Comparative Analysis of Marketing Mix Strategies: Coca-Cola & Pepsi

This report provides a comparative analysis of the marketing strategies of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, focusing on their application of the marketing mix. The report examines each element of the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence) for both companies, highlighting their distinct approaches and strategies. It also explores the strategic initiatives of both companies, including market segmentation, brand establishment, and process efficiency. Furthermore, the report includes a marketing plan for Coca-Cola, specifically for the introduction of clothing products, encompassing SWOT analysis, the 7Ps of marketing, and segmenting, targeting, and positioning strategies. The report concludes with a summary of the key differences in marketing mix elements and strategies employed by the two companies.

MARKETING ESSENTIAL

Table of Contents
Activity 2 ...............................................................................................................................................2
A comparison of how different organizations apply the marketing mix................................................3
Marketing plan for Coca-cola.................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................9
Activity 2
Report

A comparison of how different organizations apply the marketing mix
Marketing mix
Product
Coca-cola
Coca-cola has wide range of area in which it sells the products. It is one of the recognized
brand in the world. The products which are made by coca-cola are Fanta, diet drink, sprite,
coca cola zero, minute maid etc (Wu and Li, 2018). Its different types of products are the key
to Coca-cola’s success, variety of products help to reach every market segment.
Pepsi
The global beverage giant is the maker of some most loved soda brands of the world. It also
sold its product in more than 200 countries. Offering products in many forms and countries
help Pepsi to gain a huge market share. Pepsi has variety of products such as AMP energy
drink, Mountain Dew, Tropicana juice etc.
Place
Coca-cola
It has an extensive beverage distribution system. Its product are sold in more than 200
countries. An average of 1.9 billion servings of coca-cola per day. It has own bottling and
packaging brand (Pomering and Johnson, 2018). Coca-cola is a multinational company has its
market in almost all over the market. It helps the company to attract customers from different
parts of the world.
Pepsi
Pepsi has an extensive market presence which depends upon its well set distribution network.
The brand uses variety of distribution system based upon consumers’ needs and wants.
Distribution types are direct store delivery, customer warehouses, food service and vendor
distribution system. Pepsi enter into new markets not alone but with different partners and
mergers. Pepsi has collaborated with companies such as Lipton, Starbucks etc, it helps the
company to expand its business easily and minimize risks.

Price-
Coca cola
Coca cola's pricing strategy is aimed at driving brand loyalty. Bulk purchasers of the product
may have to pay lower price than once buying single product. Coke was company which was
top in the market before Pepsi entered in the industry. Earlier the cost of coke was decided on
the basis of cost. Due to competition in the market Coca cola brought a revolution mainly in
Indian markets with the Rs 5 pricing strategy which became very popular. This pricing
strategy helped the brand to attract a lot of customers mainly price conscious consumers.
Coca-cola decides the prices of its products according to the competition in the market to
sustain its competitiveness.
Pepsi
Price competition between Pepsi and Coca-Cola is heavy. Pricing strategy is mainly aimed
with driving customer loyalty. A customer can get a large discount on purchase in bulk. Pepsi
also decide its pricing with respect to the competition in the market. The best thing about the
company is that it is highly flexible, it reduces the products quickly as needed. Though Pepsi
had also earned losses due to its risk-taking attitude, lowering price attracts customers but is
not effective in managing the cost.
Promotion
Coca- cola
Coca- cola's most close competitor is Pepsi. Due to competition in the soda industry the top
brands spend much advertising to higher sales and revenue. Its marketing expenditure before
two years was 4 billion. It utilizes both modern and traditional methods to promote the brand.
Coca- cola has a list of celebrities endorsing the brand, but they are asked to use only the
products by the company and needs to avoid using any product by rivals. It is a strategy to
promote products and attract followers of the brand ambassador.
Pepsi
Pepsi spends heavy money on promotion and adverting. Major expenses upon digital
advertising. Its intense competition in sods industry with coca-cola. The brand uses all media
sources for advertising. Pepsi also promotes its products by direct marketing, the company’s

representative offer sample drinks to the customers in malls to attract customers. This
strategy helps the company to build customer relationship.
People
Coca-cola
People are the main part of any organisation because they are plays major role in purchasing
as well as selling. Without employees or customers there cannot be any product to
manufacture, sale or purchase.
Pepsi
People also plays same role in every organisation. In the organisation employees are the
person who made the products and outside the organisation customers are the person who
purchase it. So people are the main part of both.
Process
Coca-cola.
Process refers to the plan to distribute the product and service in the market. Consumers are
also paying for how the service delivered to them.
Pepsi
Process starts from production of the product and ends with sales of product.
Physical evidence
Coca-cola
It is all about what the consumers can see before purchasing. This can include the physical
environment, packaging, supporting collateral etc.
Pepsi
Physical evidence is based upon organisation that what are the services provide to customers
and the form. Same things considered as well as coca cola.

Strategies applied by Coca-cola
Coca-cola focuses only on diversified product portfolio within the beverage industry and has
only few products outside of that industry. The majority of Coca-cola’s revenue is generated
directly form the more than 100 beverages products it manufactures. It has a high focus
within the beverage industry that allows it to make key investments and communicate key
messaging with the consumers (Pantano, Priporas and Migliano, 2019).
Market segmentation- It is the method to divide the entire market into different segments on
the bases of gender, age, sex, religion etc. Through it coca-cola easily approaches to the
consumer and provide them best services.
Brand establishment and customer relationship- Consumers trust on branded product and
they think its worth to expenses of brand. Brand name is also called status quo in developing
markets.
Strategies applied by Pepsi
Pepsi is a company which is famous for a highly diversified product portfolio, both in
beverage industry as well as other industries for example consumer packages goods industry.
The company earns 50% of its business revenue from products in the snack food category.
The diversified business model of Pepsi helps it to acquire or create complementary products
in both the beverage and food industry (GREEN and WARREN, 2019).
Increasing process efficiency- An organisations' profitability depends on its process. Pepsi took steps
to reshape their business process and searched for redundant areas
Large invest in marketing- Pepsi used large amount in advertisement for driving sales and market
growth. It budgets was 4.1 billion dollar in 2016
Marketing plan for Coca-cola
Executive summary – In order to its business position and profitability in the market Coca-
cola needs to focus on its marketing strategy. The marketing plan is created with respect to
the set objectives. The company is entering into a new market with clothing products. This

marketing plan examines the marketing mix, risk, strengths and weakness of the products
with respect to bringing a new product in the market.
Marketing Objectives of coca- cola
 To increase the profitability by bringing clothing products
 To attract more customers toward the new product
 To be globally known as clothing product
SWOT analysis of coca- cola
Strength-
Coca-cola has incredible brand recognition
Customer loyalty
Weaknesses
Strong competition with Pepsi in soda products
Water management
Foreign currency fluctuation
Marketing mix
7p's of marketing strategy
 Product- The product which will launched by Coca-cola is clothing product. There
are many products which sells by coca-cola in market and the products are sell on a
wide range of area.
 Price- Price is very sensitive thing in the marketing strategy. Everyone likes the
product with low cost and high quality.

 Place- Coca-cola sells its product in all around the world. The place which is target
for the arrivals is shopping malls, supermarkets etc (Shahzad, Haris and Abbas, 2018).
 Promotion- Promotion is an important tool which helps in selling of product. Coca-
cola will promote the clothing through different sources like TV, newspaper, video
campaign and social media.
 Process- The process considers all stages which starts from manufacturing of product
and ends on the distribution of the same.
 People- People are the important part for any organization because without people
both production and purchasing can not implement with sell of product.
 Physical evidence- Physical evidence is based on peoples taste and preferences. It
considers labelling, price, brand name etc.
Segmenting, targeting and positioning
Segmenting- It refers to dividing entire market into different segments on the different basis. The
divide basis are age, gender, sex, geographical etc. Coca-cola want to launch new product which is
related to clothes.
Targeting- Targeting is the second stage which comes after segmenting process. Targeting is based
upon segment market. Coca-cola can target the market which must be large enough to justify
segmenting.
Positioning- It is the most powerful marketing concept. Positioning refers to set the product and
service in mind of customer. It refers that where is the coca-cola's product exist in comparison to other
products.
Monitoring and controlling
After making the budget the next step is monitoring and controlling. At first the new product has to
launch for test in the target market and understand the standing capacity of the product in market.
After positive result of the test, the product will launch in entire target market with applying

marketing strategies. It is upon marketing team that how to they control the overall capability of
production.
Evaluation
A market research will be executed by an enterprise for
accumulating the information about the view of customers about launch of
new item. Analysis of the sales report will be done in order to measure an
effectiveness of marketing activity of an organization. In context of Cola ,
marketing strategies implemented by an organization is effective as it has
helped firm in increasing sales.
CONCLUSION
The above report identified the differences among the marketing mix elements within
Pepsi and Coca-cola. The study also examines strategies both companies utilizes to sustain in
a competitive market. The report also include a marketing plan for Coca-Cola in order to
introduce clothing products in the market.

REFERENCES
Wu, Y.L. and Li, E.Y., 2018. Marketing mix, customer value, and customer loyalty in social
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pp.74-104.
Pomering, A. and Johnson, L., 2018. Building sustainability into services marketing:
expanding decision-making from a mix to a matrix. Sustainability, 10(9), p.2992.
Pantano, E., Priporas, C.V. and Migliano, G., 2019. Reshaping traditional marketing mix to
include social media participation: evidence from Italian firms. European Business
Review, (just-accepted), pp.00-00.
GREEN, M.C.K. and WARREN, J., 2019. GLOBAL MARKETING. Pearson.
Shahzad, I., Haris Qureshi, M. and Abbas, A., 2018. Impact of Internal Marketing Mix on
Affective Commitment in Telecommunication Sector. European Online Journal of
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