Acquired · Nov 23Coca-Cola: The Complete History & Strategy
It survived the Depression by selling 12 oz beer bottles for a nickel against Coke's 6.5 oz bottle. Alfred Steel lifted share to 35% by 1955, and the 1975 Pepsi Challenge and 2-liter bottle let it pass Coke in bottled share and outspend it in 1977, though it never cracked the fountain business.
Tips
- Pepsi's 1934 12 ounce beer-bottle nickel offer counterpositioned a Coke locked into small bottles▶ 1:36:40By August 1941, non-Coke colas, mostly Pepsi, held 14% of the US soft drink market.
- Woodruff buried a blind taste test showing people preferred Pepsi, and it came back 20 years later▶ 1:57:00Pepsi's marketing under John Scully took the Pepsi Challenge national through local bottlers; Pepsi passed Coke in bottled share and outspent it in advertising in 1977.
- Pepsi's Pepsi Challenge worked because it was true, local and shot with real people on camcorders▶ 2:25:00From 1975 until New Coke in 1985, Pepsi's share rose every year while Coke's fell.
- Pepsi's Alfred Steel won share by attacking Coke's blind spots: Black consumers, diet and TV▶ 1:55:00Pepsi's share went from the low 20s in the early 1950s to 35% by 1955.
