The Cola Wars: Pepsi vs Coke
PepsiCo. Incorporated and The Coca-Cola Company are the two largest and oldest archrivals in the carbonated soft drink (CSD) industry. Coca-Cola was invented and first marketed in 1886, followed by Pepsi Cola in 1898. Coca-Cola was named after the coca leaves and kola nuts John Pemberton used to make it, and Pepsi Cola after the beneficial effects its creator, Caleb Bradham, claimed it had on dyspepsia. The rivalry between the soda giants, also known as the "Cola Wars", began in the 1960’s when Coca-Cola's dominance was being increasingly challenged by Pepsi Cola. The competitive environment between the rivals was intense and well-publicized, forcing both companies to continuously establish and implement strategic variations as a means to create a competitive advantage. The competition fostered and stimulated continuing growth in an industry which many predicted in the early 1970’s to be on the verge of maturity. Reasons for the prediction arose from the fact that further growth of per capita consumption of soft drinks is fairly static regarding how much people are able to consume on a daily basis. Furthermore, both Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola offered a limited number of products that "looked the same, tasted the same, and bubble into foam the same", thus questioning whether further substantial growth in sales was possible.
Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola’s marketing strategies have been as indistinguishable as the products themselves. Relying on colorful images, lively words, beautiful people, interesting bottle designs, and contagious jingles, Pepsi and Coke propelled their respective products into the American and international mainstream. The changing faces of Pepsi and Coke’s management, however, facilitated the brand image according to their own style and what they saw as an advantageous competitive approach. This style and approach is what makes Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola distinguishable.
The objective of Coca-Cola’s advertisements was to strategically position their product in people’s mind in order to maximize its acceptance. This strategy would in some way or another have a correlation to the changing social values of the period. “Trying to keep step with each generation and era has been an important factor in advertising for Coke. It strives not to be too far behind or too far ahead of its time; the product has ...
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... strategies in order to increase their sales growth.
The rivalry between the two soda giants required new strategies to be continuously implemented. The new strategies devised by Pepsi and Coke to deal with the changing environment could not have been effectively implemented without changing their distribution system from networks of independent bottlers to company-owned bottling systems. This transformation has been essential to both companies' introduction of new products and new forms of pricing, promotion, and advertising. The U.S. Department of Justice has brought many price-fixing cases against CSD bottlers, the vast majority of which led to guilty pleas. The FTC has conducted many investigations in the CSD industry, including investigations of horizontal and vertical acquisitions in the industry.
Sources Cited
1. Enrico, Roger & Kornbluth, Jesse: (1986).The Other Guy Blinked. New York: The Free Press.
2. "Coke v Pepsi", The Economist, January 29, 1994, pp. 67-68.
3. http://www.pepsi.com
4. http://www.coca-cola/home1.com
5. PepsiCo. Inc. Annual Report Issued to Common Stock Shareholders
6. The Coca-Cola Company Annual Report Issued to Common Stock Shareholders
Delicious, sweet, refreshing: just some of the few words that are used to describe the taste of soft drinks. For over 125 years, one of the most iconic soft drink brands in the world has been the Coca-Cola Company. However, when an image as iconic as the Coca-Cola logo is reimagined and placed in a new situation, its entire meaning can change. In this case, by transforming the Coca-Cola logo, the message of the icon is shifted from the original intention to convey its relatively recent controversy with racial discrimination.
Coke continuously out-stands Pepsi, even though they share a very similar taste and colour, however Coke should not be the drink that receives all the love and attention for what it offers. Despite their similar soda colour, the drinks actually contain some different ingredients, which produce a different taste, and affect the body differently. Furthermore, the way the companies markets their drinks makes a huge contribution to how successful their products will become. The major element for success however stems from their impact on society and how the companies utilize their social power to evolve. The two major soda companies are constantly head to head with one another, yet it is what they do that sets them apart.
Branding a new company has recently become a necessary goal that every business wishes to accomplish for itself. New companies have a tough act to follow, considering the number of successful branding accomplishments: Apple, Coca Cola, Nike, and Starbucks — just a few of the examples of very successful business that have swept the market. Who doesn’t think of Apple, Coca Cola, or Starbucks, without also visualizing its brand? Apple has surpassed Microsoft, the latter having previously dominated the market for years. The reason is partly due to Apple’s highly successful branding strategy. The Coca Cola Company has also similarly surpassed Pepsi. Which brand is more recognizable? As a matter of fact, Coca Cola’s highly recognizable brand image has allowed it to conquer the U.S. carbonated beverage market, but they also have expanded their outreach to the international market, putting many local business around the world on the skids.
The Porter’s model of competitive advantage of nations is based on four key elements including factor endowments, demand conditions, related and supporting industries and firm strategy, structure and rivalry. This makes it suitable in understanding the competition existing in the soft drinks industry in the Asian markets. The factor conditions identify the natural resources, climate, location, and demographics. Coca cola and Pepsi enjoy the growing population in the Asian markets (Yoffie, 2002). A higher population guarantees the two companies adequate revenues. Other factors include communication infrastructure and availability of skilled workers. Most of the Asian countries are embracing new technologies that grow much knowledge of the diverse beverage drinks. Secondly, the demand conditions play a significant role in enhancing competitiveness for the firms. Both Coca cola and Pepsi are an
Together both PepsiCo and Coca Cola are both companies that are known around the world for their goods. For decades now, these companies have been competitive against each other to “do better than” the other one, what some would call the “cola wars”. They individually offer a assortment of soft drinks; regular, diet, caffeine free and many other options for the public to choose from. Both of the companies also have quite a few different entities (or off springs) of their company, such as bottled water, energy drinks, and juices. Individually both PepsiCo and Coca Cola; better known as Pepsi and Coke, have produced goods for every income bracket.
Development in the political arena would have been handled well if Coke would have evaded having to sell 49% of its equity by approving to start new bottling plants. The timing of entry into the Indian markets brought In terms of promotional activities, the advertising and giving away of free offers and vacations by Coca cola and Basmati rice by Pepsi, the coca cola’s goal in connecting the youth to the market, the different promotional TV campaigns in India using of celebrities, and the Pepsi sponsorship of cricket and soccer sports. In terms of pricing policies, Pepsi got a quicker market share by their belligerent pricing policies and coca cola’s 15-25% price cut down in the market. In terms of distribution arrangement, the bottling and packaging of products for better distribution around Also, to save and recycle the usage of water.
Coca-Cola was formulated by John S.Pemberton, originally as a cocawine called Pemberton's French Wine Coca, and originally sold as a patent medicine for five cents a glass at soda fountains, which were popular in America due to a contemporary view that soda water was good for your health. Coca-Cola is the trademarked name, registered in 1893, for a popular soft drink sold in stores, restaurants and vending machines around the world.
Known as the Golden Age, the 1950’s were an important time for the Coca Cola Company. Through their advertisement the Coke company depicts an enticing tone to persuade the audience to purchase
Bottling Network: Both Coke and PepsiCo have franchisee agreements with their existing bottler’s who have rights in a certain geographic area in perpetuity. These agreements prohibit bottler’s from taking on new competing brands for similar products. Also with the recent consolidation among the bottler’s and the backward integration with both Coke and Pepsi buying significant percent of bottling companies, it is very difficult for a firm entering to find bottler’s willing to distribute their product.
Pepsi and Coca-Cola are both sodas, but they differ in terms of the satisfying flavors, the color and the graphic design that represents their two products, and then how Coke makes more money than Pepsi. With that said, you should have gotten the ideology of what we will go further in discussing about. Everybody loves these two very well-known sodas which can inject caffeine into you, which makes you all jittery in filling you up with an energetic energy. Alright, enough of this, let's go straight in-depth in talking about the two rivals throughout this paper of how Pepsi beats Coke in sales, but Coke is usually ahead when it comes to annual net income (Feigin) or how Pepsi is a sweeter brand compared to Coke, though Coke brand is more valuable
A general picture of this advertising campaign will be given at first. After that, more details will be given by how that campaign has been presented, what the main message is from that campaign and who the intended audience is. Moreover, information will be given about how the media and other elements of the advertisement affect the whole advertising campaign to persuade customers. When “Joy of Pepsi” was replaced by “Pepsi: It’s the Cola” in 2003, this was a new advertising campaign with the most recognizable taglines of popular culture.
There are a variety of beverages available to us today with a wide range of differences, some are flavored, carbonated, low calorie, energy boosters, and just plain water. When it comes down to carbonated drinks there are two major rivalry soda companies dominating the market. Coca Cola and Pepsi are two well know cola distributors with very credible history, but the question still remains one is America’s favorite? With the ongoing competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, each company is incorporating new strategies for marketing and advertising there brands. When comparing an advertisement from each of the companies, we will review how they appeal to consumers.
Coca - Cola : Claims, Values and Polices Coca-Cola is a well-known and cherished brand name. When people think of this name, memories tend to overflow in their heads. Why do you need to be a member? Because, not only does Coke taste great and refresh your own personal memories, it also fills you with memories of the Coca-Cola like "Always Coca-Cola", the antics of the Coke polar bears, and all of the different ads that have represented Coke over the years. Just about every ad you see, as a consumer, has tons of hidden meanings.
Pepsi Cola beverage business was founded at turn of the century by Caleb Bradham a New Bern N.C druggist who formulated Pepsi Cola. Pepsi Cola Company now produces and markets nearly 200 refreshment beverages to retail, restaurants and food service customers in more then 190 countries and territories around the world and generates revenue of over 18 billion dollars. Although Pepsi holdings over the years have become diverse in such fields as the snack industry and restaurants industry this portfolio will discuss its core business and its highly successful business of beverages. The soft drink industry customer base is probably the widest and deepest base in a world that is flooded with some many categories. According to Beverage Digest the customer base for soft drinks is a whopping 95% of regular users in the United States. This represents a large field of potential customers for Pepsi Cola. Yet although Pepsi could just use the majority fallacy to market there product, Pepsi prefers to segment itself as the beverage choice of the “ New Generation”, Generation Next, or just as the “Pepsi Generation”. These terms adopted in Pepsi’s advertising campaigns are referring to the markets that marketers refer to as Generation X. The Generation X consumer is profiled to be between the ages of 18 to 29. They have high expectations in life and are very mobile and active. They adopt a lifestyle of living for today and not worrying about long term goals. Those Pepsi’s main emphasis on this segment they also have a focus on the 12 to 18 year old market. Pepsi believes if they can get this market to adopt their product then they could establish a loyal customer for life. Pepsi Cola is situated in an industry that is dominated by two competitors, Coca-Cola and of course themselves. Although Pepsi and Coke basically go after all consumers who purchase soft drink beverages Coca-Cola targets its products at the head of household. This is evident in many of the ad campaigns such as “Always Coca - Cola” which refers to the traditional beverage heritige of its product. They also reinforce this in the name “Coca-Cola Classic” which is inferring to the older consumer. This name reflects an image of value, reliabilty, and old time values. Pepsi Cola throughout its 100 years of existence has developed many strengths. One of the strengths that has developed Pepsi into such a large corporation is a strong franchise system.
The case study "Cola Wars Continue: Coke and Pepsi in the Twenty-First Century" focuses on describing Coke and Pepsi within the CSD industry by providing detailed statements about the companies’ accounts and strategies to increase their market share. Furthermore, the case also focuses on the Coke vs. Pepsi goods which target similar groups of costumers, and how these companies have had and still have great reputation and continue to take risks due to their high capital. This analysis of the Cola Wars Continue case study will focus mainly on the profitability of the industry by carefully considering and analyzing the below questions: