Pepsi vs Coke Brand Positioning

Week 5 Branding and Positioning Reading * Articles Please be original to read all articles and view all videos listed. They are short but insightful. 1. Inter taint Names 100 Best Global Brands http//www. marketingpilgrim. com/2010/09/inter stain-names-100-best-world(a)- sends. html 2. What P&G Taught Me About Brands http//maxbrandequity. com/Documents/What%20PG%20taught%20me%20about%20Brands. pdf 3. The Power of Brand Equity http//www. cerebrateingleaders. om/archives/964 Questions Write what you believe are the current global brand offices for Coke and Pepsi (the brands, not the companies)? Few separate companies in the world have been able to construct and manage their brands as well as these companies. Much of the successful of these companies can be attributed to way in which they have managed their soft drink brands. Coke has positioned itself as an integral, crucial disunite of peoples everyday lives.The brand, particularly through its commercials, creates intimacy wit h its consumers by evoking memories and experiences with the brand and their unique selling proposition live the Coke font of life is a prime example of this. Its 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 brands role in those moments.Pepsis new global brand pose (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- last platforms, including relationships with music and frolic brand evangelists, digital innovation, epic events and unique partnerships. This positioning enables the brand to pursue new partnerships with some of the worlds leading artists and entertainm ent 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 oecumenic theme and overall message, only due to the differences in culture and society across the globe, the execution of the companys respective positionings must be different for each of the markets that they serve.As each country/region of the world is quite an 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 congregation 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 unbosom carried but its made more relevan t 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 a. Strength of positioning Coke has positioned itself more emotively than Pepsi as is evident in many of Cokes advertisements over the years which moreso depict the human experience through a strong emphasis on families and the community. b.Key points of parity and points of difference both emotive in their message, but different in that Coke really taps into the general consumers happy experience 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 consi der themselves to be bold and refreshing. c.Whether any of these points of difference are agonistic advantages Cokes 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 interminable 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 frequently 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 comprehend its line of products and bring to market new products more easily.If Cokes 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 Cokes 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 linked States, however Cokes association with feelings of joy, family and life more generally can, as a message, be more easily carried across borders and into countries.