Edwin Loeffler, Jessica Canaday, Mackenzie Damm, Cindy Berrios
BRM/353
September 8, 2014
Bridget Peaco
Brand Comparison Paper
Introduction
Pepsi Co. and Coca-Cola have been in business for a long time and both are largely successful companies in the beverage industry. They both have different brand components in comparison. A few of the different comparisons would be pricing, quality, packaging, logos, brand equity and features. In the following paper we will discuss these items in detail to see how different these two brands are. Pricing Strategies
Looking at the pricing strategies of PepsiCo and Coca-Cola they are taking two very different plans. The products they sell are similar with variations in taste and the brand war in the soda market has been to out discount your competitor to gain market share. The issue with giving deep discounts is that your digging into profits which could cause both long-term and short-term issues.
Pepsi has realized the short-term strategy of deeply discounting products over its brand portfolio is not a sustainable business model for the long-term business needs. PepsiCo has changed its view from the short term to the long term and was in a transition in 2013 that slowly saw the company stop offering discounts but switch to a hybrid everyday value strategy. The hybrid strategy closes the gap of holiday price points and its regular price point to provide a better value for the customer very day and not just wait for sales to purchase the product (“Reuters”, 2013).
Coke on the other had is still out performing PepsiCo and other competitors even in 2014 so their outlook is different. The large reason for their performance is the heavy discount strategy that is continuing to be implemented. While it is successful in the short-term it leaves the soda giant open for long-term financial issues (Cooper, 2014).
Comparing the two while Coca-Cola is winning the short-term war currently PepsiCo
References: Reuters. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/22/pepsico-pricing-idUSL2N0E32L020130522 Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity (3rd ed.) L. K. Keller Prentice Hall, 2008 Upper Saddle River, NJ http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-11-11/news/43930097_1_pepsico-india-brand-equity brand- positioning Coca Cola Journey. (2012, January 1). A History of Coca-Cola Advertising Slogans. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-slogans G&M Distributors, Inc.