Coke vs Pepsi
- zigszagsandpr
- May 22, 2017
- 2 min read
Now honestly, I wouldn't be a PR Student if I hadn't stumbled upon the big Coke vs Pepsi debate at some point in my studies. I didn't even take me that long, not even three months into my first year I was writing an essay on branding and it popped up and explains in one singular test the importance of branding.
Now this is something I've heard, and cannot firmly say it is fact, but apparently Coca Cola is the highest selling fizzy drink in all countries but Scotland (good ol' Scotland and their Iron Bru) and some other country I don't remember. Their brand is so huge that often people will refer to any type of 'cola' as Coke. Now Coke are one of those brands that focus on the experience as much as the product itself. Coke is about sharing with friends, it's about fun times in the sun (often with half naked lawn-mowing men), it's about polar bear families at Christmas. Beverage Digests did a survey that came out with the outcome that 17% of the American carbonated soft drinks industry was owned by Coke - followed by Diet Coke with 9.4%. This is insane amounts.
Brands often fluctuate in top brand and challenger. Take yourself back early 2010s when it was Apple and Blackberry fighting to be top dogs, whereas now it seems Google are the main contender against them. However, Coke and Pepsi have been fighting for that top place since the 70s and currently Pepsi is not winning and hasn't so since the 80s when Coke released their hated 'New Coke'. As hard as Pepsi has tried in the last few decades they just cannot take over. Their last ad, featuring Kendall Jenner, recieved so much backlash it had to be pulled.
In 1992, de Chertenatory and McDonald stated the results of the test which essentially compared preferences between Coke and Pepsi and again after a blind test. 42% more people chose Cola over Pepsi before being blind tested, where instead Pepsi was ahead by 7% whilst being blindfolded. This suggests that Cola may only have been so popular due to the branding. Brand awareness is essentially the consumer recognising a product due to PR. Often people can be blinded and fall into brand loyalty. Potentially the consumer is right, maybe the quality is better than the competitors or maybe it does taste nicer than the competitors, however brand loyalty is all based around perception and which brand the consumer thinks is the best. The relationship between consumers and the company is all based on trust, since most people are likely to trust people they have direct relationships with such as friends, brand loyalty can often be passed on from one consumer to another. Someone is much more likely to trust their friend saying Cola is better than Pepsi than Pepsico telling the consumer differently.
Comments