.
Klara: So look at your calendar now — where's the next moment that matters, and are you already too late to own it?