DR PEPPER
Purpose and supporting narrative to help a quirky soda brand navigate a changing world.
USE CASE
Purpose defines the brand's reason for existing.
It guides advertising, company culture, R&D and more.
ROLE
Senior Copywriter
Dr Pepper is the nation's oldest soda. Yup, older than Coke. Since its birth in Waco, Texas, the brand has weathered challenges of all kinds. A big question swirling around these days is how to show up in a world where soda is the bad guy. We went back to the brand's roots and uncovered a role for Dr Pepper as the soda for special moments.
A purpose line with personality.
Unlike most sodas, Dr Pepper wasn't made for mindless, mass consumption.
The narrative below explains.
Charles Alderton, Dr Pepper’s creator, understood the need to break away. He was a pharmacist by trade, but a maverick by nature who wasn’t afraid to experiment at his drugstore's soda fountain.
He created a concoction so out of the ordinary it opened his customers to the marvels AND Mysteries around them.
People wondered about its 23 secret flavors, unusual name, and indescribable taste, but the only thing they knew for certain was that Dr Pepper was one of a kind.
Over the years, fans connected through this shared intrigue. Try as they might, nobody could figure out its namesake or piece together the recipe. With a flavor so rich and complex, people
experienced it differently each time, causing them to wonder how a soda from the 1880s could still feel new–and since this was possible, what other curiosities must be out in the world?
The days of riding off to the western frontier are long gone, but we still need to escape the daily routines and treat ourselves to the unexpected. Now, when there’s so much information right at our fingertips, everything has an explanation and what’s new quickly becomes the norm.
Yet Dr Pepper is so original it remains a mystery, one we can savor but not solve.
By doctoring the ordinary, Dr Pepper gives us the break we instinctively crave, opening us to the marvels in our world and inviting us to drink in the wonder of it all.
For special moments, like a White House visit.
And for everyday special moments, when you need a break from the ordinary.
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