brand management assignment
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Brand Management AssignmentTRANSCRIPT
History
Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola has been in the cola wars for centuries now. It erupted 13
years after the birth of Coca Cola by pharmacist Caleb Bradham, when Pepsi Cola
was created. This made the two cola producers a direct competitor with one another.
Over the decades after the creation of the two colas’, Coca Cola continuously evolved
its brand and expanded to Europe while Pepsi was struggling to keep track as it
suffered from bankruptcy a couple of times due to the WWI. In the 50’s, both
companies were at their peak with advertising and expanding their business to other
countries. They had strategies to stay in the business competitively, both companies
embraced advertising platforms, celebrities endorsements, merging with other
companies; as Pepsi merged with Frito Lay in the 60s which created PepsiCo which
hauled a great revenue for Pepsi until today (Bhasin, 2013).
Firstly, to compare the branding strategies of these two household brands, it can be
compared and discussed using the five levels of meaning for a product.
The core benefit
Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola has the same core benefit for their products, which is to
quench the thirst of their consumers as well as selling a non-alcoholic soft drink. Core
benefit is the fundamental need or want that consumers satisfy by consuming the
product or service (Kotler/Keller 2012)
The generic product
A generic product is the basic version of the product containing only those attributes
or characteristics absolutely necessary for it’s functioning but with no distinguishing
features (Keller, 2012). Thus generically, both Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola are both soft
drinks.
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The expected product
The expected product is defined as a set of attributes or characteristics that buyers
normally expect and agree to when they purchase a product. When consumers get a
hold of a Pepsi Cola product, they are expecting the sweet, citrusy flavor burst (Lubin,
2012) and when other consumers grab a Coca Cola product they await the raisiny –
vanilla taste of the soft drink (Gladwell, 2012). The Coca Cola products are constantly
produced in a red background with the iconic Coca Cola writing. Conversely, Pepsi
products are packaged in a can with their blue writing.
Augmented Product
The Coca Cola products would also feature the label and nutritional facts of the
product. It also provides the contact details of the manufacturer and place of
manufacturing for after sales service purposes. Other additional information such as
the website domain is given for product support.
Pepsi Cola on the other hand may have some similarities to the coca cola product.
Pepsi Cola has a great customer support as they offer easy accessibility and fast
response as well as Pepsi Cola’s availability for contact if an issue occurs (Sheikh,
2002).
Potential product
Potential product is including all the augmentations and transformations that product
might ultimately undergo in the future (Keller, 2012).
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As for Coca Cola, they pledge to help their consumers be active and make informed
nutritional choices (Coca Cola Company, 2012). Coca Cola is offering array of
products that would be hydrating and fitting for their individual needs and lifestyle
that offers low and no calorie beverages and regular calorie beverages packaged in
smaller portions (Coca Cola Company, 2012). This solution was made to address the
global problem of obesity as reported by World Health Organization statistics. Coca
Cola believes that the impact of obesity on the health of the consumer affects the
health of their business thus they became more concerned with the public health. A lot
of researchers and health advocates blame the consumption of sugar-sweetened
beverages as the cause of obesity.
Pepsi Co is also affected by the global issue of obesity and is taking an initiative to
help curb the situation. Pepsi Co is looking at lowering their salt, sugar and saturated
fats that is in their food and beverage products. The company will also increase whole
grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and low-fat dairy incorporated in their food products.
They are also looking at being environmentally conscious, for example the fully
compostable chip bag that will decompose entirely in 14 weeks (PepsiCo).
Brand knowledge
Brand knowledge as explained as Kevin Keller, as the awareness of the brand name
and belief about the brand image (Keller, 1993). Branding is a potent element for a
product and between the two brands; Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola; the latter is seen as a
more valuable brand (Lubin, 2012). It can be deducted that brand knowledge is
important for the health of the company. The Coca Cola brand is worth $79 billion in
the year 2013 according to Interbrand in comparison of Pepsi Cola brand, which is
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only $17 million worth. Adding on, according to an article written in Interbrand titled
“Best Global Brands”, the brand awareness disseminated by Coca Cola is a powerful
spread as according to a survey by Research Now, the company scored 90% in brand
awareness among the respondents from various countries such as Canada, United
Kingdom, United States, Germany, France and also Australia. The company scored
big when they sold millions of beverages during Olympics London 2012, but they
scored a bigger win with a high return of global viewership. The event also allowed
Coca Cola to solidify a powerful association in the minds of billions of people around
the globe. The company has used this event to also show their strong presence as a
sponsor and also as a strong brand. A consumer from a different country can identify
a Coca Cola product, even though it’s in a foreign language and they may still
recognize the product immediately (Lauren, 2012). As for Pepsi Cola, their strategy to
heighten their brand awareness was with multiple projects under the name “Pepsi
Refresh Project” as well as bringing back the old Pepsi Challenge where a blind taste
test is conducted against Coca Cola. The favorable outcome for Pepsi Cola from these
tests is that the testers would always prefer Pepsi to Coca Cola. On a different point,
the availability of the two products worldwide could be a contributing factor to their
differences in brand awareness. Coca Cola is much more widely available than Pepsi
Cola. Coca Cola creates a sort of convenience for consumers for being widely
available thus getting the loyalty of the consumers. There is a higher demand for Coca
Cola than Pepsi thus the monopolization in restaurants are more favorable towards
Coca Cola. For example, McDonalds, Subway, Nando’s are all providing Coca Cola
as a beverage in comparison to KFC as one of Pepsi’s territory (Lin, 2012).
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According to an article by Design Council UK regarding ‘The Power of Branding’,
the brand association with Coca Cola and its product would be that the brand
promises their consumers the great same taste; with the original recipe which is
branded as The Real Thing, and also happiness, youthfulness, classic, energetic, and
refreshing. In comparison, Pepsi also associates themselves with these keywords; fun,
refreshing, youthfulness. Pepsi would appeal to the younger generation with the usage
of celebrity endorsers. A great list of famous celebrities such as Michael Jackson,
Britney Spears and most recently the singer Beyoncé as the brand’s endorsers was
used to gain vast attention from all ages of consumers (Johnson, 2011). The usage of
celebrities as endorsers of the brand adds to the brand image (Erdogan, 1999). Apart
from that, the visual for Coca Cola adds to the association of the product as the
familiar red and white colors of the brand as well as the iconic Coca Cola writing
complemented with the unique shape of the bottles represents the brand itself
The brand image helped the associations of this brand in the minds of their
consumer. Brand image is consumer’s perception about a brand as reflected by the
brand associations. As for Coca Cola, their logo is an iconic logo that has been
consistent throughout the years (Emily, 2013). Thus, when a consumer sees the brand,
they have the perception of devouring in a classic, great tasting soft drink that is
refreshing. Equally, Pepsi bears in mind that Coca Cola tries to be “timeless” so Pepsi
goes to be “timely” meaning they would be in the now, being a modern and edgy cola
brand (Colom, 2012). Therefore, consumers perceive the brand as the current and
younger brand to consume.
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Product Class Information
Product Category Information
Product Type Information
Brand Information
Product Category Hierarchy
Above is the product category hierarchy for the two brands. Both brands have the
same product class information which is both brands selling beverages. Categorically,
both brands are focused to selling flavored drinks more than water, although Coca
Cola has a mineral water branded as “Dasani”, Coca Cola’s company reels in most of
its revenue and market share with their soft drinks; Coca Cola and Diet Coke. Moving
on to the third level, the product type information groups the two brands under the
same category, which is non-alcoholic that reflects all of the products under the two
brands that offers non-alcoholic beverages. Finally, the lowest level is the level that is
regarding the brand information, which describes what are the types of product under
the brand.
Beverages
Water Flavored
Non-Alcoholic
Milk Hot Beverages
Juices Soft Drinks
Pepsi Cola Coca Cola
Alcoholic
Wine Beer
Distilled Spirits
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Brand Positioning
Ideally brand positioning is the act of designing the company’s offer and image so
that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the target consumer’s minds (Kotler and
Keller, 2006). It is also a way to delicately position the brands in the minds of
consumers so that they think of the brand in the right or desired manner, which will in
the end, maximize potential benefit to the company. The cola wars between the two
name brands has been started for centuries, they are well aware that they are in
competition with one another and at multiple occasions have directly compared
themselves publicly; The Pepsi Challenge. To distinguish themselves, they have
targeted different audiences, as Pepsi Cola has always had the younger generation in
mind. Their advertising and marketing strategies are fixed to target teens aged 14 or
even younger with a fun and most often interlaced with music. This is evident over
the years as Pepsi had musical celebrities like Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and
now Beyoncé (Vendredi, 2012). In contrast to Coca Cola, their target audience is
wider but ensuring the products pleases the generation Y as well as the older
generation. They achieve this by trying a fresher new image to reach the younger
generation but maintaining the originality of the cans and bottles as well as taste for
the older generation. Adding on, Coca Cola also targets diversifying their audience
and taking geographical aspects in high consideration as they target the world filled
with different cultures (Lyle, 2010). Coca Cola also positions themselves as a drink fit
for the entire family while in contrast Pepsi aims to reach the teens (Vendredi, 2012).
These brands position themselves also knowing their indirect and direct competitors.
Other cola beverages in the market are their direct competitors and between the two
they are the most competitive with each other. Indirect competitors are other produces
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of beverages such as juices, teas or coffee (Dixon, 2009). Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola
falls under the same product category, which is beverage, they however have some
similarities; points of parity and differences; point of differences. The potent
differences are the taste, ingredients as well as the branding between these two
brands. As mentioned before in this study, Pepsi Cola has a taste of citrust in the drink
while Coca Cola has a more raisin and vanilla in their product. The ingredients of
these products also can be differentiated as Pepsi has slightly more sugar, caffeine and
calories while Coca Cola has slightly more sodium (Lubin, 2012). Coca Cola is a
much fizzier drink due to its high percentage of carbonation in comparison to Pepsi
Cola. Other than that, according to an article written on Soft Drink Face Off website,
on the surface the product looks different with Coca Cola using the familiar red label
with the iconic Coca Cola writing and Pepsi with the blue, white and red stripes as the
background with a Pepsi writing (2013). Both brands also have different bottling
packaging, which each company has patented. For example Coca Cola’s iconic
contour shaped bottle that was patented in 1915. Not to mention the company of Pepsi
Cola does not only focus on beverages but has reaping in revenue from their flagship
food, mainly chips products. Despite the differences, vast consumers lean towards
Coca Cola more than Pepsi which can be concluded that Coca Cola’s branding is
much more valuable (Lubin, 2012). On another note, the similarities of these two
brands are that they have a wide variety of soft drinks beverages that enter the market
and of course the basic of the products being soft drinks. Other more straightforward
similarities are that they are both soft drinks and non-alcoholic that was created by
southern pharmacists. Other than that, both brands offer a product that has the same
core value that is to quench the thirsts of consumers with a cola carbonated drink.
Brand elements
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Brand elements are implemented to distinguish one brand from its competitors. It
consists of the brand names; what does it mean and why it was named that, its logos
and symbols, the URL it may use to help consumers get to the website of the brand,
the slogans the brands use to describe their product, packaging of its products,
characters that goes along with it as well as jingles. Starting with the Coca Cola
brand, it evokes images of the red Coca Cola logo with a red and white themed
advertising and packaging. The logo itself is distinctive enough to help consumers
identify the brand (Coca Cola UK). The name came about by the creator, Dr John
Stith Pemberton who decided that two c’s would be great on a label thus created the
brand name. In comparison to the typical look of the cans, the packaging of the
products can be better distinguished by their iconic contoured bottles. They also
introduced the six packs carriers to encourage people to bring their drinks home,
which was a huge success (Coca Cola UK). According to their website, Coca Cola
have used slogans as a part of their advertising or marketing purposes thus it has
changed over the years from 1886 to 2006. Their famous ones are from the year 2001
which Life Tastes Good, 1963; Things go better with Coke, 1969; it’s the Real Thing
and the recent one “The Coke Side of Life” (2012). A part of their advertising efforts,
a jingle was created to accompany most of their commercials and it became
synonymous with the brand as written on Wordlab website (2005). Adding on to their
brand elements, the URL for the company is easy enough to be retrieved by memory
as its just the brand name; www.cocacola.com. Other than that, it is evident in their
advertising that the polar bears are the characters they use in those advertisements or
billboard posters. The creator of the character, Ken Stewart wanted to depict a
character that is cute and innocent, fun and also reflects human attributes (2012).
Conversely, Pepsi brings an image of the predominantly blue colored Pepsi logo with
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its red, white and blue background that was a patriotic approach by the company
(Bhasin, 2013). Its brand name on the other hand, was a brainchild of the creator
Caleb Bradham, whom at first regarded the drink as “Brad’s drink”, he then named
the product something that had to do with the ingredient of the product; which was
Pepsin and Cola. Overtime the product was branded as Pepsi Cola as reported by the
website Pepsi Store. An article from Timetoast that was written regarding Pepsi’s
packaging and logo stated that, its logo has been the writing of Pepsi Cola which
underwent drastic facelifts over the years however today the logo are represented only
by the three colors of the brands which are the iconic blue, red and white (2013).
Adding on to the brand elements of Pepsi, the company also generates their slogans
that would give a younger feel and targets the younger generation. Their slogan “The
Pepsi Generation” and the year 2000 slogan, “For those who feel young” clearly
depicts their brand that attempts to attract more younger audiences (Mary, 2012).
Other than that, as reported by Giant Bomb, the mascot for Pepsi is the Pepsiman, a
well-known character in Japan that was created in 1990s. Another part to the brand
element of Pepsi would be its URL. The company uses www.pepsi.com as its main
website which a simple method of connecting the consumers to the brand. The same
as Coca Cola, both brands continue to create their own packaging. Over the years
Pepsi has patented their bottles, this goes for Coca Cola as well, and it has become
their distinguished differences that helps consumers identify the brands involved.
Adding on, Pepsi recently has created a bottle that could secure favorable aromas as
when the bottle or can is opened, it releases these favorable aromas to enhance the
drinking experience (Wagner, 2013).
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