Marketing Pepsi

. Introduction

For many years now, the cola soft drink market is led by the Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo Inc. Besides the cola market, they have expanded their businesses to the other soft drink markets as well and achieved oligopoly positions with tremendous market shares in all of these markets. Different other brands and new companies have tried to successfully enter the cola market and other soft drink markets (f.e. Freeway Cola and Cherry Coke), but none of them was able to achieve a good market share and survive in this oligopolistic environment. Our company, Fei Fei Company, therefore sees a big challenge in trying to enter the cola market successfully. That is why we have chosen cola as our product category.

This report will discuss the introduction of our new product, Fei Fei Cola, in the European and Asian markets. It is a new kind of cola with the addition of oriental flavors, which will give a kind of "eastern" touch to our cola. We think that consumers feel a need for innovation in the cola market, which we want to satisfy with our new cola. Through the use of different consumer behavior concepts, we will try to explain why we think our product will or can be a success.

First, we will discuss the consumers' needs and motivations with regard to cola soft drinks. We will identify why people buy cola and for what reasons. After that, we will discuss the two main competitors in our market, so the Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo Inc., and their marketing strategies to reach customers. Based on the needs and motivations identified before, we will critically look at why our main competitors and their marketing strategies are so successful and what can be improved or changed. Based on these outcomes, we are able to explain why we think our product can be successful in the cola soft drink market and we will discuss our marketing strategy for introducing our new product.

The purpose of our report is to show why our product can be successful, based on the principles of consumer behavior. This does not automatically mean that our product will be successful, but it indicates the possibility for successfully entering the cola market.

2. Cola and consumers' needs and motivations

Cola is a soft drink product which can be seen as a product to reduce the need of thirst. However, thirst could also be reduced by drinking water or another soft drink, so the consumption of cola to satisfy the need thirst is better described as a want. The choice of drinking cola when one is thirsty depends on a consumer's cultural environment, his learning experiences and his history. For example, in western countries it is quite normal to drink cola when you are thirsty, while in developing countries people will satisfy this need with water. Based on what is learned and what the cultural conditions are, people will or will not drink cola. Therefore cola is a want instead of a need. People do not need cola, they want it.

Cola satisfies in the first place a utilitarian need, namely it takes away the thirst of a consumer. But cola can also be seen as to satisfy a hedonic need. Consumers who drink cola can experience a refreshing moment, which is more an emotional response. This satisfaction of a hedonic need can particular be seen in the commercials of cola producers, who often show the consumption of cola as a refreshing and fun experience.

So consumers' motivation to buy cola depends on how strong they feel about satisfying the needs and wants described before. This will depend largely on their culture and how they are raised. Also, the consumption of cola can cause an approach-avoidance conflict. Although it takes away your thirst and can give you a refreshing moment, it also contains a lot of sugar which is not good for your health. Therefore people can be less motivated to buy cola.

Because cola satisfies in the first place an utilitarian need, we think consumers are not very involved when they buy cola. Especially in western countries, where cola is more of a everyday product, people purchase cola soft drinks based on inertia, or in other words habit. Usually, consumers will not take into account the different cola brands, but just purchase the brand they always take if it satisfies their needs, or in this case wants. Research has even proven that when consumers do not see the brand they are drinking, they do not taste any difference. It seems that the choice of cola brand depends on how the different cola producers position their product in a consumer's mind.

As cola has become an everyday product in which consumers are not very involved, we believe that their values will not have a big influence on the choice of brand. Especially because the cola market is led by two competitors who stress the same kind of western values, consumers will at this moment