Strategy assignment

In this assignment, the companies that I’ve selected are “Coca-Cola” & “PepsiCo” which are
carbonated soft drink companies that constantly in a battle for market share by titling as the
World’s biggest beverage industries. Examples of their products are Coke, tea, water and many
more.

Coca cola Resources & Capabilities

Resources: Strong brand value and recognition are most valuable resource for Coca-Cola.

Capabilities: It helps them sold 1.7 billion of their coke products per day and 94% of the global
population recognized their logo (StudyMoose, 2016).

Resources: It’s “secret formula” is one of the value intangible resource.

Capabilities: Coca-Cola’s product has value in its taste differentiation from competitors. People
usually say they prefer Coke for the better taste than Pepsi. So, the biggest secret of Coca-Cola to
their success is their recipe. Then, the value spread to its other product lines.
 PepsiCo Resources & Capabilities

Resources: Globally brand name is valuable.

Capabilities: It can help to diversify into new markets with the popularity of brand.

Resources: Distribution network is important for company success as it’s reduces transportation
cost and storage.

Capabilities: Assigning according to local trade practices, customer needs, and product specification
with different systems, i.e. distribution network. which is difficult & costly to imitate(Anon., 2017).

(Berney, 2018)

Value:
 Coca-Cola maintain their global presence by distributing through global markets has proved
to be valuable in strengthening their global distribution network. It also has value in differentiating,
decreasing the price of the product and manages will with their brand image to connect with
people around the world.
 Pepsi acquisitions with non-soft drink brands, i.e. Frito-Lay, has helped to expand its network
and gain market shares in both snack retailers and super market tremendously.

Rarity:
 Coca-Cola always first come in people mind when thinking of any soda drink. And from HR
management, their marketing skills and lastly, their taste with secret recipe are part of its success.
 Pepsi’s strong brand name and their way of maintaining business relationship with
distribution networks.

Imitability:
 Coca-Cola’s push & pull distribution strategy and their unique size of the channel.
 Pepsi’s global distribution network by spending billions in mergers and the amount they spent
on advertising.
The specific product of Coke & Pepsi is not imitable.

Organization:
 Coca-Cola enters the Mexico market as there isn’t much drinkable clean water. And the
differentiation of color as red represent coke over the Pepsi blue.
 Pepsi’s business relationship with fast food chains. And product differentiation of taste testing
between coke and Pepsi around America which result in choosing Pepsi that comes out as tv
commercial.
Sustained advantages
For Global distribution network and having large product range can be just a temporary advantage
for both as they can imitate easily between them but not for other rival.
But having a secret formula of the taste and brand image is a clear sustained competitive
advantage for Coca-Cola. On the other hand, Pepsi’s sustained competitive advantages are its
brand value, differentiation and its business relationship with distributors(McGraw, 2011).

Parity
Due to point of parity, both are carbonated soft drinks, and both offers refreshing flavors. Yet, the
point of difference is upon the image each reflect, where Coca-Cola is more like an emotional
brand that is liked by people of all age group while PepsiCo seems more cool and trendy that
targets to an image of youngsters and celebrities. They’re different upon how they spread their
advertising campaigns(Alyamarrakchi, 2013).
Both of them have a very strong brand image which is a competitive parity that can be a threat to
each other.

Competitive disadvantages
According to all the above data it can be said that there is no competitive disadvantages in
PepsiCo. Yet , there is once Coca-Cola sees themselves as at “competitive disadvantage” when
the former marketing director of Coca-Cola, Bobby Britain, speak out their marketing and
promotion plans they had for the European Championships and Olympics, so it can be view as
competitive disadvantages for them as one of the top sponsors plan is known before the time.
(McMullan, 2016)

To sum up, after analyzing all the above data, I genuinely prefer to work at Coca-Cola not only
because it is the largest soft drink company in the world, but also due to their competitive
positioning strategy are always leading among competitors in the market.

(650) words
References

1. Alyamarrakchi, 2013. wordpress.com. [Online]

Available at: https://cokevspepsibm2013.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/coca-cola-and-
pepsi-brand-mantra/
[Accessed 8 August 2019].
2. Anon., 2017. notesmatic. [Online]
Available at: https://notesmatic.com/2017/07/vrio-analysis-of-coca-cola/
[Accessed 8 August 2019].
3. Berney, J., 2018. toolshero. [Online]
Available at: https://www.toolshero.com/strategy/vrio-analysis/
[Accessed 8 August 2019].
4. McGraw, M., 2011. WordPress.com. [Online]
Available at: https://mpmcgraw.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/product-differentiation/
[Accessed 8 August 2019].
5. McMullan, C., 2016. Digital Sport. [Online]
Available at: https://digitalsport.co/coca-cola-at-competitive-disadvantage-thanks-to-its-
sponsorship-deals
[Accessed 8 august 2019].
6. Scott-Briggs, A., 2016. techbullion. [Online]
Available at: https://www.techbullion.com/business-plan-lessons-competitive-analysis-
coca-cola-pepsi/
[Accessed 8 August 2019].
7. StudyMoose, 2016. StudyMoose. (2016). Resources and Capabilities of Coca-Cola.
[Online]. Available at: https://studymoose.com/resources-and-capabilities-of-coca-cola-
essay[Accessed: 5 Aug. 2019]. [Online]
Available at: https://studymoose.com/resources-and-capabilities-of-coca-cola-essay
[Accessed 8 August 2019].