Why Coca Cola beats Pepsi in spite of Pepsi winning blind taste tests?
Which cola is better, Coke or Pepsi, is a quintessential question. You will find die-hard cola fans who will vouch for their respective favored brands with their life. Keeping the hardcore fans aside, however, it is clear that Coca Cola has emerged as a clear winner in the infamous cola wars. Multiple blind taste tests show that customers choose Pepsi consistently over Coca Cola. So, why do customers prefer Coke over Pepsi? A simple answer to this question would be the branding coup Coke has managed over decades of its beverage marketing. That said, let us try to dive a bit deeper into the Coca Cola phenomenon.
During the 80’s, Pepsi came up with a genius marketing strategy. Based on independent tests that consistently showed customers pick Pepsi over Coke in blind taste tests, Pepsi aired multiple commercials directly taking a dig at Coke. This marketing campaign was so successful that Pepsi was outselling Coke at supermarkets by 1983. As a result, after performing its own ‘blind tests’, Coke came up with one of its greatest branding faux pax called ‘New Coke’.
Such was the backlash to ‘New Coke’, that Coca Cola gradually phased out the ‘New Coke’ and slowly reverted back to the same old ‘Coke’ as ‘Coca Cola Classic’. What is dumbfounding here is that customers rejected the ‘New Coke’ that passed blind taste tests. Coca Cola had to, ultimately, revert back to the same old Coke that was continually bested by Pepsi in the blind taste tests. So, what makes Coca Cola a better beverage, if it is not better in terms of taste? Successful branding, of course!!
Advertising Jingles
There is no denying that Coca Cola has some of the best advertising jingles. Even in Nepal’s case, who wouldn’t remember ‘ Chiso vanekai Coca Cola’ or ‘ Khaja j hola, chaincha Coca Cola’? Similarly, during the heydays of the cola wars, it was Coke who came up with the better jingles. During the second World War, Coke used to be sold at a nickel per bottle. ‘Nickle Coke’ became so popular, that the term became synonymous with Cola beverages in America.
Retaining brand loyalty
Like mentioned above, Coca Cola won the initial Cola wars due to its successful branding and advertising. However, the fact that the brand has managed to retain its brand loyalty for decades proves why strong branding is of utmost importance. If we forget the ‘New Coke’ fiasco, Coke has centered its brand around the same themes for decades. Coke bottles still feature the same iconinc logo and design. In fact, in order to retain its customers, Coke kept the same price for more than 70 years in America. Around the world, Coke continues to associate itself with sharing and happiness. Just have a look at some of the Cola’s ‘joy inducing’ ads.
If you take a close look at Coke’s commercials, it is mostly centered around abstract concept of sharing and happiness, not the virtues or taste of the product itself. Coke has become successful selling happiness, feeling of community and sharing as a product not the actual product. This has helped Coke maintain its stronghold on the beverage market in spite of Pepsi being the perpetual ‘first challenger’. When it comes to celebrity endorsements, Pepsi slightly edges out Coke.
The Coke vs Pepsi war should be taken as a classic case study by Nepalese brands. Nepalese brands often rely on overexposed celebrities with ridiculous, repetitive and redundant characters to brand their products through advertisements. While celebrity endorsements can help reach one’s product to customers, Coke vs Pepsi’s case proves that brand loyalty cannot be simply bought by flashing big celebrities on your products. Also, we are tired of repeating this here at BrandGuff, but Nepalese branding and marketing agencies, and advertisers need to up their game. While Nepalese advertising industry has created some classic ads in the past, most ads today seem to be, to put it softly, lazy. The script sounds like a Nepali movie dialogue from the 90s, overexposed celebrities act out the same tried and tested characters from some serials. While brands like Coca Cola continue to reinvent the advertising sector through creative campaigns like ‘hug machines’, we are still blowing balloons to advertise our products.
