The
American cola war has died down a little bit, but overseas, the
cola wars are just beginning.
Coca Cola and
Pepsico have spent massive amounts of
capital to promote their products around
Asia, snapping up
celebrities as fast as possible to gain the
youth market.
Coca Cola took China by storm in the 1980's with its smart packaging and taste, crushing the home-brewed colas and wiping them out of the market. However, China-based Colas still have a market for the older generation. Pepsico rushed to establish their presence in Asia, extending the cola wars to the once Maoist nation. The cola wars have already raged long and hard in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In a frenzy of mergers, alliances and takeovers, both companies now share the market fairly evenly. To target the older people, Coca Cola has strategic partnerships with several local cola companies and used the nationalist marketing angle, and succeeded admirably. Pepsico, on the other hand, aimed at the chigger, a sadly large group of the population, and used their celebrity puppets as much as possible.
The war between McDonald's and Coca Cola versus KFC and Pepsico has just begun, and will likely last a long time. The market here is huge, and neither corporation is willing to give ground. Lays potato chips are a runaway success, and Coca Cola responded by snapping up food companies that make Chinese-style snacks.
Yesterday, I got free coca cola. Oh well. I benefit from this war. Yay for me! Hurray for price cuts!