The Coke Pepsi Rivalry
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Case Details:
Case Code : MKTG002
Case Length : 9 Pages
Period : 1997-2001
Pub Date : 2001
Teaching Note : Available
Organization : Coca Cola India Ltd Pepsi India Ltd
Industry : Food, Beverages and Tobacco
Countries : India
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This case study was compiled from published sources, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion. It is not intended to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. Nor is it a primary information source.
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Excerpts
The Rivalry on Various Fronts
I -Bottling
Bottling was the biggest area of conflict between Pepsi and Coke. This was because, bottling operations held the key to distribution, an extremely important feature for soft-drink marketing. As the wars intensified, both companies took pains to maintain good relationships with bottlers, in order to avoid defections to the other camp...
II -Advertising
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When Coke re-entered India, it found Pepsi had already established itself in the soft drinks market. The global advertisement wars between the cola giants quickly spread to India as well.
Internationally, Pepsi had always been seen as the more aggressive and offensive of the two, and its advertisements the world over were believed to be more popular than Coke's.
It was rumored that at any given point of time, both the companies had their spies in the other camp. The advertising agencies of both the companies (Chaitra Leo Burnett for Coke and HTA for Pepsi) were also reported to have insiders in each other's offices who reported to their respective heads on a daily basis...
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III -Product Launches
Pepsi beat Coke in the Diet-Cola segment, as it managed to launch Diet Pepsi much before Coke could launch Diet Coke. After the Government gave clearance to the use of Aspertame and Acesulfame-K (potassium) in combination (ASK), for use in low-calorie soft drinks, Pepsi officials lost no time in rolling out Diet Pepsi at its Roha plant and sending it to retail outlets in Mumbai...
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IV -Poaching
Pepsi and Coke fought the war on a new turf in the late
1990s. In May 1998, Pepsi filed a petition against Coke alleging that Coke had
'entered into a conspiracy'to disrupt its business operations. Coke was accused
of luring away three of Pepsi's key sales personnel from Kanpur, going as far as
to offer Rs 10 lakh a year in pay and perks to one of them, almost five times
what Pepsi was paying him. Sales personnel who were earning Rs 48,000 per annum
were offered Rs 1.86 lakh a year. Many truck drivers in the Goa bottling plant
who were getting Rs 2,500 a month moved to Coke who gave them Rs 10,000 a month. |
While new recruits in the soft drinks industry averaged a pay hike of between 40-60% Coke had offered 300-400%. Coke, in its reply filed with the Delhi High Court, strongly denied the allegations and also asked for the charges to be dropped since Pepsi had not quantified any damages...
Excerpts
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