Pepsi vs Coke Brand Positioning
The brand, particularly through its commercials, creates intimacy with its consumers by evoking memories and experiences with the brand and their unique selling proposition “live the Coke side of life” is a prime example of this. It’s an invitation to live on the positive side of life, with Coke. It invites people to create their own positive reality and overall says, only Coke will do because essentially, Coke is happiness in a bottle. Importantly, from a global marketing perspective, it allows each country the opportunity to interpret their own moments of happiness and the brand’s role in those moments.
Pepsi’s new global brand positioning (announced this year) is reflected in their caption “Live for Now” which invites and inspires Pepsi fans to live each moment to the fullest through a breadth of global, pop-culture platforms, including relationships with music and entertainment brand evangelists, digital innovation, epic events and unique partnerships. This positioning enables the brand to pursue new partnerships with some of the world’s leading artists and entertainment properties.
Do you believe the global positioning is different from the positioning these brands are utilizing in your home country? If yes, please provide the positioning in your home country and explain why you think it is different. The global positioning of Coke and Pepsi is the same around the world by way of general theme and overall message, however, due to the differences in culture and society across the globe, the execution of the company’s respective positionings must be different for each of the markets that they serve.
As each country/region of the world is quite different, it is imperative that the message is tailored in a way that is relevant and best captures the target market. For example, the recent Coke advertisement in Australia depicts a group of friends playing around on a boat off the coast (presumably of Australia) which clearly taps into the Australian beach culture. This message of joy and happiness is still carried but it’s made more relevant to the particular market which it is serving by the way in which the message is constructed and contextualised.
The Interbrand report indicates that the Coke brand is much more valuable as an asset than the Pepsi brand. Please explain why you believe this is true, being sure to comment on: Strength of positioning – Coke has positioned itself more emotively than Pepsi as is evident in many of Coke‘s advertisements over the years which moreso depict the human experience through a strong emphasis on families and the community.
Key points of parity and points of difference – both emotive in their message, but different in that Coke really taps into the general consumer’s with the brand, whereas Pepsi I believe is more targeted (particularly to the youth market) and has the image of being high-energy and action-oriented, and I think a large part of their target audience associate themselves with the brand because of that image. They are similar in that both brands consider themselves to be bold and refreshing.
Whether any of these points of difference are competitive advantages – Coke’s positioning, with its strong association to feelings of joy and happiness, I believe gives it a competitive advantage in that these feelings and positive connections with happiness give it timeless appeal, whereas Pepsi seems to be more in-the-moment and almost “timely” by comparison. Coke, I feel, represents a state of permanent happiness whereas Pepsi is all about excitement, which we all know, is an emotion that is often fleeting. This position of happiness/longevity, I believe, is more attractive to consumers. . Line extension strategy Having a strong brand that consumers are loyal to allows an organization to extend its line of products and bring to market new products more easily.
If Coke’s brand is stronger and better positioned (which I believe it is), then by extension, it will be of greater value since the introduction of new products can more easily be made, and therefore, new revenue streams open up for the company. There are, of course, risks associated with line extension, however if managed well, leveraging an existing brand can be of enormous financial benefit to a company. . International presence – I think Coke’s broader appeal to such human states as joy and happiness allows the brand to resonate more strongly across cultures whereas Pepsi, with its greater reliance on pop-culture and entertainment artists makes it more restricted in its global reach. Clearly, Michael Jackson will have less appeal in a developing country than in the United States, however Coke’s association with feelings of joy, family and life more generally can, as a message, be more easily carried across borders and into countries.
