PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) has decided to return some more cash to its shareholders. The company said this morning that it would raise its dividend 7%, to an annualized $1.92/share, and increase its stock buyback program to $15 billion. When you think about it, there really isn’t much else for them to do.

Pepsi’s decision last year to spend $8 billion to buy back its largest North American bottlers was the first step in bringing the company’s focus back to a more vertical soft drink business. At the time, the company talked about efficiency and the flexibility owning their bottlers gave them in introducing new products.

Coca-Cola Co. (KO) followed in February, announcing the buyback of its North American bottlers for $13 billion. Coke’s rationale was similar, but their CEO was a bit more up-front about what the company was doing when he said that Coke wanted “direct control … to accelerate growth and drive long-term profitability.”

In other words, the growth in selling sugar water would come from existing operations and the company had no plans to diversify in a major way. Pepsi, with its announcement today, has essentially said the same thing.

The growth in the soft drink business will come from introducing new products quickly, and getting the drinks on store shelves before a competitor can do so. That’s why owning the distribution business again became so important. Now, Pepsi and Coke can more directly affect the speed with which the companies can get new products to customers. The first one out the door will command the shelf space, and if the product is a hit with consumers, will garner the lion’s share of the market for the new drink. The company that finishes second will be an also-ran.

And there’s just about nothing else the drink makers can do to juice up growth and profitability. At least there’s nothing else that carries a similar, low amount of risk. Introducing a new drink, though not exactly cheap, doesn’t cost as much as getting into a new line of business nor does it require the same investment in management and administrative talent and expense. After all, it’s just another bottle full of something that needs to be moved. Coke and Pepsi do know how to do that.

Pepsi is also admitting that it is willing to accept slower growth and, it anticipates, higher profit from sticking to its knitting. From an investor’s point of view, it should be a very safe play to put some money into Pepsi shares that promise a nice return over the longer haul.

The soft drink business is mature, and growth will come at the margins. Being able to execute better and more economically than your competitors will be the pay off. So far, Pepsi has stolen the march on Coke, but the two giants appear to be marching to the same drummer.

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