I chose the Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS) Group and Student Conservation Association (SCA) graphic because it deals with a cause that is very important to me – saving the planet – and the parent company of a brand I love, Dr Pepper. When I worked in PR, DPS was actually one of the brands my firm represented. This graphic relates to one of DPS’ major issues as a corporation, which is corporate identity. For my design, I chose to incorporate the earthy theme with branches growing out of the infographic itself, and the flowers/pods as my "boxes" for text.
Dr Pepper and Snapple are the flagship brands of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, but the company represents more than fifty brands of soft drinks. The company is in an interesting situation, because the brands within the company, for the most part, have been around for a very long time, but the corporation is relatively new. I found this graphic while perusing the communication section of their corporate website, and was most interested because the focus is so squarely not on DPS itself, but rather conservation and the projects pursued by DPS and SCA.
The overall earthy theme with lack of strong branding contrasts what many other brands do with their corporate philanthropy. Note the difference between what DPS did with their graphic and the Coca-Cola one below. The Coca-Cola ad is about water conservation, but still screams COKE. Some would call the brand recognition in relation to philanthropy a good thing, but it also has an overly corporate feel that in some ways overshadows the projects themselves.
DPS’ approach more closely aligned with their goal to be the best beverage business in every way – rather than try and grow as huge as possible, they want to refine their products and identity within their specific niche. I do think the DPS graphic could have wound in some subtle branding while still sticking to the earth-centric theme, though. There is room for improvement, which is another reason why I was drawn to this analyzing this infographic. I didn’t want something that would foster an only positive critique.
