In Jordan Yin’s Blog post, he discusses the two new healthier drinks introduced by Pepsico and Coca-Cola. Both Pepsico’s “True” and Coca-Cola’s “Life” drinks target a similar market, people who want an alternative from their soft drinks that contain high fructose corn syrup and ones that contain artificial sweetener. With the use of Stevia, a natural sweetener, both companies were able to lower the calories in each serving to 60 calories. With such similar products, differentiation will be exceedingly difficult.
Similar to what Jordan mentioned in his article, the first company to meet the consumers’ need of a healthier, but great tasting beverage would have an advantage in the long run. However, I also believe that a cost advantage would be much more effective in giving either one of the companies an advantage over the other. In most supermarkets, prices for Pepsi and Coke are usually the same. On a trip to The Real Canadian Superstore, I noticed that Pepsi and Coke were selling for the same price, $3.33 per case, however, Pepsi was offering 3 more cans than Coke. Even though I am an avid Coca-Cola fan, on that day, I decided to buy Pepsi instead of Coke, only because of the lower price per can.
Sources:
Jordan Yin’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/jyin/2014/10/05/pepsis-new-drink-about-to-launch-on-amazon-com/
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