The very first bottle of Coca Cola came into the world in America, so as Pepsi, but it is later than Coca Cola for 12 years. The taste of Pepsi is extremely close to Coca Cola’s, so they named their coke after Coca Cola. Since Coca Cola is used to the 12 years to expand their brand name, they had already had a steady customers base and had controlled most of the soft drinks in the market, when people thought about cake, they would think of Coca Cola naturally. Although Pepsi once decreased the price of the coke to 5 cents per pound (a half of Coca Cola’s price) , Coca Cola’s status was not shaken by it. In the market of beverage, Coca Cola is the leader, and Pepsi is the challenger. As the challenger, there are two strategies that can be chosen: challenge Coca Cola to gain more market shares, or participate in the competition but make sure there will not be a huge change in market shares. After trying the second one for 5 decades, Pepsi noticed that it did not help much. As a result, Pepsi started to use the first choice, this is what they have been doing after World War Two.

As a student from China, expect for missing the food from my hometown, I also miss the convenience of online shopping. I used to use Taobao for shopping a lot. You can find almost everything you want on the website in a lower price, as long as you can think of it. Most importantly, the logistics of Taobao is amazing! You can get the things you bought this morning in a few hours if you and the shipment site is in the same city. If you ordered something that is in a different city, you can get it within 3-5 days. I had a friend who used eBay for shopping, and he told me it took 2 weeks to transport the goods to his house. What’s more? Why Taobao is irreplaceable in my heart is because it is very save for us to pay online, we do not need to worry about losing our money when paying for the goods. Also, Taobao encourages the seller and the buyer to communicate with each other before making the deal, in this way, the customers can know more about the thing they are choosing in a direct way, the seller will have to chance to introduce more about the products and advertise for the other goods. However, eBay forbids this in order to make sure there will not have a loss in money. eBay is a strong website but Taobao is more powerful when it comes to making a deal.

Monster Beverage Corporation found out the differences between energy drinks and the normal drinks after some failure of marketing. When the other brands tried to narrow down the distance between the customers, Monster tried to highlight its fashionable aspect; when the other brands emphasized the fitness of the drink, Monster produced an energy drink with high caffeine and sugar in it, usually with the portion that could help customers keep concentrate and clear-headed. Just like medicine, the value of energy drink is its function, not the flavor. To distinguish itself with other brands is important to Monster.
As an energy drink, Monster’s biggest competitor is Red Bull. Everyone wants to be the first in their realm, but Monster holds a different opinion. It thinks that to be “the second big” energy drink can be as strong as Red Bull and may lead to a greater success, so instead of being friends with Red Bull, Monster chooses to stand on the opposite side, to offer the experience that Red Bull cannot provide to the customers. If we do a SWOT analysis by using this point, being unique would be an opportunity to Monster.