MCM265PrinciplesofAdvertisingAUSFall2014FinalPaperCokev.s.Pepsi

Sabrina Marie Andersong00058537MCM 265 MW 2pm-3:15pmProfessor Mustafa Taha

MCM 265 Final paperCoca Cola vs. Pepsi: “The Cola Wars”

The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo are among the most popular American-

based multinational soft drink manufacturer companies in The United States and also

the entire world. These two companies have created a war of competition that is the

longest noticed battle in the history of capitalism, which has crossed all borders and

cultures. In addition, the two companies have existed for roughly a century,

respectively. Both companies are well-known and have many employees and

consumers. However, their continuous struggle to be #1 still exists today. The effects of

this cause have left the world divided in nations, celebrities, and consumers. For

example, restaurants serve either Coke products or Pepsi Products, leading consumers

to conform with what is available to them, which then changes consumer behavior.

In this essay, I will explore the virtual PR of the two local companies in the USA,

The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo. Using each company's website I will examine the

strengths and weaknesses, and do a critical appraisal in which I will focus on Media

relations, Consumer relations, and Community relations. Finally, I will compare and

contrast the two companies’ online PR presence and activities.

First I will introduce greater detail about PepsiCo. Established in 1919 as Pepsi-

Cola, after merging with Frito-Lay, the name PepsiCo was created in 1965 in Purchase,

New York, United States of America. PepsiCo manufacturers an array of a product mix of

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many different brands of soft drinks and snacks which all are grain-based products. In

addition to their iconic soft drink Pepsi, the PepsiCo company manufactures brands

including Mountain Dew, Lay’s, Gatorade, Tropicana, 7 Up, Doritos, Lipton Foods,

Quaker Oats, Sierra Mist, Cheetos, and Aquafina to name only a few. PepsiCo also

strives to attain Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by promoting recycling, green

packaging, lower energy usage, nutrition, healthy lifestyle, and child-friendly

ingredients.

PepsiCo’s mission for marketing effectiveness has led them to focus on celebrity

endorsements to choose and advertise PepsiCo products over Coca-Cola products. Some

celebrities who have promoted Pepsi include Tina Turner, Britney Spears, Beyoncé

Knowles, Amr Diab, Pink, Enrique Iglesias, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Elvis Presley,

Michael Jackson, Lionel Messi, Mohamed Kekhia, Madonna, Spice Girls, Shakira, Ray

Charles, and Nicki Minaj.

Now I will examine PepsiCo’s website at (http://www.pepsico.com/). PepsiCo’s

website is simply designed in blue grey and white neutral tones with only simple tabs

named, “Who We Are” “What We Believe” “Brands You Love” “Newsroom” and

“Investors.” Then there is a scrolling window with top stories about sustainability and

health topics. The website is designed to be a sort of blog that promotes global

citizenship, innovative products, and advertise brands that PepsiCo manufacturers.

Finally, down at the bottom there are links to their Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and

Pinterest Accounts.

The strengths in PepsiCo’s website are that it is aesthetically pleasing to look at

neutral tones and soft colors, rather than bright and hurried colors like red and green. I

do feel an inviting atmosphere on the PepsiCo website. Also, the advertisement slogans

mostly read with words like “nutrition” “generous” “trust” “love” which are all values

noted by basic humanity. The advertisements design on the website are unlike other

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advertisements because they’re subtle and have a psychological effect. For example, the

advertisements show people in their homes enjoying family time with Pepsi products in

their hands, while smiling, and laughing. It looks like a very normal situation that

everyone has already experienced in their lives.

The weaknesses of the PepsiCo website are that it is missing some excitement

and can get quite boring. There is no relativity to current trends or anything that shows

that people are working very hard to keep competitors out of their way. I could not tell

the difference if this was a cheerios website or anything rather because it is not

expressively spirited that it is the PepsiCo Company. There could be a lot more work

done in the website. There should be something there that can excite people about

Pepsi, like adding more logos relative to the brand. They can use the deep blue color.

Now I will discuss PepsiCo’s Media Relations. PepsiCo’s presence is on Twitter,

Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. On Twitter, PepsiCo’s activities

include introducing new products and partners and showing their accomplishments over

two decades. On Instagram, PepsiCo has an account for one of their soft drink brands,

Sierra Mist. On YouTube, PepsiCo is advertising a healthy breakfast that an NFL Football

player prefers to eat, which is their brand on Quaker Oats Oatmeal. On Facebook,

PepsiCo is posting about tips on a healthy lifestyle and their efforts in sustainability for

the world, with use of solar energy panels to fuel their manufacturing facilities.

These kinds of posts make the people who are “going-green” very happy. PepsiCo

is definitely acknowledges the necessity of taking care of the earth we all live in. This

creates a strong Consumer Relation with PepsiCo because people want to make sure

that they are funding a reliable and healthy purpose when they purchase from

companies. People like to trust that their money is not going to support unethical

behaviors and decisions, like war or political issues. PepsiCo is successful in creating

long-term relationships with its consumers.

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As part of their Corporate Social Responsibility, PepsiCo has a very strong

Community Relations department that focuses on keeping their products under healthy

standards, healthy and clean environment, and to encourage and support education.

PepsiCo has to follow certain guidelines to meet the health standards. These standards

are determined by The Food and Drug Administration for assurance of security,

nutrition, and balanced lifestyle.

To keep the environment clean, PepsiCo uses solar panels to energize their

factories, and practice water conservation. The way that PepsiCo supports education is

by giving women empowerment training sessions. PepsiCo also donates funds to

numerous organizations including Save the Children Foundation, World Food Program

USA, Safe Water Network, and even created the PepsiCo Foundation to aid numerous

other foundations. This kind of support helps the company’s image to appear to be an

ethical decision making company. People who value these causes are way much more

likely to invest in and become a customer to the company.

Next, I will introduce PepsiCo’s fiercest competitor in the soft-drink market, The

Coca-Cola Company. Founded in 1886 in Georgia, Coca-Cola is a strategically formulated

syrup based soft drink that has become the staple American household icon. Today,

Coca-Cola is a franchised company that sells sugary syrup to bottlers. Brands that The

Coca-Cola Company own are Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, Dasani, Diet Coke, Fanta,

Glaceau Vitamin Water, Minute Maid, Odwalla, Powerade, Sprite, and Simply. As noted,

The Coca-Cola Company has much less product mix than PepsiCo. However, Coca-Cola

has repeatedly been recognized as the number one global brand in the beverage

category. My mission is to discover why they have succeeded much more greatly than

PepsiCo. In the Middle East however, Coca-Cola is not the number one selling soft-drink.

Still, Coca-Cola holds 25% of the market share in the industry worldwide. Coca-Cola is a

public company, meaning that investors buy stock and is traded as Dow Jones Industrial

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Average Component and S&P 500 Component. Participating in investments stocks

allows for a company to get worldwide exposure and financial support, which is a form

of capitalizing itself.

In order to market competitively and reach many audiences, The Coca-Cola

Company has utilized marketing method is mainly “family-friendly” with childhood polar

bear mascot and Santa Claus during Christmas. Parents accept the honest appearance of

the Coca-Cola Company that they began to serve the products in their households. In

the meantime, restaurants adopted Coca-Cola products into their menus and would

serve strictly only Coca-Cola products. Fierce marketing skills has landed Coca-Cola a

leading position in all of advertising history. Coca-Cola has also utilized famous celebrity

endorsements to advertise their soft drinks by having some of the most recognized

figures; Paula Abdul, Christina Aguilera, Bill Cosby, Elton John, Whitney Houston, and

Taylor Swift y. This is how people rapidly evolved to love the Coca-Cola brand, by doing

what others were doing where it was culturally acceptable.

Now I will examine The Coca-Cola Company’s website at (http://www.coca-

colacompany.com/). First I noticed was the bright red, black, and grey colors that make

me understand that they are resembling the Coca-Cola Logo purposely. These are the

colors that Coca-Cola uses for their logos and product design most of the time. For

example, the Coke can is usually red with grey writing unless it is seasonally designed

with another print of colors and figures. The labels read, “Brands” “Videos”

“Sustainability” “Innovation” “history.” It is also designed to be like a blog which

features recent topics related to Coca-Cola centered topics like, “Is your name on a Coke

Bottle?” and “5 Things You Never Knew About Coca-Cola And Santa Claus.” One

interesting aspect of the website is that they feature selfies from people who submit

their photo with a Coke can moment. This is a nice way to build consumer relations,

which brings me to the next important point.

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The Coca-Cola Company’s Consumer Relations has some controversial issues. In

2012, The Coca-Cola Company participated in a campaign which opposed the

Proposition 37 initiative. This proposition was made in a citizen’s request to know all of

the ingredients in genetically modified foods. The Food & Drug Administration now

demands labeling participation from all food and drug manufacturers, simply for the

safety of the people. The Coca-Cola Company contributed $1,700,500 to “The Coalition

against the Costly Food Labeling Proposition, sponsored by Farmers and Food

Producers.” This act on behalf of the Coca-Cola Company damaged consumer relations

because of the controversy. People saw it unfair that The Coca-Cola Company was more

interested in saving money than protecting the health of the community. This led to

boycott against capitalism.

The Coca-Cola Company is proudly present on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,

YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, and Google+. They even have the number of likes and

followers under each social media channel. This shows that they are a very likable and

up-to-date company. In this digital age, it is inevitable to connect with customers

through internet and social media. The Coca-Cola Company clearly has been very

successful in reaching the public through these various Media Relation channels. They

show unique pictures of Coca-Cola motorhomes, things that are very out of the ordinary

and pop cultured. That’s one of the main highlights of this website; that Coca-Cola

shows interest in researching what are the newest popular topics and what people are

looking at on the internet. They definitely know how to catch a reader’s attention.

As for the Community Relations, Coca-Cola focuses on six main topics in

sustainability; women, water, and well-being, sustainable packaging, climate protection,

and human workplace rights. These are core values that most of society can agree that

need supplemental protection and attention. Another community relation that Coca-

Cola participates in is innovation, similarly to its rival PepsiCo. On the innovation page, I

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see words like, “Refresh” “Inspire” “Create” and “Cultivate.” These are powerful words

for the enhancement of the website. Communities appreciate such incorporations

because they make a strong personal connection with the interests and tendencies of

everyday people. At The Coca-Cola Company, they realize that they cannot have a

strong growing business unless the communities that they serve are healthy and

sustainable. That is why there was a need to create The Coca-Cola Foundation where a

variety of initiatives, programs, and events are held in support of the important causes

mentioned above.

Now I will compare and contrast the two companies, The Coca-Cola Company

and PepsiCo’s online PR presence and activities. PepsiCo’s presence online and in social

media seems to be mostly focused on world issues, lifestyle, health and balanced

nutrition. They seem to research about important news topics and the value of living a

healthy lifestyle. They are not so interested in being the trendiest company, rather they

are trying to bring attention to what it important in the long run. This helps a consumer

believe that a company is in efforts to protect them from unnecessary health risks and

diseases.

On the other hand, in a more negative sense, Coca Cola is more self-centered and

mostly writes articles about themselves. The Coca-Cola Company is more interested in

being the trendsetting kind of company, attracting masses of followers and fiercely

competing with the surrounding companies. This is obvious because they show how

many likes they have collected on various websites of social media, and feature picture

submissions of people with their Coke cans. The company also features topics that are

irrelevant to everyday life, like a horse drinking a Coke, or a motorhome designed as a

Coke bottle. People are naturally attracted to unique visuals and ideas. I think this is

what defines Coke to be such an independent and noticeable company. They take the

lead in setting trends, pursuing popular culture, and doing artistic things.

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The similarities between The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo Company are that

they use some of the same words on their websites that trigger signals of care and

pursuance of healthiness, and sustainability. Both companies are trying to be more eco-

friendly, meaning using lower energy emissions, recycled packaging, and less water

consumption. Both companies strive to attain Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

In my opinion, The Coca-Cola Company is more effective in social media because

it sparks interest in consumers’ minds and designs its advertisements and marketing

channels to be at a competitive advantage over PepsiCo. In the meantime, besides the

playful characteristics of Coca-Cola, they still have an ethical aspect where they practice

sustainability and donate funds to worldly causes. PepsiCo mostly only demonstrates

their care for the world and keeping it safe and livable.

It is in human nature to be attracted to dramatic news, colors, uniqueness, and

innovative topics. Coca-Cola strongly delivers each one of these characteristics. That is

why I believe Coca-Cola is a more effective company in all of the three aspects of Public

Relations. They are Media Relations, Consumer Relations, and Community Relations.

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MCM265PrinciplesofAdvertisingAUSFall2014FinalPaperCokev.s.Pepsi

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