Coke Gains on Pepsi in Pakistan

COKE GAINS ON PEPSI IN PAKISTAN:

15 BOTTLES PER PERSON AND COUNTING

I never thought the battle of the soft drink carried outside of the United States. The biggest market share for both Coke and Pepsi certainly exists in the United States, and, fortunately for both of them, consumers are very loyal to those individual brands. I am one of those consumers. I love Pepsi --always have, and always will. I never drink Coke. I always said if I was stranded on a deserted island, all I would need to survive would be Pepsi and nacho cheese Doritos….

However, a regular soda war is going on in Pakistan, where Pepsi has held the biggest market share for years. Pepsi become affiliated with Pakistan's most popular cricket team in order to get their branding more well known. Coke, on the other hand and now wanting to gain their share of the market place, is trying something different - creating an MTV-like show called "Coke Studio", which "fuses traditional and Western style [music], allowing artists to reinvent old songs, such as by bringing a sitar player into a rock band. The "Coke Studio" Facebook site has almost 250,000 fans." This allows Coke to reach out to the younger generation by giving them something that is focused totally on their likes and lifestyles, and hopefully will then result in an increase in Coke consumption by the youth of Pakistan.

This article is important to marketing management because it points out that companies are willing to take chances on a part of the world that is more known for terrorism than what type of soft drink is popular. Both companies, Coke and Pepsi, have used different marketing plans to gain their respective market shares, and, both appear to be happy with the results. I believe this article brings to light how both companies are achieving their goals, and, the creative means with which they are accomplishing them.

This article discusses several current marketing trends. For example, Coke is reaching...