The wars between Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola have been constant throughout the years. Especially now due to Pepsi's new campaign, "Summer Time is Pepsi Time."
As mentioned in Advertising Age, "It's the third effort from the company in the past year to attack a Coca-Cola brand."
Late last summer, Pepsi attacked Coca-Cola's Coke Zero with the Pepsi Max and this past March Pepsi's Sierra Mist took on Coke's Sprite.
However both companies benefit from the "Cola Wars."
Massimo d'Amore, CEO-PepsiCo Beverages America, exclaims that consumers love cola wars and that both companies SBU markets grow due to the battles. "Since we launched the Max campaign, Max is growing triple digits and Coke Zero is still growing, so everybody wins when we get into the cola wars."
However as a comeback, Diet Coke beat Pepsi as the country's No. 2 soda in 2010 which was just behind the full-calorie brand Coca-Cola. In response to this, PepsiCo said it will increase ad spending behind its beverage brand by 30%.
This is certainly a sign of a lot of work laid out for the newly restructured marketing teams of PepsiCo headquarters to tackle.
Both companies are alike in both financial, structural and taste (with Pepsi being just a little more sweeter than Coke).
Justin Dove from Investment U Research reports that some people theorize that both brand's labels have more to do with consumer's preferences than the actual soda. He further mentions how this is shown from each company's stock.
"Both Pepsi and Coke are favorites of super investor Warren Buffett. That's because both stocks have had strong growth and both are cash cows when it come to dividends."
- Justin Dove
Below are some other financial key findings Dove found:
Coke has increased annual dividends for 49 years running, Pepsi also has a streak of increasing their annual dividend for 39 straight years.
Coke's stock price has grown in value by over 50 percent since the beginning of 2009. Pepsi's stock has grown by about 40 percent in the same time.
In terms of market share, Coke owns the top two spots in the cola industry - Coke and Diet Coke - with Pepsi's flagship cola coming in at third.
As a competitive advantage for Pepsi, Coke lacks in diversification. Pepsi is tapped into the snack food market with brands such as Frito-Lay and Quaker while Coke relies on it's beverage diversification with Dasani bottled water, PowerAde and Minut Maid juices.
So at the end which one is better? The answer is neither.
In the end, it's all about preference. If you prefer your drink to be a little more sweeter with each sip, go with a Pepsi. But if you want to enjoy the whole can, then I'd recommend a Coke.
Both companies symbolize the bi-polar opposites and like The Joker and Batman, both complement each other well.
I read an interesting article from Forbes writer Gene Marks about reasons why some businesses should not invest or get involved with social media. I couldn't imagine why businesses would not use it. However, Gene Marks discussed some interesting reasons based off a recent survey from Webs. In the survey, the following statistics were found:
69 percent of business owners say they use social media at their companies.
Over 89 percent of businesses reported using Facebook.
However, 59.4 percent of those using social media feel that it has not met their expectations.
I found the last statistic shocking, so I conducted more research into this problem and discovered another interesting article by Stanford is Pushing Social called 4 Reasons Why Businesses Shouldn't Use Social Media.
Of the four reasons, the first one is the strongest: It's not where your customers and prospects are. This reason is relevant with Gene Marks business problem as he talks about his clients and their prospects.
“My clients sell things like two-sided polypropylene film, stainless steel coils and ridge ventilation solutions. Know anyone on Facebook looking for this stuff? Probably not.”
- Gene Marks
I surfed through Facebook communities and tweets in hopes of discovering stainless steel buyers and proving Marks wrong. However, he was right. Stainless steel customers and prospects are not on Facebook or Twitter. Which means they must be somewhere else, but where?
Businesses involved within the Oil, Steel and Construction industry find other ways to build their clients or customers such as referrals, trade associations and tradeshows like the Stainless Steel World Conference & Exhibition. For Marks, this is where his customers and prospects are.
It's easy to get caught up in the "social media bandwagon" since it is innovative, low-cost and is the new "sexy" trend in communication. But if your customers or prospects are not using it then social media is not for your business.
For those of my generation as well as generation X, Mortal Kombat was the ultimate rebellious game that pushed the limit of mature video game content and as a result opened the door for more brutal, violent and dark video games to exist.
I strongly believe that the Mortal Kombat franchise as a whole is underminded, while stating that, the franchise has the capabilities to come back around and prosper once again not just within the video gaming industry but also in motion pictures.
Before I get into that, I want to mention some historical highlights that occurred when Mortal Kombat was released.
Due to the franchises use of digitized sprite, blood and gore, Mortal Kombat caused the creation of the Electronics Software Ratings Board in 1994 after Mortal Kombat II was released.
Lets be honest traditional Mortal Kombat gamers, this was a bumber since it restricted the game against young video game enthusiasts, but from a marketing standpoint, the controversy of MK's strong violent gaming content helped construct the Mortal Kombat brand as the rebellious game for kids to play.
Much like the controversy with Charlie Sheen, I find this to be one of the underlying variables as to why the young franchise at the time recieved so much attention and publicity to where it was an advantage for it against other video games.
However, due to newer, more fun, interactive, and violent video games; the franchise lost its touch and is now a laggard within the gaming world. However, I believe one thing can be used to revitalize Mortal Kombat and bring back the good old days into the new and more technologically advanced world; an in-depth and integrated storyline.
Storylines are key when it comes to any form of entertainment. This is what made Metal Gear Solid a huge success. It is the lifeline of any form of entertainment/media. If you don't have an intriguing story, you lose the attention and interest of the audience. Another example of a video game franchise that utilized a compelling storyline to become almost a conglomerate within the gaming world is the legendary Halo series.
Like Halo, the MK franchise should develop better quality literary material that will strengthen MK whether it's through novels or the continuation of the Mortal Kombat comic book series.
The key is it needs to contain literary elements of deep characterization that will make audience relate to the characters. This is what moves and attracts an audience. The more they can relate to a character's situation or problem, the more intrigued they are. For instance, in the comic book series Battlewave, Liu Kang faces personal issues of wanting to live a normal life as he attempts to pursue his passion as an architect back home in Chicago instead of a champion fighter in Mortal Kombat. This is a personal struggle of a person unwilling to accept their own fate and responsibilities. It would be interesting to develop in literary material a more in-depth story of this as well as other personal challenges in a dark, realistic and gritty form.
What will help the franchise in making the necerray changes to do this is the current production of the third installment of the Mortal Kombat motion picture series Mortal Kombat: Rebirth.
What I think will be cool is if a literary novel was made that complemented the mini-tv web series (Mortal Kombat: Legacy), which is a prequel to the upcoming movie and another literary series that followed the outcome of the movie.
The novels can focus specifically on each character's past while being realistic, dark and gritty. I think traditional Mortal Kombat fans would actually take their time and read the novels because the personal lives of the popular Mortal Kombat characters have never before been told. This will increase its awareness and carry along a compelling story that can be applied to all the Mortal Kombat characters in the long-term. Imagine how successful MK would be.
This is what made Batman Begins such a huge success! Christopher Nolan took a dark, gritty and often realstic approach to the prequel and re-defined the Batman franchise by focusing upon Bruce Wayne's troubled past and presenting it in a form where the audience can relate to the character on a deeper level.
If the MK franchise implemented the approach of a deeper, darker, and empathic storyline within the characters and the tournament as a whole within literary novels and even newly developed video games (like the continuation of such games as Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub Zero) then the franchise will be extremely successful and prosper with future MK projects.
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