Coke & Pepsi Case Analysis

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, two international soft-drink giants, control a majority of the soft-drinks beverages business and have competed with each other for over a century. Sometimes consumers get lost in the vast sea of choices in this kind of fierce competitive environment and are unable to differentiate one product from another. Advertising seems to be a way out because “the role of advertising and other forms of promotion may be to induce trial, so consumers can develop brand preferences primarily on the basis of their direct experience with the product“ (Belch, P166).

Though to a degree, the two have always been similar in their “fun and young” personalities, they have consistently stayed on separate paths over the decades. On the whole, Coca-Cola tends to be more brand-focused and can be seen constantly gravitating towards the emotional side of branding to build its long-term value. On the other hand, Pepsi tends to be more product-focused and has stuck with its high energy, music entertainers, and comedy-driven strategy to increase its sales.

Coca-Cola is one of the world's biggest beverage companies, controlling more than half the global market in carbonated soft drinks and non-carbonated segment. Since Coca-Cola was introduced in the US market before PepsiCo, the first move advantage enables Coca-Cola to place itself as the all American choice. Typically, Coca-Cola advertising portrays human experience in two primary ways. First, long before global branding was the trend, Coca-Cola was embracing diversity. This is clearly shown in the campaign “Hilltop” depicting people from all over the world joining together. When Coca-Cola ads are not targeting worldwide diversity, they still possess a strong sense of community and overcoming differences and hardship through universal similarities such as happiness and sharing. The second way that Coke has leveraged the human experience is through the strong emphasis on families. While Pepsi ads always targeted the...