Case Coke and Pepsi Learn to Compete in India

Despite this India is still a complicated place for foreign investors. A weak parliamentary government has very little purview over the provincial and local ministers who were elected entirely separate from federal elections. The fragmented nature of the country’s political system has and will continue to prevent major

Attracting foreign capital (Indian government encouraged foreign investment) for new ventures. Foreign investors feel more comfortable working with a reputable party. Appendix 7 provides evidence of this (e.g. ventures with IBM, AT&T, Bell Canada).

1. The political environment in India has proven to be critical to company performance for both PepsiCo and Coca- Cola India. What specific aspects of the political environment have played key roles? Could these effects have been anticipated prior to market entry? If not, could developments in the political arena have been handled better by each company?

Coca Cola and Pepsi are the brands with the highest brand equities. Both, Coca Cola and Pepsi have gone through the highs and lows of their business to reach that position. Coca Cola’s marketing has been changing over time with more and more products being added every day, while Pepsi has implemented several smart marketing strategies to improve its turnover and profits. So, let’s see what were the marketing strategies implemented by Coca Cola and Pepsi.

Finally, we have to wonder how the Liability of Foreigners would affect the company. Even though we do not have any direct reference on the culture and political situation, we can assume that they are a lot different to what the company is used in its own country. Therefore, and even though the recommendation is to enter India finding a partner that can help them understanding the culture, distribution channels and help them dealing with the Indian bureaucracy, the LOF variables should be taking into account to help the company minimize the failure risk of succeeding in India.

2. What is the risk to Coca-Cola’s reputation in using too much water and producing waste water?

In an industry dominated by two heavyweight contenders, Coke and Pepsi, in fact, between 1996 and 2004 per capita consumption of carbonated soft drinks (CSD) remained between 52 to 54 gallons per year. Consumption grew by an average of 3% per year over the next three decades. Fueling this growth were the increasing availability of CSD, the introduction of diet and flavored varieties, and brand extensions. There is couple of reasons why the industry is so profitable such as market share, availability and diversity and brand name and world class marketing.

3.How did the company react to the changes in the business environment after the liberalization of the Indian economy in the early 1990s? Critically comment on the allegations that Pepsi deliberately did not adhere to most of

I think if Coca-Cola would have responded this way they wouldn’t have lost as many sales as they did. Coca-Cola also said that if you target a MNC you are going to get more publicity and more attention from other consumers. Coca-Cola just should have ensured everyone that they were going to test the water and fix the product immediately so they would not lose any sales. Pesticides may be in everything in India, but this is not something a MNC should be bringing up. The only business of matter is that their company is being targeted and they need to fix the problem as soon as they could.

Coca-cola boasts of being the world’s largest beverage company serving approximately one billion customers daily. The most dominant products distributed by Coca-cola are Coke, Fanta, Sprite and Diet Coke. This strategy is aimed at ensuring that every customer gets satisfied whenever they use a Coca-cola brand. Coca-cola has large distributions across the globe making it the largest distributor in the world. The late Roberto Goizueta termed Coca-cola to be an American company with large international business and a sizeable American business (Ferrell, 2008). This has helped a lot with brand selling as it is the most recognized brand in the whole world. “Coca-Cola has the most valuable brand name in the world and, as one of the most visible companies worldwide, has a tremendous opportunity to excel in all dimensions of business performance” (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2008). Coca-cola, however, has not been smoothly running over the decades in operation. It has on numerous occasions been criticized for overlooking some ethical standards that it should have rather upheld. This essay aims at looking into some of the issues facing Coca-cola, the most significant of them, how they were resolved and how Coca-cola should have solved them.

In this memo, we will examine comprehensive research on some of the ethical issues that occurred as Pepsi published a commercial that harmed many people. Further, we will discuss how it had a substantial impact on a variety of stakeholders. The issue that occurred was regarding the “black lives matter” and how Pepsi did not take the issues that it still going on in our society into account.

“A Coke is a Coke, and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same, and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."(Andy Warhol, 1975) Regardless of its corporate reputation, the organizational performance and its social responsibility of Coca-Cola makes it loved around the world. Ever since its creation in 1886 Coca-Cola has been a household brand known globally for generations of families. I have to mention, of all the cases researched this is my least favorite not only because of my childhood love for the product because the ethical issues in one way or another always manage to resolve themselves not before further tainting the reputation Coke worked so hard to obtain. Most times, whether an organization is innocent of an unethical act, it becomes secondary to the suspicion of the original act. Almost as if the court of public opinion has the power to ruin the reputation of an organization based on an unfounded accusation. In spite of my loyalty after having ready the case, I do believe Coca-Cola to be flawed. The contamination scare in Belgium is a great example of a public relations nightmare. The slightest hint of impurity should have pushed Coca Cola into crisis management mode but they were slow to react, citing it a minor issue (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, (2011). It was not until local officials

Despite being a billion dollar 125 year company that is a household name around the world, Coca-Cola has had to cope with unexpected situations and variation of positioning based upon the main competitions movements, Pepsi. According to Trout and Reis, (2001, p. 10) “Truth is irrelevant. What matters are the perceptions that exist in the mind.” This is a thinking process called outside-in

All these rumors about Coca-Cola of course damaged the image of the company very much and caused many problems. Sales were going down each year. More and more people didn’t trust Coca-Cola anymore.

1.) Why do companies like Pepsi need to globalize? What are the various ways in which foreign companies can enter a foreign market? What hurdles and problems did Pepsi Face when it tried to enter India during the 1980s?