4. The financial strength and the experience in the CSD market as well as the franchised bottling network enabled the two companies to penetrate the non-CSD market with fewer difficulties.
5. Coke's early emphasis on international market enabled it to dominate most the foreign markets. The success was contributed to its military services in World War II and the leadership of Roberto Goizueta.
6. Pepsi led Coke in wide margin in the share of non-CSD sales. Experience in the snack food and restaurant businesses contributed the success of managing the new non-CSD products.
2) Opportunities and Threats.
1. The growth of the international CSD market offered Coke and Pepsi the chances to see new revenue streams. However, the threat behind it is the considerations on culture conflict, government subsidy, tariff, political issue, financial crisis and the fluctuation of currencies. .
2. Threat from the plateaued demand for CSDs and the rise of non-cola beverage has forced the two cola giants to make CSD brand proliferation and enter the non-cola beverage market. These will provide Coke and Pepsi opportunities to generate revenue. However, the difficulty in distributing multi-brands for bottlers is a threat in term of increased cost.
3. For Coke and Pepsi, threat may also come from other relatively big players, such as Cadbury, who maintains a good brand portfolio. So the wars are not only constrained for the two giants, but also take in new players.
Marketing Strategy: Segmentation, Target Markets and Positioning.
Marketing FTP has been widely used in the cola wars. In entering the cola market in early 1920s when the Great Depression made some people more concerns about the money in their pocket, Pepsi timely utilized the Judo strategy of lowering the price to attract this customer segment. Moreover, "Pepsi Generation" campaign in 1963 targeting young generations is an another successful strategy on marketing segmentation, which made Pepsi catch up with Coke more closely with regards to market share.
